We're going bankrupt as a country that has hungry children and we're wasting money on moon madness that will enrich mega-oligarchs Felon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

But hey, let's watch the UFC together!

Hi Matt

The only US Army specialized training that I wanted to complete was Air Assault school. By coincidence I knew two Vietnam War vets who were both helicopter M60 door gunners, so I heard their war stories. And I would learn more at Air Assault school (LZs, knots, hand-and-arm signals, heliborne operations, etc) than Jump School, which is just muscle-memory practice of PLFs and guiding away from trees or water.

Tough break on the EFMB.

I had zero respect for senior leadership.

Hmph.

Last century, I knew a USAR soldier who attended Air Assault School as a permissive TDY at Ft Belvoir, VA. He showed up at O dark thirty in the morning and got a slot when someone didn't show up or was kicked out later that day. He passed.

Afterwards, he studied and practiced for the EIB. Somehow he finagled his way into a MDARNG infantry unit and took the EIB test during one long weekend with them. He passed.

"AP" repeated the same process with Pathfinder School, skills which he never used, but he looked great in his Class As or Dress Blues.

"AP" was more proud of his ability to get the scare badges than the training itself.

And incredibly enough, "AP" was a lousy swimmer.

I was the unit's 'WSI' because I was an American Red Cross certified lifeguard, not an official WSI or certified WSSI.

So, I coached him for several days on efficient strokes and breath control before the unit validation tests and he passed.

No scare badge for that though.

'AP' did me some small favors along the way, so I hope he's doing well and enjoying retirement.

@47 FYI: Neither athletes nor soldiers like Teddy Roosevelt, William Shakespeare died at age 52; Ludwig van Beethoven was 57. And all three had much more to offer the world.

'Morning Doc Sarvis:

Larry Kudlow's making beaucoup money like a secular televangelist.

Remarkable.

BTW: You are so right about that CIA story becoming a perfect film for the Coen brothers. Having been in the USIC and being routinely polygraphed and scrutinized by CI agents, it's quite unfathomable to me how that fellow got away with this for so long at CIA HQ.

A few years ago a CIA Clandestine Services Officer was finally caught overseas for being a serial date rapist.
The Mexican police nabbed him and the USDJ basically threw away the key when he was sentenced.

And the USIC folks I knew didn't discuss how many times they applied to CIA, NSA, DIA etc.

Three times is a lot because the vetting process is lengthy and expensive.

The chit-chat in the smoking areas revolved around the dreaded polygraph that we all went must go through every five years, not how many times someone was turned down.

We can't even imagine what the Big Apple would be like today if either of these two Jurassic Age losers were elected over Democrat Zohran Mamdani last year.

Perish forbid.

"In their 2015 book Superforecasting, UPenn political scientists Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner refer to talking head Larry Kudlow as a "consistently wrong" pundit, and use Kudlow's long record of failed predictions to clarify common mistakes that poor forecasters like him make."

According to publicly available information, this decrepit defender of the oligarchs has a net worth of $5m and he has earned around $800,000 per year as a blathering TV tumor. Larry Kudlow has also made an additional $100,000 to $200,000 per year from paid speeches and consulting work.

Wow.

Who pays this incompetent triple loser so much money for terrible information?

Meanwhile, NYC's first Muslim mayor, the dynamic Democrat Zohran Mamdani, attended Eid ceremonies wearing an Arsenal UK Football Club-themed robe, his favorite soccer team and recent Premier League champions. His Honor was joined in the Bronx by fellow Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the popular and effective Congresswoman representing NYC's 14th CD.

*** Iran Counterattacks With Missiles and Drones Against US and Kuwait ***

*** D/DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullet is a Filthy, Cruel, Racist Monster ***

The Confederate States of Amerikkka lives.

At a White House cabinet meeting, this hideous human hippo callously dismissed the recent detainee hunger strike in an ICE facility, as well as an injury sustained by US Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) by ICE thugs:

"They're refusing to eat because they want their ethnic food. Well, they can go back to their country and get whatever food they want. This isn't Holiday Inn."

And then you have one of the senators complain because he got splattered with a pepper ball. I'm sorry, you probably shouldn't have been there."

Nota Bene: US Senator John Fetterman (D-Israel) had a chance to derail Mullet's nomination in committee, but instead Fetterman voted to approve him, advancing Mullet's nomination to the full US Senate for confirmation.

Links:

Recent reporting states that good-for-nothing bully Markwayne Mullet has been floating the idea of making his wife Christie an SGE so that she could fly for free with him and allow her to make $130,000 per year.

Moreover, Markwayne Mullet's flight logs revealed he is traveling in the same $70 million luxury Gulfstream G700 jet that former D/DHS Kristi Noem was criticized for using. According to flight logs, he is using the G700 to fly back to his ranch in Oklahoma from Thursday to Monday, running the department from an arm's length. In addition to retaining that jet, DHS has purchased another luxury Gulfstream G700 jet, as well as seven other planes for both private travel and deportation flights.

~snip~

"Hey! Markwayne and Christie! Enjoy the luxury jet and champagne-- all paid for by the hard-working American taxpayer. We certainly did! Ha!"

Within the ranks of the US Army, the awards PFC Mace Veit received for graduating these prestigious schools are called "Scare Badges."

One of my comrades broke her ankle during her first jump at Airborne School and another broke his foot on his fourth jump. Unfortunately, both never earned their one "Scare Badge," the silver-toned US Army Basic Parachutist Badge.

I was fortunate enough to graduate Jump School and earn my wings as a "five-jump chump." But years after I retired, I am still waiting for my promised orders to attend US Army Air Assault School at Fort Campbell, KY.

Curse them all!

Money to kill Muslims in the Middle East, money for moon launches, money for a ballroom and UFC arena, money for useless battleships, money for Israel, but no money to feed our own people.

The status quo dinosaurs in Congress and their oligarch backers are all to blame for this.

This is why the short-lived White Russian Kerensky government failed after the 1917 Russian Revolution.

The Mensheviks had too many vestiges of the Ancien Regime -- the status quo-- and were quickly ousted.

Here in the US, we treasure our g****n dinosaurs.

Now look where we're at.

"Will no one rid us of this vile, perfidious monster?"

"No one?"

In Richard Matheson's classic novella I Am Legend, a disease has turned mankind into ravenous, rabid vampires. The last human alive survives the plague because years ago he was bitten by a bat which gave him immunity.

The narrator, Dr. Neville, explains that vampirism isn't mystical, but scientific. The wretched creatures survive gunshot wounds because their blood has become a thick goo that clots immediately. So, wounds hurt, but won't kill them. Hence the need for a wide enough stake driven through the heart to slay a vampire.

The disease mutates the victims, causing their incisors to grow. Sunlight and garlic damage the bacteria in the vampire, and so forth. Since Dr Neville was a biological researcher, so he is meticulous with his observations.

The scientist notices that the vampires do not like seeing their own reflection in a mirror which repulses them.

Similarly, crucifixes repel the vampires, I think even the Jewish ones if I recall correctly.

Some vampires jump off buildings and begin flapping their arms like bats, but haplessly fall to the earth, only to be consumed by the other vampires awaiting them at street level.

There is no medical or biological reason for these behaviors. Dr Neville realizes that these vampires-- when they were human -- were conditioned by vampire folklore and stories of Dracula turning into a bat.

From Wiki:

"The vampires are affected by mirrors and crosses because of "hysterical blindness," in which the infected delusionally react-- as they believe they should-- when confronted with these items."

So, if a certain sector of society is "conditioned" to see a white light at the end of the tunnel, they will indeed believe they saw that illumination.

Hah! A regular Lois Lane is Megyn Kelly.

The quality of rightwing trolling has deteriorated considerably over the years.

Everybody on the planet can see it.

Their over-abused talking points are jejune re-hashes.

Or perhaps too much use of AI.

Don't know, don't care.

Perhaps one day I'll name a future cat *Killfile.*

@89

Dummkopf Trumpf Has Launched a Second American Revolution. This Time, It's Against the World.

Just as ICC-indicted war criminal Vladimir Putin has dreamed about since before 2016.

*** Canada Rejects US Aircraft; Will Spend Billions for Swedish Surveillance Planes ***

"The days of our military sending 70 cents of every dollar to the United States are over," Canada PM Mark Carney told supporters earlier this year."

"I didn't expect the Holocaust to be quite as widespread as it has been."

Like it or not, America has been the stabilizing force behind much of the modern world for decades.

This is a mystery to me with all of the chaos, disease, gun violence, ICE activity-- just plain mishegoss -- that flights from Egypt are expanding to Amerikkka.