It was my good fortune to know some of those WW2 veterans. Never heard the ones who had been in actual combat ever speak of it as anything other than the most goddamn awful horror they wouldn't wish on anyone they could readily name. And they certainly didn't speak of it in the cartoonish terms used by cowards like Trump and Hegseth. Those Navajo Code Talkers from the Pacific fighting? When they returned to the Rez they went through powerful ceremonies specifically designed to rid them of the disharmony of war and reincorporate them into society..

Person woman man camera TV!

Didn't you get the memo? You're not "government employees" anymore. What you are is "help" in a subsidiary of Trump, Inc. And you will obey.

Tough business, playing catch-up with the slathering rubes. One day you're hot, next day you're ... not.

It's exactly what folks like Boaz voted for.

Deal making by a convicted felon and multiple bankrupt whose only way of succeeding lies in ripping off others. Whataguy.

Thoughts and prayers to the sclerotic vampire's victims, including those poor Iranians sufficiently desperate/naive to have actually fallen for his assurances of assistance.

Oh, well, nice day for a round of golf.

Get your wardrobe at Bass Pro or Cabella's, wear a mask, behave like one of Hitler's Brownshirts and you've nailed the role. Hell, you might even get a government signing bonus if you go the distance.

Question: What's the difference between a masked ICE thug and a run-of-the-mill thug?
Answer: ICE thugs regularly get away with murder.

Memoryholed

Every time I think this isn't rooted in scientific fact, there's Stephen Miller.

"The dog barks, and the caravan moves on"
Arab Proverb

People who think in terms of "alternate facts" live in an alternate reality. Short, of a personal catastrophe - and even that of dubious effect - reaching them is a tough one, considering it wasn't smarts that got them there in the first place.

Smells like heaven to Republicans.

#12
Couldn't agree with you more, DONNERBOY, especially about that "so alive" feeling after - and during - a dive. As a career, it can be physically wearing and aspiring divemasters should probably consider having some other skill they can rely on down the road. The best of them are keenly aware not only of the environment but also of their own limitations. That may have been an issue in the Maldives cave dive. I always stayed away from big talk divers and resisted buddying up with them because I thought they were potentially very dangerous to be around. And all that said, I miss scuba diving ... a lot. Just pay attention to your training, watch your gauges ... and don't hold your breath.

Jack Larson and George Reeves - Look, up in the sky ...

Thx for posting, Corky. The phrases victims use are formulae for warding off thoughtcrime: repeatedly murmuring "fake mews," garlic in a pocket to scare off the malocchio, spilled salt tossed over the shoulder, etc.

Trump is not a "deal maker."
He's a six-timer bankrupt who busted out multiple times running ... gambling dens.
The Music Man with steaks, watches, booze, steaks, etc., etc., etc.
He's the guy who outbids himself at an auction with someone else's dough.
Specifically, yours.

Old Yeller is hardly in a position to tell anyone, other than his goobers and employees, what to do about anything, ever. He is, simply put, the biggest loser in American history - aided and abetted by more losers than one might think even a large nation could possibly contain.

Bottom line, according to the author? "He seems to hope to slip away without Americans noticing the magnitude of this defeat."

#3 | POSTED BY DONNERBOY

Sums up my own experience. I dove for years, spent ages as an air hog before finally settling down and only then getting into that magical glide through alien space. Where keeping alert, knowing and properly using your gear/gauges, being aware of depth/air supply/time considerations, and particularly knowing your physical and knowledge limitations in a situation where you simply cannot b.s. your way out are paramount. Our son became a dive master and worked through all sorts of certifications. He drew the line at large wrecks and caves. Both activities are in every possible way well beyond the zone of experience of those of us who have engaged in recreational diving. He's a brave guy, a first responder, and he got the distinct impression that when it came to cave diving it wasn't a question of whether you would die on a cave, just a matter of when,

Observations from Jonathan Volanthe, "one of the British cave divers who helped rescue 12 schoolboys from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018 " [who] says cave diving carries risks fundamentally different from open-water diving"

"If something goes wrong, you can't simply head to the surface because there's usually something that's preventing that ... Quite often in caves as well, it's very easy to swim in somewhere and then find you stirred some silt up," Volanthen says.

The combination of not being able to ascend to the surface and a poor-visibility exit makes it "much more difficult to get out" if a diver hits trouble, he says.

Adding depth to the equation, he says, exacerbates the dangers.

"The deeper you are, the more air you use, or the more gas, depending on what you're breathing ... Depth generally equals an increase in danger," Volanthen says. Divers must carefully manage gas supplies to ensure a slow ascent, to reduce the risk of decompression sickness.

"Pressure [as a result of depth] creates a situation where gas dissolves into the bloodstream, and that means you have to ascend slowly," he says.

Buen Dia, Coriolanus ... The Trump outfit is, swimming in a swamp populated by some rough crews.