A Glibertarians Exclusive: Marilee – Part II
Falfurrias, Texas – March 1940
On a warm, dusty afternoon, two skinny young men in jeans, cotton work shirts and leather boots perched on two bar stools. In front of them were two lukewarm schooners of pale beer. As the barroom clock struck two in the afternoon, the taller of the two raised his beer. “Well, happy birthday, buddy.”
Coy McAlester clinked his schooner against his buddy Paul Welton’s. “Thanks. Twenty-one at last, can you believe it?”
“At least now you can drink legally.” Paul took a pull at his own mug. “Not that it’s any big deal. The Long Haul here is the only bar in town.” The bar stood on the dusty corner of South St. Mary’s Street and West Rice Street and was in fact the only establishment of its kind in the tiny east Texas town.
“Ain’t much of a town,” Coy agreed.
“Least you can vote now. Gonna pick old FDR this November?”
“Hell, he’s gonna win anyway.” Coy took another drink and lit a Chesterfield. “Doesn’t much matter if I vote for him or some other asshole. Too bad he’s just itching to get us into that war in Europe, but no way he’d be that stupid.”
“Say,” Paul said, “you were pretty sweet on Marilee Peyton back in school, right?”
“Fat lot of good it did me. She was as good as hitched to Jim Gompers already even then, and a bigger asshole never lived. Weren’t out of school two weeks before they were married. Hear he likes to slap her around.”
“So, you ain’t heard the latest?”
Coy turned to look at his friend. “What latest?”
“Guess he give her two black eyes, so she went on home to her folks. Jim’s been saying he ain’t letting her leave, but her Dad’s got her in his house, and said he’d shoot Jim if he comes around. Reckon that whole thing ain’t gonna end without someone getting aerated.”
“Could have told her it’d end up like that.” Coy had exchanged blows with James Gompers more than once back in high school, and there was still no love lost between them.
“Well, there’s a lawyer involved now. Marilee’s old man’s paying for it.”
“Hmph.” Coy stared moodily into his beer. “Lawyers never did no one no good.”
“Ain’t easy getting dee-vorced,” Paul pointed out. “Not in Texas. But that’s what she’s doing.”
“Is she now?” Coy took a long drink of beer. “Ain’t that something?”
When Coy left the tavern an hour later, he decided on a sudden urge to drop by the Peyton house. The Peyton property was on the edge of town, so Coy climbed in his somewhat bedraggled ’24 Hudson for the short drive over.
When he knocked on the door, Marilee herself answered. “Coy, isn’t it?” she asked. “Coy… McAlester, right?”
Coy frowned. Marilee’s pretty, heart-shaped face was marred, not only by two black eyes but a wide purple bruise that covered the left side of her face. But she was composed, neatly dressed, her red hair nicely done up.
“Yeah, that’s me,” Coy replied. He looked down at the floorboards of the porch. “Heard you was having some trouble with your husband. You know, bad news travels fast in a small town. I recollected you from school, and thought I’d stop and see anything I can do to help.”
Marilee’s eyes opened a little wider. “Why would you want to help me, Coy?”
Coy continued to examine the boards of the porch until Marilee said, “Coy. You can look at me, you know. Why would you want to help me?” she repeated.
Coy looked up. “Well,” he said, slowly, “I recollected you from school, like I said. Seen you around some since. Always figured you for a fine gal, you want to know the truth, and honestly never thought much of Jim Gompers. That whole family always did think way too much of themselves.”
“And when someone needs help, you help them?”
“Something like that.”
Marilee looked over her shoulder, once, quickly. “Let’s sit on the porch swing,” she offered.
Once Coy was seated, nervous and uncomfortable, too close to Marilee on the narrow swing, she began to speak in a low voice.
“Jim, he’s saying he’ll never agree to a divorce. No way he’s going to let me go. Daddy hired a lawyer, but he’s all the way over in San Antonio, and if this all goes to court, he’ll charge Daddy an arm and a leg to drive all the way from San Antonio to Falfurrias to be at the hearings.”
“And the fact that Jim’s been knocking you around, that just don’t count for nothing?”
“That’s how it looks,” Marilee said softly.
Coy turned and looked at Marilee. “You’re lucky to have your folks to help. My folks, well, you know, they been gone some time now. It’s just me.” I got nobody, he said to himself.
Coy had never noticed how green her eyes were, but he did notice not that they were shining with moisture. “So,” he went on, “he ain’t gonna let you go. Not unless someone gives him a damn good reason. Am I reading that right?”
“Pretty much.”
“Where’s he at now?”
“Probably at his house,” Marilee said. “He usually gets home about four. Clock in the house rung four just before you pulled up.”
“Will you come for a ride with me, Marilee?” Coy held up both hands. “No funny business, I promise. Just a ride. I bet I can convince Jim Gompers that he ought to let you go.”
“All right,” she breathed. “Let me tell my Ma.”
By the time Coy pulled his old Hudson to a stop in front of Jim Gompers’ cheap clapboard house a mile out of town, he had worked himself up to a pretty good rage. Marilee had ridden along, silently, but the bruised side of her face was turned towards Coy, and whenever he caught a glimpse of her, there was that ugly purple-yellow splash on her profile.
My Pa was a drunk, Coy reminded himself, and a skunk. Kilt Ma in a car crash when he was drunk, left me alone when I was seventeen. But he never slapped Ma around. Never laid a finger on his family. What he hell kind of a man does that?
1924 Hudson
Coy got out of the Hudson and said only two words to Marilee: “Wait here.” He opened one of the back doors, extracted a long, heavy pick handle. Marilee, watching, let out a gasp, but said nothing.
Coy walked to the front door of the cheap three-room shack. Holding the pick handle hidden behind his skinny right leg, he pounded three times on the cheap panel door.
Jim Gompers opened the door. He looked heavier than Coy remembered him; paunchy, his face puffy. He was still wearing his overalls from his job at the lumber mill south of town and clutched a whisky bottle in his puffy right fist.
“McAlester, ain’t it?” Gompers demanded. “What the fuck do you want?”
“You’re gonna leave Marilee alone,” Coy demanded. “You’re gonna let her go, Jim. You’re done making trouble for her.”
“Oh, yeah? Why? She’s fucking you now, I suppose?”
Coy’s reply was swift. He swung the pick handle through a short, sharp arc into Jim Gompers’ ample gut. Gompers doubled over, his wind leaving him with a sharp whuff. Coy swung again, slamming the pick handle into Gompers’ arm. The upper arm bone broke with a dull crack.
“You’re gonna leave her alone, you hear?” Coy snapped. Gompers collapsed into a fetal huddle on the floor just inside the door. He nodded, painfully. “You’re gonna let her have the divorce, you got that?” Gompers nodded again. “If you don’t, if you back out, you’ll get more of this.” Coy shook the pick handle and was brutally satisfied to see Gompers flinch. “Good. I better not have to tell you again.”
He turned then and stalked back to his Hudson, leaving Gompers curled on the floor. He tossed the pick handle into the back seat and climbed in behind the wheel. “Reckon he won’t cause you any more trouble now,” he said. Marilee nodded, her green eyes wide and luminous.
Coy drove her back to her parent’s house without another word.
The next morning, as he was enjoying an idle Sunday, Coy was surprised by a knock on the door of the two-room house he had inherited from his dead parents. He opened the door and was even more surprised to see a disheveled Marilee Peyton standing there, a big carpetbag in her hand.
“What’s going on?” he wanted to know.
“Jim’s dead,” Marilee said without preamble. “Burst his spleen when you clubbed him. Coy, he told his folks what happened before he died. They swore out a warrant against us both. We have to get out of here, Coy, they’ll be coming to arrest us.”
“Shit.” Coy’s brain kicked into high gear. He stood still for a moment, thinking very quickly. “We ain’t got many options. Can’t say as I want to go to prison for that son of a bitch. Come in,” he said. “I ain’t got nothing. Won’t take me a minute to toss some stuff in a bag. We’ll head west. That is,” he stopped to look at Marilee, “if you want to come along?”
Marilee took Jim’s hand. “You did all this for me,” she said. “I won’t bail out on you now.”
Coy grinned. “Let’s be careful saying things like ‘bail out,’ all right?”
They headed west in the old Hudson. Both of them let out an audible sigh of relief when they passed a sign noting that they had left Brooks County for Jim Hogg County. Still anxious, they drove on through the night. Marilee slept for a while, her head on Coy’s shoulder, the soft scent of her hair filling Coy’s world.
Always was sweet on her, Coy reminded himself. Looks like we’re together now, but never saw it happening like this.
They made it almost as far as Fresno when the Hudson’s motor died. A loud clank announced the broken engine block. When Coy looked underneath, he saw the stream of engine oil rapidly running out of the fractured engine; the Hudson’s traveling days were done.
“Leave it here,” Coy advised. He removed the Texas plates from the old car and, digging with his hands, buried them in a gully. “We’re about a mile outside of town, more or less. Let’s walk.”
“What are we going to do now?”
“I don’t know,” Coy said. “I just don’t know. I still have about fifty bucks left. Let’s get into town, get us a place to sleep, and maybe I can find some sort of work.”
They walked on, hand in hand, through the growing dusk.
“It’s a month today,” Marilee observed.
“A month today?” Coy asked.
“Since… what happened. With Jim.”
“Oh.” Coy chewed on that for a moment. Wherever he had seen his life going, being on the run for an unintentional murder certainly hadn’t made the list. “There’s a diner,” he pointed out, wanting to change the subject. “Let’s get a bite to eat.”
Halfway through their meal the radio behind the counter started announcing the news, and Coy’s hands froze, his roast-beef sandwich halfway to his mouth:
In national news, a five-state manhunt continues for accused murderer Coy Walton McAlester, from Falfurrias, Texas. McAlester is wanted for the murder of Jim Gompers, also of Falfurrias. He was last sighted in a 1925 or 1925 Hudson auto, headed west. He is presumed to now be in Arizona or California.
Marilee’s eyes went wide. “Coy,” she said. “What do we do?”
“Keep quiet,” Coy said. “Finish eating, nice and easy, like.”
They finished their meal in silence. Coy left fifty cents on the table with a dime tip for the tired, overworked waitress. They went outside into the night.
Coy stood on the sidewalk for a few moments, thinking very rapidly. He looked up and down the street, then pulled out his wallet and counted the remaining money they had left.
“They only mentioned me in that radio announcement,” he said at least. “Nothing about you.”
“So?”
“So, it means they’re only looking for me. You can’t go back, Marilee; the folks there have to know you left with me, and they’d squeeze you until you told them where I’d gone. Here, take this; it’s forty-eight bucks, all I got left. There’s a boarding house down the street – see? Go there, take a room. This here diner, they got a sign says they want a waitress, and that old lady in there looks like she could use the help.”
“Coy,” Marilee objected, “I can’t leave you. Not like this. You’re in this because of me! You did this all for me!”
“That’s just it, honey, I ain’t done doing it yet. Now do as I say. Get on down to that boarding house and come down here in the morning and get you a job. I’ll find you when I figure how to get shut of all this.” He grabbed her hand. “You hear me? I’ll find you. This is best for now, honey. It ain’t fair and it ain’t easy, but this has to be it for now.”
He kissed her quickly and turned to walk away. He stopped when he heard her voice.
“We’ll meet again, Coy. On this street or some other. We’ll find each other again.”
Coy just nodded and walked away into the night.
She was married when we first met,
Soon to be divorced.
I helped her out of a jam, I guess,
But I used a little too much force.
We drove that car as far as we could,
Abandoned it out West.
Split up on a dark sad night,
Both agreeing it was best.
She turned around to look at me,
As I was walking away
I heard her say over my shoulder,
“We’ll meet again someday,
On the avenue”
Tangled up in blue.
That was, Heavy,
Great work Animal
Great stuff again Animal – story teller riffing on a story teller.
Really good writing on this, Animal! Keep up the great work.
Wow. Loved this. I’m not even a fan of Dylan, but he makes for good inspiration for your stories.
Excellent, Animal!
Thanks for a pleasant and much needed diversion.
Good stuff!
Mammary Monday bounces on.
https://archive.is/XdRe6
I would fear having my head between the thighs of #7.
Head, or any other parts!
I like the story, but find the overnight autopsy a lil sus.
Dead guy, with a bruise over his spleen. A simple country coroner makes the call.
Maybe it was just a story by Marilee to get Coy to run off with her — but how did she get the radio announcer to fake a news report?
Well, that’s unfortunate phrasing. It’s not funny. FFS, can’t these people do anything right?
From CNN’s coverage:
also:
Yeah, that’ll get it done.
The UN is just pissed that they got cut out of the raping and pillaging.
I’m afraid this will result in a UN mission to “stabilize” the country with “peacekeeping” and it’ll be Round Two, Fight!
or Round Twenty, or whatever.
I kind of get the feeling that’s what’s happening. What are the
30004000500060007000 Marines going to do?Also CNN:
I hope all our troops are signed up for frequent flier miles because with all the back and forth, they’ll be able to take a nice vacation if they live through this.
The Taliban has already appointed an ambassador to the UN? That’s efficiency.
What happens to that guy when the Afghan gov’t completely collapses? Does he still retain a portfolio in some legal way? Does he get booted back to Afghanistan from New York?
From ambassador to refugee in three easy steps!
Credit where credit is due. The Taliban appears to be far more efficient and effective than our own government.
My impression is that he’s the ambassador from the recognized government, not the Taliban. That won’t last long.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/16/kabul-near-standstill-on-day-one-the-talibans-emirate
Followed by:
It’s a trap.
With the exception of “male dominated,” sounds like Progtopia. Interesting that they chose to use that particular phrase. There’s probably a hundred worse things about the current sitch in Kabul, but “male dominated” is what makes the cut.
AP style guide?
Yeah, the “turn in your guns” thing is particularly hilarious.
Yeah, that lesson never really seems to sink in.
Common sense gun control will fix
Afghanistan’sthe Taliban’s problems.Like dB above, I’m not a huge Dylan fan but I love his ballads and this is one of his best.
Good stuff, Animal. After this maybe you can take on “The Blue Jack of Hearts”
Paging SugarFree.
As much as I want to believe it, I don’t. “Sources say” and all that.
Please be true…
1. Totally not unexpected.
2. What are they going to do about it? They have two choices. Leave, or fight.
3. Oh, wait, I forgot, the third choice is claim “the international community” has to step in and fix this/protect these people. Um, what’s been going on for the last nineteen-plus years?
Then they conflate what is about to happen to regular Afghan women under Taliban rule with what will happen to “academics and journalists[,] activists” who are probably some of the people most likely to have connections to help get them out.
So the Taliban is just like the FBI.
What a crock of shit all these crocodile tears are; this kind of stuff happens daily in any number of other authoritarian shitholes (DPRK, China, Iran, etc.) and no one cares. This is all to get the tax spigots flowing again to the MIC cronies.
Further:
“academics and journalists to activists and women human rights defenders”
AKA: grifters and NGO parasites who have been sucking at the teat for decades. Fuck em.
?
Actual charitable organizations like Doctors Without Borders get fucked over by our government.
https://www.redvoicemedia.com/2021/08/cnn-theyre-just-chanting-death-to-america-but-they-seem-friendly-at-the-same-time-video/
Probably just like the CNN dressing room.
Yup. They recognize her as being firmly in the “Death to America” camp.
what we are witnessing in Afghanistan is a tragedy that should have been foreseen and averted. It will only be compounded further without swift and decisive action from the international community.
I’m incredibly impressed that Agnès Callamard is volunteering to pick up a rifle and provide swift and decisive action.
I think that was 2nd back in them olden days.
Really smart writing there. I enjoyed it.
Well done Animal. Thanks.
Great writing going on here. Thanks Animal
Great story, Animal. Except for the beat down of Jim, some parts are vaguely reminiscent in my memory (of my friend) and he didn’t have a ’24 Hudson, it was a ’52.
Really enjoy your story telling but I wonder…experiences always are never far away in our minds…
I said, NO SPOILERS!
Great writing, Animal.
(Was the drinking age really 21 back in ’40? I thought that nonsense didn’t come around until much later.)
1940 was only 7 years off Prohibition.
Yes (drinking age) 21
FDR was already in office 7 years by 1940.
Drinking laws were a state law, until someone (Carter/Reagan?) tied Transportation money to seat belt laws/21.
I was thinking the same thing. The answer surprised me.
This one simple trick
I think I just watched a Glib on oann.com. I’m probably late to the party with this, but he did a really good job and I wish for more to come 🙂
That was Ozy, pretty cool eh?/
Woot woot!
/didn’t wanna dox anyone
“Finer clay” reference appreciated.
Texas changed the drinking age to 21 just as I turned 21. I don’t know if I can post a link but here is state by state info.
https://drinkingage.procon.org/state-history-of-mlda-21/
It’s an interesting history of the coercion that caused it to jump from 21 to 18 to 21 again.
https://thedailytexan.com/2011/07/21/drinking-through-the-ages/
Excellent story Animal! I did not expect the woman’s deadbeat husband to die.
German dude gets fined an exorbitant amount for having an illegal basement arsenal, including a Panther
It made it to England, got thrown away, and then found its way home?
“When the Red Army was run out of Afghanistan in 1989, it was a body blow to the Soviet empire, which collapsed just two years later. The military was the last intuition the people respected, so when it was humiliated, the system was humiliated. The last pillar holding up communism broke, and the system collapsed.”
https://www.takimag.com/article/twentieth-anniversary-affliction/
Carter, stagflation, an energy crisis, and now the fall of Saigon. I know some of you remember the 70’s – what came next?
Disco.
The porn-stache.
The rise of disco and many, many shitty Burt Reynolds movies.
“East-bound and down…”
Jimmy Carter.
The 80s and 90s, both of which pretty much rocked. Is that what you’re getting at?
+1 Punk Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kec40g1Cs8
* Dusts off army jacket, Converse All Stars, and Aquanet *
Hell, my Chucks never got put away…
I was really hoping that Trump’s election would usher in a new age of good music, like Reagan/Thatcher’s did.
Alas. Apparently the rot wasn’t just from sucking up to Obama.
The 80s and 90s indeed rocked.
We should be so lucky to live through something like that twice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1U1Ue_5kq8
Nearly all the bands had Reagan / Thatcher Derangement Syndrome though.
Carter was more weak-willed sap than empty suit dementia patient
Pac-man + Ms., Atari, cable TV, C-Span, Rubik’s Cubes…
The invasion of a former US ally*. I am betting on Taiwan.
*Afghanistan if you are wondering.
hmmm
So The US will default on it’s debt leading to hyperinflation in two years? Well at least we’re informed ahead of time. The only question is will there be a succession crisis or a dirty war between the various faction in the US.
Seven-plus years under Bush, Eight years under Obama, but the four years at the tail end of it all under Trump were what ruined our chances. Certainly it couldn’t have been the fault of the generals and the strategists? Surely not the diplomats, or the politicians who voted to fund it all? Or the Presidents who knew what the consequences would be, and kept kicking the can down the road?
The real purpose of Watergate may have been to provide the illusion of accountability for the bitter failure that was our involvement in Vietnam. Can they afford to do the same to Biden?
Tell me again why we just abandoned Bagram? It might have been helpful in evacuations, huh?
At least they’re getting something right.
Ah, but, who, who? is actually really surprised by this?
The people of Afghanistan have spoken by their complete capitulation to the Taliban. There was no meaningful resistance, from what I can tell.
Now:
Yep. Sure they will.
When you are governed by tribes and warlords, they tend to go with who has the biggest guns and most money. Taliban had both and it just snowballed from there. If I were in that situation and they rolled through my village in American gear (vehicles, weapons, drones) then yeah, I would hang my hat to them also.
To a degree, yes. There was no will to resist them, because the age-old warlord/peasant dynamic never was washed away. Why would those people fight, especially when they probably kind of liked it before anyway?
The crazy thing is that “before” was nearly twenty years ago now. A fifth of a century!
Exactly. Sure maybe Kabul enjoyed ‘democracy’ but the goat herder living out in the middle of nowhere that relies on the local warlord to make sure no one killed the goats doesn’t give a flying hell on what leader has been elected.
Yeah, it really depends on what your tribe’s elders say, If they say “Taliban” then the choice is clear.
the United Nations Security Council collectively issued a statement calling for an “immediate cessation of all hostilities” and for “a new government that is united, inclusive and representative….
I don’t think these guys understand the whole “losing wars” thing. Funny, since so many of them have so much experience with it.
Who is left to fight against?
I was never a pro-Afghan War guy, especially after year 1.
but some insights on our current Western Civ:
This is worse than Saigon
This short sentence says a lot.
My god, all the tone deaf “thank you for your service” replies to that tweet.
Any unworn Stride-Rites for sale too?
Dang, Toxteth.
Hey, I didn’t make that up. If I had, I would be the famous author.
Best response, if not precisely true:
As an American I can’t own a fully automatic weapon but we just gave the taliban a million tons of weapons that we as tax payers paid for.
Any bets on what our “dear leader” is going to say this afternoon. I’m sure it will be insightful ::eyeroll::
Orange Man Bad. I will write a sternly written letter to the Taliban. Not sure there is much more that he can say.
Following the deal that was already penned…blame Trump…much flop sweat will be expended
Uzebekighanistan chose not to fight against Trumps new army and today we have seen the reinstatement of the Tsars of old. Now remember folksies no mean questions.
The nature of the questions will determine where all this goes. There is a minute chance that the press corps will actually be shocked enough to challenge and ask meaningful questions, but don’t count on it.
And that is if the WH allows questions. I have a feeling it will be statement and then shuffled off. I actually hope that is what happens because I think that will not sit well with anyone except the truly faithful.
That was my thought as well.
“The international community is watching. I call on the Taliban to stand down.” etc.
The talking points are out.
Oopsie.
From July 8. Those talking points are fucking gibberish. Massive mistake to hide the last few days.
“It was not an inevitability. It was a possibility.”
OK – let’s see how many times this particular catch phrase and its variations gets repeated in the next 24 hours.
The odds were pretty low. Time to buy a lottery ticket.
I can only hope he follows through with the leaving. I’m thinking he can’t really reverse that decision at this point, but anything is possible.
So far, this is a shit-show. Shoulda spent the past six months evacuating the families of those that supported us, and building up a force to support the withdrawal/evacuations.
Last one out, turn off the lights
Will this have an effect on the psyche of our military? I can’t imagine it’s going to be a good thing for either recruitment or retention.
Join the army! Die for a worthless cause!
No one wants to sign up for an organization that consistently fails to succeed.
That is why the past 20 years or so of recruitment is centered around “get skills for a job” “education” and “global humanitarian missions” and not “we blow shit up”
“See, I did join the army, but I joined a *different* army. I joined the one with the condos and the private rooms.”
Private Benjamin? Is that you?
Anecdotal, but all my immediate friends are separating post-haste, despite being over halfway to retirement, for a number of reasons. This is just icing on the cake. I’m just trying to figure out what the fuck to do for work before I punch.
It’s a good day to die.
Supposed to be a reply to LJW, above.
**HEAVY SIGH**
Works here though. Of course all I can think of is Toby Keith now and that propaganda I had to sit through with his song playing every Sunday in church in Basic.
+1 Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam
JFC two minutes of news and I want to find every person involved in the so called ruling class from the last 20 years and stretch some rope. Start with George Bush.
What a goddamned shit-show.
Oh god yes.
My brother cannot understand how I can be happy we are finally leaving that shit-hole and aghast at the mismanagement of doing that task. He also cannot fathom why I don’t want to hold just a president accountable but nearly every administration and their lackeys in the State/DoD/etc that enabled all this bullshit.
Hey why/when/how did TOS become so universally terrible on liberty? I have to admit I forget what caused the original schism. I do love seeing liberty twitter dunk on reason savagely and repeatedly. Not sure if it will change anything but it will remind more than a few people of just how terrible inside-the-beltway libertarians can be.
A “too local of a story” if I remember correctly that highlighted exactly what you think Reason would want to rail against and elevate it to wider discussion but instead pissed on a commentor.
A “too local of a story” if I remember correctly
Straw that broke the camel’s back. The broader issue was that Rico “to be sure” Suave was the least detestable regular writer at the site.
Ah, he seems to have come along somewhat, no?
*shrug*
Dunno. I’ve spent all of 5 minutes on that site since the glibbening. The only TOS content I regularly consume is Stossel and Remy.
Seen him a few times on NewsCorp TV talking most often about academic freedom.
The woodchipper incident didn’t help either. They rolled over pretty quickly to ole Preet.
I remember that one and the AAW bestiality charges. The bastard named half the handles in a suit.
The what?
Arthur Allan Wolk supposedly fucked a sheep and sued the commentariat for repeating such libelous allegations. Actually, that one felt kind of like a W.
Ha!
I had forgotten about that litigation-happy asshat.
Arthur Alan
WokeWolk.I think it started January 20, 2017 and mostly just accelerated from there.
I was about to type “what happened on 1/20/17?” Oh, yeah. Makes sense. Damn that seems like a lifetime ago now.
To expand on my comment, post the election of Trump, Reason, like much of the world’s chattering class, had a choice. They could continue on advocating for the principles they’d held for years and years sticking to principle over whatever the fad of the day happens to be. Or they could treat Donald Trump as some sort of existential threat to everything that was right and good with the world. For a while, it might seem like you can do both. But, in the long run, you can’t. Because sometimes Donald Trump did things that were consistent with libertarian principle. And sometimes the people opposed to Donald Trump are operating a utter odds with libertarian principle. But, if you’re choosing the Donald Trump as existential threat route, you have to dismiss those pesky details. And every time you do that, you compromise just a little with what you think is important. You rearrange your values just a little bit. And that means you come to a point down the road where you have to make that call just a little earlier. And you rearrange your values just a little more. And so on.
I don’t think Trump broke them. I think their pre-existing brokenness became flagrant when Trump became ascendant.
I agree with this idea. Whatever fractured when Trump came into the picture it was revealing instead of transforming.
???
That’s the best thought out explanation I’ve heard.
I think there may have also been a shift from “libertarian” to “liberty light.” They employed (published) several writers that aren’t libertarians, but are just sympathetic to freedomish shit. I had an email conversation with Nick, just after the split, where he flat out told me he wasn’t a bleever in the NAP. So that supports your theory that they started making exceptions to principle to achieve their desired outcome of getting rid of Donny. At the end, instead of philosophy of liberty, you get a great big steaming pile of shit.
Shrieka. I had always assumed she was a young naïf: turned out she was soccer-mom aged? Eff that.
Liberty Magazine tweets? I bought those at B&N occasionally.
From autumn ’08, to hear it from the other day?
I could understand voting for Obama once. I don’t remember the staff poll for ’12: probably many Gary Johnsons. Nor 2016 at all.
Uhh, I think I remember some of its ’16 now.
Coulda left in 04 with the exact same result. What a complete waste of people, equipment and dollars.
“Such an outcome could not have been foreseen”- GWB
*facepalm*- FSU
03 – 04 was when we went from a light infantry offensive war to heavy occupation forces. Why we did that I’ll never understand.
If we had left then with a warning to never fuck with us again, it would have been a Desert Storm kind of win regardless of what happened in Afghanistan. Now it’s a Vietnam style loss.
The war was lost the second we declared the Taliban combatants.
In 90-91 Colin Powell was adamant about defining attainable objectives then declaring victory. A decade later he had forgotten all that.
Apparently the Taliban has acquired around $1 billion in military equipment. If true Biden literally has armed them for their next terrorist attack.
*in American military equipment
*shifts gaze to overwhelmed border security*
This is fine.
Don’t mind the 30,000 unvetted refugees we are shipping in directly to the States either; rather than say…I don’t know, one of our many bases in the ME to vet. I am all for getting them the hell out of there, but JFC, do your homework first.
No time to do homework, VISA printer goes BRRRR.
So you’re saying the Taliban has saved or created literally hundreds of thousand of US jobs?
Meh. I take this with a grain of salt. How much of that equipment is operational? They don’t have the expertise to fix it or keep it running. No access to parts. I’m guessing a lot of this is overblown. And half our shit is shot anyway.
The most bumbled up clusterfuck of U.S. military since? Trying to think…
Since MacArthur over-extended himself in Korea, November 1950? Resulting in the Big Bugout and the Battle at the Chosin Reservoir.
Mogadishu?
Iran hostages?
Neither of those have the longevity, though.
Mogadishu was a fuck up. The Sec Def wouldn’t supply any armor.
That Iran hostage rescue attempt was a mess but that was more bad luck and bad weather than incompetence.
They don’t even need to do terrorist attacks. In fact, why would they? They’ll be able to comfortably maintain control of their own territory. They’ve probably learned a thing or two, and the Taliban weren’t the ones doing the international terrorism anyway. They were just the ones destroying priceless historical artifacts and architecture.
There’s no reason for them to attack anyone, and all they have to do is ride out for a few months, consolidate what they’ve won, and wait til the “international community” sees a squirrel somewhere else. The Taliban only needs to give everyone else a chance to decide they really want to walk away from defending every stupid decision they have made for twenty years, and the US, UK, etc. will take that deal.
Well… on a high level business call, and one item that was mentioned as a high risk was staffing levels. To the point that they’ve started rolling back some pre-employment drug screenings so they can hire staff.
Not in the mood for excluding a third of the candidates for being unvaccinated?
There’s been no rumblings for my company or the company I support about mandatory vaccinations, at least that have trickled down into my IT world.
Not your state, but:
https://www.kusi.com/proof-of-vaccination-policies-are-a-violation-of-state-law-says-attorney-michael-curran/
Per CA state constitution (no citation given) and Unruh Act (latter occurred to me).
To go back on-topic-ish for a second:
Re: that pic of the 1924 Hudson, at what point did the body become standardized to the rest of the car?
“Who’s The U-Boat Commander?”
MOVIE CAR MASTER: The 1979 Porsche 928 From “Risky Business”
Hnnngggghhhh….
And young Rebecca de Mornay… HNNNGGGGHHHHhhhh…..
Yup. For Glibs of a certain age.
I always thought she looked better in her 30s and 40s. She aged the same way Catherine Deneuve did. Beautifully.
https://www.vogue.com/article/mens-heels-on-the-rise-shopping-guide
This is why the Taliban won.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Somewhere Prince is rolling in his grave.
I got nuthin’
Worked for Louis XIV. Judith Butler might agree that this is all arbitrary.
Great. Stay tuned for stockings and powdered wigs.
Like this ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7g6pw_0W1U
You get it! and most birds…
Skirts maybe.
The news today, oh boy. Straight out of Heinlein’s Crazy Years.
Those aren’t cowboy boots.
NPR is making the Saigon comparison and not letting Biden/Blinken off the hook for saying it was never gonna happen. No mention of orange man. So weird to hear even the faintest criticism from the politburo. I am intrigued.
Setting the table to dump him. Never let a crisis go to waste, after all.
We are all kremlinologists now.
25th Amendment is trending on Twitter.
oh, *now* they notice the disability?
This is not 25A material. This is take your drubbing material. 25A, in this context, is just a way for the Dems to avoid a desperate loss in ’22 and probably ’24.
Some substance there though regarding 25 material. Word is Dr. Jill urged him to stay on vacay and the absolute blackout of any information coming out of the administration leads one to believe…who is running the show?
I guess so, but it will not be satisfying and it will be an injustice and a missed chance for justice if it is all laid on his head.
Biden could resign, right now. Please please please.
No, make him take it. He doesn’t deserve it exactly–the Cabinet members, general officers, and all their departments that strategized and set up this failure deserve it.
We need sixteen months of Congressional hearings peeling back the covers from what hid this mountain of failure that was being heaved up around us for nearly two decades.
Because of months of telling the American people it will be orderly, we have intel, blah blah blah when any armchair general in the States over the age of 9 saw a much different picture unfolding, it is hard to not put their feet to the fire.
In a normal country, at least a few swords would have been stained by now.
There’s a significant opportunity for some Dem politicians to parlay this into a 2024 nomination. Pay attention to who NPR starts talking up as/after they normalize strong criticism of Biden/Harris.
Even Obama…
AFGHANISTAN Published 3 hours ago Obama shuts off Instagram comments amid Afghanistan collapse
Like no Insta – that’s gotta hurt!
How am I supposed to shitpost the president if he can’t bother to be on time.
No shit, the WaPo drones are blaming everbody but Biden
CNN is going on about how this is all Trump’s fault.
It really isn’t Biden’s fault–nor Trump’s. This should get laid at the feet of all the Presidents since 2001, as well as all the general staff, Cabinet members, Senators, Representatives who ignored the obvious for such a long time. Who strung it along, no one wanting to be caught when the music stopped.
The elites need to be held accountable for this. All of us who paid for it, all the parents and families who lost loved ones over there–not just combat, but to training accidents and suicide, deserve an accounting of this and to see who is responsible.
Hell, the incredible number of dead and innocent Afghans (and Iraqis) deserve an accounting too.
I blame Bush (Just wanted to say that again)
I think if we just stick it out for a few more decades we’ll have them right where we want them…
But seriously. Do politicians EVER pay a price for their horrible decisions? This is politics/government at its essence. No accountability at all. The instigators are either dead or old men now.
Wait, did I forget to mention who was the “second most powerful man in the US” for eight years during the middle of this war?
The Army changed post VN when women were integrated into regular army units. That was the beginning of woke.
Not to give the Taliban any ideas what will happen if they shut down the runways with cars/trucks/junk, either before or after the new troops land? Taliban obviously doesn’t need my advice.
He asked pretty please apparently. Right now, any evacuations are at the leisure of the Taliban
Meh. Be magnanimous in victory, and get potential troublemakers out of the country without having to go through the effort of burying the bodies.
Hell, all they need is some catapults to launch debris on the runway, and then target anyone coming out to clean it up.
One RPG is all it would take
About time, Come on Man!
So if we stuck to the agreement, we would had.. and agreement?
It’s the Afghan Militaries fault!
Now he’s flat out lying,
This is good.