Saturday Mourning Links

by | Jan 25, 2025 | Daily Links | 183 comments

After last weekend’s debacle, my friends had me put on suicide watch. Prime, a Buffalonian, was too nice to troll me, but she did have some deep concerns about my mental health. Which, to be fair, she should have had long before this game. Ah well, I’ll root for Buffalo this weekend in their game against the referees Mahomes. She’s on call and has in-clinic shifts, so I’ll be doing it solo, which is less likely to get me in trouble anyway.

But first, some births. And today’s include a guy who was a real gas; a bonny lad; someone who scares me; one of my heroes; another one of my heroes; and yet another one of my heroes; and a complex guy who couldn’t go in reverse.

Now for all the bad news.

Well, honestly, this is good news.

This news is so delightful I may have to break out the 55 gallon drum of lube.

I fail to see the issue with this other than the lack of gibbets.

Man sets self on fire. Cops shoot at him, miss, and hit a bystander. It’s pretty perfect.

Not a chance this is constitutional, not that this has inhibited any politicians or judges.

Woodchippers. ATF needs to be disbanded.

The poor sympathetic people here have jobs and smart phones. Stop sponging. Close all this shit down.

Learn to code.

The Kavanaugh Maneuver never works, but they keep trying again and again.

This wonderful John McLaughlin song only has three chords, but deceptively simple timing, and… fuck, Jeff Beck was one of the few people who could cover it without embarrassment. The Old Guy says Good Morning!

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

183 Comments

  1. R C Dean

    “She’s on call and has in-clinic shifts, so I’ll be doing it solo, which is less likely to get me in trouble anyway.”

    Phrasing?

  2. Pat

    a guy who was a real gas

    Happy birthday Fritz Haber?

    • Pat

      someone who scares me

      Happy birthday SugarFree?

      • Ted S.

        SugarFree doesn’t scare OMWC.

    • Pat

      a complex guy

      Happy birthday Carl Jung?

      • SDF-7

        Happy birthday Oedipus?

        Or should we only wish him well on Mother’s Day?

      • Trigger Hippie

        Collectivism vs Embracing the Bromide/Rejecting the Ego isn’t a particularly complex philosophy, IMHO.

        Simplistic Hot Take from a still drunk idiot waking up a long night: Jung was an asshole and Nirvana will never be obtained…

        /wanders off to make pot of coffee

      • Trigger Hippie

        *rereads comment*

        What a garbled mess. So, about that coffee…

      • Jarflax

        Haven’t read much Jung I take it?

      • Pat

        It wasn’t that deep – Jung was, indeed, an asshole, but he was the one who coined the term “complex” as a psychological construct.

      • Trigger Hippie

        VS?!

        Goddammit…Ego vs Collectivism, Trade offs and solutions…Was there a point here…Maybe I should just forget the coffee and have another drink then try to sleep it off again.

      • Trigger Hippie

        ‘Haven’t read much Jung I take it?’

        I’ve read a few hundred pages of his work over the last couple of decades and watched a few dozen hours of LazyBoy philosophy talking about his work. So, no. Not really. My layman take on Jung is that he’s a glorified Buddhist who couches his philosophy in individualistic Enlightenment talking points.

      • Jarflax

        The term collective unconscious does not have anything to do with political collectivism.

      • Trigger Hippie

        ‘political’

        When did I say anything about his philosophy being about politics in my incoherent, hungover rant?

      • Jarflax

        Collectivism is a political philosophy. If that is not how you meant the word perhaps I am wrong, but it’s not a word that I have seen used other than to refer to political systems.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Fair enough. Perhaps Universal Consciousness is the correct term of phrase that I disagree with.

  3. SDF-7

    Not a chance this is constitutional, not that this has inhibited any politicians or judges.

    The judge just needs to find Trump in contempt for daring to commute the sentences in the first place and lock him up. (Certainly the contempt charge seems fairly unlimited from what I’ve observed over the years… petty tyrants in their courts limited only by a slow walking appeals process). Go for broke, DC circuit! You know you want to!

  4. cavalier973

    The District of Columbia filed a restraining order against the j6 people.

    • R C Dean

      The DOJ filed a motion opposing it. They also dropped the charges against the doctor who blew the whistle on pediatric genital mutilation in Texas.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, that’s a minor surprise, given Bondi hasn’t been confirmed. Apparently some of the people running the department would like to keep their jobs.

      • Chafed

        I was thinking the same thing.

  5. SDF-7

    Woodchippers. ATF needs to be disbanded.

    Nice of them to highlight who needs to be fired first. Like the idiots in the Air Force.

    • Pat

      I’m surprised the bureau responsible for instigating Waco would do anything so untoward.

  6. Pat

    State Department issues immediate, widespread pause on foreign aid

    Does that include our 10 billion dollar a month Ukraine+ subscription?

    • SDF-7

      Just so you know — that elicited a sincere prolonged chuckle. It seems just about as hard to cancel as one of the predatory subscriptions folks like to do and Zelensky does keep trying to up our plan without our consent, doesn’t he?

    • Jarflax

      Don’t worry, you’ll be able to get Ukraine+ much cheaper once the merger with RussiaRussiaRussia goes through.

    • rhywun

      We take a pause.

  7. Shpip

    “I don’t have any place to go,” said Ngagne Dieng, a Senegalese migrant who has called the Hall Street shelter home for the last six months. “Everything in this life is not easy – if you don’t have opportunity you have nothing.”

    Maybe follow the advice of Horace Greeley: Go East, Young Man.

    A quick search shows non-stop flights from JFK to Dakar for under $500.

    • Shpip

      Though I suppose some encouragement might be in order.

      • SDF-7

        Given your handle — are you a Constellation class now, Shpip?

      • SDF-7

        Oops… never mind. Thought the Constitution-class Constellation was 1071… she was NCC-1017. Guess they didn’t want to make the AMT model and label cutting and pasting too obvious. My bad. Proceed with your day.

    • Jarflax

      If you live in a shelter for 6 months it’s not a shelter it’s a flophouse.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Needs moar babies!

      Sorry, without some kids on the brink of death, this plaint just doesn’t move me.

  8. SDF-7

    “I don’t have any place to go,” said Ngagne Dieng, a Senegalese migrant

    Oh… that certainly suggests one place you should go. And I remain compassionate enough that I’m fine with us paying for the flights to get all the “undocumented” “asylum seekers” and “refugees” that one-way ticket and a warning that you’d better wait at least 10 years before trying the legal system because you’re now a known criminal in our system.

    I’ll grant it sucks for them — but you break the law, you take your chances. And if we get derailed by every sob story, we’ll end up in the “grant status to everyone here and reset… because that’s not incentive for the next waves to try again” we ended up with after Reagan’s deal. So no.

    • juris imprudent

      Remind me, what war ravages Senegal these days that anyone should even be contemplating refugee status?

      • Jarflax

        The left appears to believe that you deserve refugee status if you come from a country with melanated people. Seems kind of racist to me.

      • juris imprudent

        No shit – they’re going from the frying pan into the fire of racism!

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        The left believes in the whole White Savior thing.

        Seems very, very racist to me.

    • rhywun

      They’re not even bothering with sob stories anymore – this class act has free shelter and a job. Cry me a river, pal.

  9. SDF-7

    Learn to code.

    I’m not sure which would be worse — those idiots coding or Copilot and the like…. I suspect the LLMs will beat them out for most jobs.

  10. Pat

    Trump revokes security protection for Covid adviser Fauci

    Pardon my ignorance, but once a sack of shit lifelong bureaucrat retires to private life, do they typically get government-funded security, or is that an exception we made only for The Science, himself?

    • SDF-7

      I didn’t go to primary sources, but I’m not sure this is even true anyway.

    • Tonio

      Apparently John Bolton also had a government security detail until very recently. When Trump cancelled that, there was much hand-wringing in the press about possible Iranian assassination attempts. I see no bad outcome here. If the Persians wax Bolton then we’re rid of him, and have an excuse to take out one of their people/facilities.

      • juris imprudent

        The Persians wouldn’t do such a thing, but they might contract it out to Brazilians.

      • SDF-7

        Having the Brazilians wax him would really be below the belt, JI.

      • Jarflax

        Wax the stache? That’ll droop a warboner.

    • Jarflax

      I think this is a mistake. I think Fauci should be guarded for the rest of his life. I hear Guantanamo Bay is a very secure retirement spot.

  11. Pat

    Man sets self on fire. Cops shoot at him, miss, and hit a bystander. It’s pretty perfect.

    I could tell this took place in a foreign land because the cops hit the suspect as well as the bystander and fire fewer than 65 rounds to do so.

  12. Tonio

    “and yet another one of my heroes”

    I can certainly see your point there.

    • SDF-7

      OMWC is scooping you into his hero-worshipping orbit through the gravity of his devotion, eh Tonio?

  13. Shpip

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Hegseth Friday morning, calling him “one of the most erratic, unqualified and unfit Cabinet nominees we have ever seen in modern times” and warning that his confirmation would endanger the “credibility of the Republican majority.”

    Considering the source, I’m guessing that means that Hegseth will be able to take on the Perfumed Princes of the Pentagon and do a bang-up job. If that means the 821st Hairdresser Battalion gets dispersed, so much the better.

    • Jarflax

      one of the most erratic, unqualified and unfit Cabinet nominees we have ever seen in modern times

      Schumer’s list includes every cabinet nominee during Republican administrations.

      • Pat

        We need more stable, well-qualified candidates like Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel…

      • SDF-7

        And reliable, dependable uniters of the military behind their mission so we drive recruitment like Lloyd Austin?

      • Jarflax

        We need more stable, well-qualified candidates like Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel…

        Blind squirrels, stopped clocks and all that.

      • juris imprudent

        We need more stable, well-qualified candidates

        John Tower spins in his grave.

    • R C Dean

      When I think erratic, unqualified, and unfit Cabinet member, the first thing that comes to mind is the gay guy fake breastfeeding a baby.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        That train has left the station, and derailed in Ohio.

    • Pope Jimbo

      My wet dream is that some enlisted puke (JD?) gets into a position of power and mixes things up.

      Maybe bring back Fighting Tub Of Guts Milley and bust him down to Private. Make him run a buffer for the next ten years.

      I’d be open to the idea that there is in no Officer/Enlisted schism. Everyone starts out as a boot. Then you promote. No ROTC, no service academy BS. Everyone starts at Square ONE. Then you go where your talents take you.

      • juris imprudent

        Up to MAJ, officer development is still pretty good. It’s at that point that careerism starts to kick in, and conforming to the bureaucracy.

  14. PieInTheSky

    ATF needs to be disbanded. – no just renamed while keeping all its functions. It’s like you did not even read the article.

    • SDF-7

      “Keep your eye on the cards… where’s the red queen gone! Easy money!”

  15. juris imprudent

    McConnell: But the restoration of ‘warrior culture’ will not come from trading one set of culture warriors for another.

    Instead, we must use conniving, backstabbing politicians as the model?

  16. Pope Jimbo

    Not sure if I have told this story, but when we lived on our farm my mother raised big beefsteak tomatoes. One day, she discovered that several had gone missing. Then she saw a groundhog rolling a tomato back toward his burrow.

    The next day, she sat out on a lawn chair with her 20 gauge shotgun and settled his hash when he was rolling another one.

    I can’t see her just taking pics of the scofflaw

    • SDF-7

      I guess the groundhog never saw that day coming.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Best thing that ever happened to a tomato.

  17. PieInTheSky

    In things that mildly annoy Pie there is a cut of meat popular in Romania which I never know how to call in americanseze. here in both man and beast it mostly refers to the meat part at the back of the neck. looking at american beef cuts charts it seems to be either “neck” or the the top -forward part of the chuck. Anyway Pie bought and grilled this bit from a wagyu cow, though not one of those authentically raised in Japan so probably wagyu in name only, anyhoo it was tasty.

      • Gender Traitor

        Looks great, but needs a handgun next to it for scale.

      • PieInTheSky

        450 grams raw if that helps

      • Gender Traitor

        ::converts to ‘Murican units of weight:: So just under a pound. Just right!

      • PieInTheSky

        it is for two people me and my mom

    • PieInTheSky

      I have paired it with an Americaneze wine and it worked fairly well. I have to grudgingly admit the wine was not bad at all.

      2014 Trinite Estate “Acaibo” Sonoma County Bordeaux Blend

      https://shop.klwines.com/products/details/1645971

      • juris imprudent

        Sonoma County Bordeaux Blend

        May have tasted alright, but it was horribly named.

      • Old Man With Candy

        May have tasted alright, but it was horribly named.

        There’s actually a term for those blends in California- Meritage. Now one could argue (and I do) that this name sucks as well; however, to use that name, you have to pay money to the Meritage Alliance. So kudos to them for giving the Alliance a red-stained finger.

    • Jarflax

      looks tasty, what is the pepper stuffed with?

  18. Pat

    hy has a man been nominated for Best Actress?

    Emilia Pérez – a bizarre musical about a transgender Mexican cartel leader – has been nominated for a whopping 13 Oscars. Not only is it the most-nominated film at this year’s Oscars – it has also bagged more nominations for a non-English-language film than any other in the history of the Academy Awards. This is a bad day for anyone with good taste.
    […]
    The only reason the Academy is showering this woeful musical with nominations is because of its trans-focussed storyline. Emilia begins the film as Manitas, a ruthless drug lord who decides to fake his own death in order to transition into a woman, which also magically turns him into a social-justice activist.
    […]
    Gascón’s acting and singing are fine, but he is still not an actress. He is a man who decided to start calling himself a woman. If he wins this Oscar, he will be depriving some incredibly talented, real women – such as Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo or The Substance’s Demi Moore – of the most prestigious awards of their careers.

    • PieInTheSky

      I think this just proves that men are just better than women at anything, including being a woman. Not a good look for women imo, being so inferior.

      • Jarflax

        It takes balls to win.

      • SDF-7

        Keep it up and Mojo or MLW may have to show you just what’s at stake, Pie.

      • rhywun

        He’ll be out of here like a bat out of hell.

    • SDF-7

      They can continue to do their best to “stick it to the normies” and in the process accelerate a slide into irrelevancy as people realize that there’s no actual merit or meaning to the awards. A bold strategy, Cotton….

    • rhywun

      That song/video is the most heinous thing you’ll see this year – do yourselves a favor and click.

    • Trigger Hippie

      More nominations than The Return of the King and not a single damn person here has knowledge of it…okay. Dig that grave, deeper.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Yes, but it is Much Brave, and Such Meaningful.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Read a few reviews about it at NRO, etc (https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/el-chapo-goes-woke-in-bonkers-musical-emilia-perez/) – haven’t seen it come up at all at the normal youtube channels.

        OTOH, I finally got to see the Nosferatu re-imagining at the first on-base screening last night. Highly recommended – in a quiet, dark theater – unfortunately the exit lighting in our theater highlighted some of the screen corners in a way that washed out a few of the shadows.

        Will definitely pick up – along with the rest of Egger’s flicks. Still haven’t seen The VVitch.

  19. Trigger Hippie

    ‘The order shocked some department officials for its sweeping mandate. “State just totally went nuclear on foreign assistance,” said another State Department official.’

    *fap, fap, fap*

  20. Trigger Hippie

    ‘I’ll root for Buffalo this weekend in their game against the referees Mahomes.’

    Check the amount of personal foul calls granted towards those quarterbacks since 2018 then get back to me. “Duh Refs!!!” Is the lament of losers.

    • Ted S.

      Buffalo just got another flag for roughing Mahomes.

      • Trigger Hippie

        *…Flag…* Okay, Tom Grossi.

        Allen has almost twice those calls in his favor over the last seven years. Hell, Mahomes got his helmet shattered in a helmet to helmet collision in last year’s wildcard game with no flags thrown but okay…

  21. DEG

    They have useless degrees, minimal skills, wildly unrealistic salary expectations and delusionally-high opinions of themselves.

    These people are unemployable.

    Unemployable? I guess it all depends on where. Because you know there are places that will hire them. It’s not just an ATF DEI exec that will rebrand.

    • PieInTheSky

      useless degrees … unemployable …

      I mean it depends on the looks. The erotic massage parlors of Bucharest are full of young women with useless sociology degrees. But they are very much employable.

      • SDF-7

        Sounds like a very hands on career path for them.

      • Jarflax

        It’s kind of a reversal of the usual trade route for this sort of thing, but I am sure something can be worked out if you’re sure you want them.

      • Pat

        Just so long as they carry on their work quietly.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        The tears of regret should always be silent.

      • Tres Cool

        A lapdance is so much better when the stripper is crying.

  22. Pope Jimbo

    Prime, a Buffalonian, was too nice to troll me

    She knows that the bell that is tolling is for her Bills. Mahomes will once again carve them up and win somehow.

    • juris imprudent

      I haz disappoint that the SuperBowl cannot be Vikes-Bills.

      • Tundra

        That would be too much to hope for.

        That said, go Bills!

    • Old Man With Candy

      Likely, but it’s not like they’re the Browns, there’s actual genuine hope.

      • juris imprudent

        Can the Bills do what only the Bengals have done previously (the last 5 AFC championship games)?

    • Lazer

      35-17 Chiefs!

  23. The Late P Brooks

    “Thousands Of DEI Experts Unemployed”

    According to an HBR article I saw yesterday, they refer to themselves as “practitioners”.

    They can always fall back on their next best option, picking up dog shit in city parks.

    • Ayn Random Variation

      I can only hope that the assholes who ran the DEI meeting at work a few years ago, who assigned us to read White Fragility, are now taking coding classes or hooking.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    It’s not just an ATF DEI exec that will rebrand.

    The aforementioned HBR thing was about exactly that. “It’ll be just like DEI, only better, with new and improved jargon!”

    • Jarflax

      Demeritocracy is my suggestion for the new name.

      • Tonio

        Excellent, Jarflax. I’m stealing that.

      • R.J.

        That is excellent!

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Buckle up

    The pardons were the first of many moves he made in his first week to reward allies and punish critics, in both significant and subtle ways. It signaled that without the need to worry about reelection — the Constitution bars a third term — or legal consequences after the Supreme Court granted presidents expansive immunity, the new president, backed by a Republican Congress, has little to restrain him.

    He’s a one man biblical plague.

    • Jarflax

      The party that spent the last decade campaigning against incarceration for criminals views freeing political prisoners as evil. But then they also support sterilizing and mutilating kids, for the children so this isn’t even their oddest mental trick.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Obviously, the answer is endless term limits for all elected officials. That would curtail corruption, hubris and lawlessness due to the threat of losing office…What could go wrong?!

      • Suthenboy

        There is no magic bullet. Fear of losing election is weak tea compared to other possible methods of accountability.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    In his first days in office, Trump demonstrated just how much he and his team had learned from four often-chaotic years in the White House and four more in political exile.

    A president’s most valuable resource is time and Trump set out in his first hours to make his mark on the nation with executive orders, policy memoranda and government staffing shake-ups. It reflected a level of sophistication that eluded him in his first term and surpassed his Democratic predecessors in its scale and scope for their opening days in the Oval Office.

    Feeling burned by the holdover of Obama administration appointees during his first go-around, Trump swiftly exiled Biden holdovers and moved to test new hires for their fealty to his agenda.

    In a matter of days he uprooted four years of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the federal government, sent federal troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and erased Biden’s guardrails on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency development.

    He spent his years in exile learning from his past mistakes. Nobody saw that coming.

    • The Other Kevin

      Somehow he’s still a complete moron and an evil genius at the same time.

    • Old Man With Candy

      “Guardrails” was a term that Retread used constantly. It’s like a magic word applying to everything surrounding OMB.

      • Pat

        Guardrails are how we can tell when someone is wrong within normal parameters.

    • rhywun

      erased Biden’s guardrails

      😰

      • juris imprudent

        Those were the ones that go straight to the bank.

    • Suthenboy

      I think what Trump learned in his first term is that the left is thoroughly machiavellian. Ignore everything they say and purge them from positions of power. Do the obvious sensible things that need to be done in spite of all of their wailing. Dont look left or right, plow forward.
      It is long overdue.
      Now, if we just had a competent party behind him we could start impeaching fed judges like the one mentioned below.

      • Ayn Random Variation

        I purged several covid nazis and “Babbitt shooting was justified” types. Couldn’t take the hypocrisy any longer (my body my choice and the riots I personally witnessed in Philly) and officially became a grumpy old man.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    A bunch of headlines about the horrific “freeze” put on foreign aid; because why would anybody actually ask where all that money goes?

    And this popped into my head; Trump should appoint the guy from Hindenberg Research to be had of the Government Accounting Office.

    *first order of business would be to change the name back

    • Pat

      8, 27, and 29 seem nice.

  28. R C Dean

    From the You Can’t Hate Them Enough files:

    “Just two months ago, DC Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Paulette Harlow who is 75-year-old and in poor health to 2 years in prison for praying outside an abortion clinic.

    When her husband begged for mercy for fear she would die in prison due to poor health, the Judge mocked their Christian faith saying: “maybe you should make an effort to remain alive because that is a tenet of your religion.”

    https://x.com/GraduatedBen/status/1813595098531184937

    • Jarflax

      Apropos of nothing, the District of Columbia has 75,000 lamp posts.

      • The Gunslinger

        Any idea how many of those could support 1 standard unit of female US judge? With maybe a slight swinging motion?

    • Pat

      maybe you should make an effort to remain alive because that is a tenet of your religion

      What an odd non-sequitur, being as Christianity is the next best thing to a death cult whose prominence was solidified by the willingness of its early practitioners to die as martyrs, in accordance with Christ’s admonition in Matthew 10:28: “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul”

      • Suthenboy

        We evolved in a pretty rough part of existence. Human sacrifice and cannibalism is in the past of every culture and vestiges of it remain everywhere.

    • rhywun

      lol I grew up thinking that the best lawyers become judges.

      • Jarflax

        If you define best in terms of party loyalty you were right!

      • Pat

        What do you call a lawyer who graduates at the bottom of his class?

        Your honor.

    • juris imprudent

      from wiki:

      Colleen Constance Kollar-Kotelly (born April 17, 1943) is an American lawyer serving as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and was previously presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

      First appointed by Reagan then elevated by Clinton.

      • Suthenboy

        Proud member of the Star Chamber? I, for one, feel much better now.

    • Shpip

      Well, she was an SEC sorority girl. They tend to age well.

      On the other hand, she has two failed marriages to go with a broken engagement. Which brings to mind the ancient wisdom…

      • Don escaped Memphis

        SEC sorority girl

        ** burp ** somebody’s gotta make my breakfast

    • Tres Cool

      Meh. Maybe its my age, but I can see 59 in that.
      A very well-kept and made-up 59. But I can see it.

    • Ayn Random Variation

      When I was a kid, 50 years old meant something like Edith Bunker. Now, the plethora of hot 50ish women just in my town is amazing.
      Is this evolution, diet, fitness? I know a 45 year old woman who’s naked body could pass for early 20s, and she drinks like a fish and doesn’t work out.

      • Ayn Random Variation

        And I’m sure it’s the same from a woman’s perspective re: Archie compared to a lot of today’s 50ish men.

    • Pat

      From a purely practical perspective, that’s a riskier proposition than a guy letting his wife do other girls.

    • Suthenboy

      Monkeys. We are just monkeys. We are endlessly fascinated by who is fucking who and how. The first thing we think within a quarter of a second of meeting each other is “Are they a threat to me? Would I fuck them?”
      I am surprised we dont instinctively sniff each other’s asses like dogs and monkeys do.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Speak for yourself.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Donald Trump’s war on DEI policies has caused a number of major corporations to bend the knee.

    This is the opening salvo from an MSNBC excrescence I won’t bother to link.

    What immediately springs to (my) mind is the question of how one would describe the rush to obey these DEI diktats from Obama and Biden.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    DEI programs help foster work environments that studies have shown are more productive than ones where diversity isn’t emphasized.

    What about work environments where productivity is the focus?

  31. creech

    How is it possible that Trump thinks we have the biggest bestest ass kicking military in the world yet can’t find one retired (or not) flag level person with combat command, strategic planning and administration experience who agrees with him to serve as SecDefense?

    • Pat

      Possibly Trump realizes that our military is an utter fucking joke run by the same effete, incompetent bureaucrats as every other federal organization, but understands that jingoistic Republican boomers of all ages would hang him by his intestines for saying so.

    • Don escaped Memphis

      ass kicking military

      we have the best toys

      what we do with them, where, and how, are the question

      • creech

        So somewhere up the chain of command is a three star who understood the need to procure those ass kicking toys. Surely someone who knew how to build our ass kickers knows how to employ them?

      • juris imprudent

        Dude, do you realize how OLD the Abrams and Bradley designs are? The first Iraq war was an anomaly – we didn’t start by getting our asses kicked because of who was in command at the time.

    • R C Dean

      I see no reason why the SecDef has to be a flag level officer. Or, for that matter, even a military veteran.

      • LCDR_Fish

        I think it would be very tough to make a good argument for a SecDef who hasn’t served at least one tour of duty (4-5 years + IRR). That shouldn’t be too hard for the next generation following GWOT – just like post-WWII – but there’s a distinct perspective that I think is necessary.

      • Pat

        In a hypothetical libertopia where we have a strictly defensive military, given the strong likelihood we could go for stretches of multiple decades with any active conflicts to which we would need to deploy soldiers, from where would we gather candidates with that experience, and in their absence, what qualifications might we substitute?

      • LCDR_Fish

        Even without a distinct conflict, there are shared experiences during peacetime that most folks undergo (not the Chair Force) – that give them a better understanding of the military community and the separation there from the normal civilians. I still think that’s a distinction to consider. I’m willing to potentially exempt an individual service secretary from prior service – but the SecDef should be a veteran – even if it’s more symbolic than a retired general.

        It’d be nice if we could go a generation without a serious conflict…guess that hasn’t happened yet.

      • juris imprudent

        In fact, it takes a Congressional exemption to have a retired FOGO become SecDef. Before Trump and Mattis it had only happened with Marshall.

    • LCDR_Fish

      Keeping in mind that hiring a retired general (like Mattis) is the exception rather than the rule – unless they’ve been out for 10+ years – due to the standard GSA hiring policies. Austin also required a waiver.

      Going forward…if you want someone younger, you need to look at someone who retired at 20 and then did some solid private sector work for at least 10 years or so (preferably not Defense contracting – depending on the scope or position).

  32. Lazer

    Dearest Father,

    It has been five days and still my Handmaiden has not arrived.

    There is no imformation on when I will get my Handmaiden, not even reports of the girls being gathered into the camps yet.

    I fear that the voices of The View, those flories voices that had my hopes so high, might have been exagerating the power of the Mighty Orange Man.

    Your Loving son,

    • Ayn Random Variation

      Worst dictator ever.

  33. Tundra

    The Old Guy says Good Morning!

    Good morning!

    Sweet Jesus is that a fantastic cover. Thanks for sharing it!

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Oh, HORROR

    The Trump administration on Friday abruptly halted services for refugees in the United States, including Afghans, according to a memo obtained by CNN, stunning agencies that provide critical support to recent arrivals.

    It’s a sweeping move that prompted a scramble as refugee advocates tried to interpret the order. The memo stands to affect tens of thousands of refugees – including Afghans who aided the US during the war – by seemingly barring them from assistance, ranging from caseworker support to housing, that is afforded to arrivals in their first three months in the United States.

    “We’ll have refugees going homeless,” a refugee advocate told CNN. “It’s completely unprecedented. Nothing like this has ever happened.”

    ——-

    Resettlement agencies receive federal funding from the State Department. Those funds are authorized and appropriated by Congress for the purpose of aiding refugee arrivals. The State Department notified partners that all work under those awards must end, according to the memo obtained by CNN.

    “Effective immediately upon receipt of this Notice of Suspension the Recipient must stop all work under the award(s) and not incur any new costs after the effective date cited above. The Recipient must cancel as many outstanding obligations as possible,” the memo states.

    To crush your enemies and see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their NGO parasites.

    • juris imprudent

      We’ll have refugees going homeless

      How dare we treat them like normal Americans, even veterans!

      • Gender Traitor

        I’m sure they could find plenty of volunteers to take in the “refugees.” Just look for the “In this house we believe” yard signs.

      • Jarflax

        I’d have thought refugees knew how to camp on their own by now.

    • R C Dean

      “The memo stands to affect tens of thousands of refugees”

      I thought the millions who crossed the border and were processed by ICE were granted temporary refugee status until their court date years in the future. Nice bit of obfuscation there.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Random thought (based on shrieking outrage on the part of media shit flinging howler monkeys):

    If Foochy is such a goddam life saving hero, why would h need round the clock protection at government expense?

    • Suthenboy

      …and a pardon.

    • slumbrew

      “Damn wingnut rethuglicans”, obvs

  36. Tres Cool

    News thats too local, but we’re about to have a bunch of really happy cops.
    And lots of happy addicts too once they sell their “stash”. I wonder how long it takes them to divvy it all up.

    Drug drop off event taking place in Montgomery County

    • R C Dean

      I wonder if people will be working the line like they do at gun “buy-backs”.

    • groat scotum

      God bless the Jews God bless lovers of Israel, fuck Dave Smith and his dumb following