"I voted for Trump ... .They are picking up law-abiding citizens. They're destroying families, jobs ... .Go after the criminals. We're all for that. But leave the mom and pops and the kids alone. Man, he's destroying families."

And the problem is, what, Mr. Gannon?
Because this is what you voted for.
Although, admittedly, the pain would be inflicted on other folks.
Not you.
Well, you-hoo.

Trump is not a fan of discovery.

The essay's author drew his title from Herman Melville's 1853 short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street." In the tale, Bartleby refuses all assigned tasks, saying, " I would prefer not to."

That's Mike Johnson, alright.

It's just possible the US military hasn't been so carved-out by Trump's purge that this was all explained to Old Yeller.
But, OMFG, it wasn't about him!?!
So he just sat there in his maxed-out big boy diapers, slumped, dozing stewing in his own sheet.

EFFETEPOSER ... There's some interesting work been done with respect to younger Inuit hunters using GPS. Basically, w/t the GPS they get lost easier, having not learned or forgotten how to "read" a complex and dangerous landscape due to their GPS relianc.

TWINPAC, so sorry to learn of your eye situation. From your note at #17 I draw the lesson of creative compensation. That's how you deal with the onset of new realities. I lost a lot of the vision in one eye from a stroke after a cataract op and reluctantly quit driving for the sake of others as well as myself. It's been a pain in the neck at times, but you just move on to the different. I'd never heard of the transplant treatments for macular degeneration, which is a huge change. For what it's worth, you've baskets of good wishes wending your way.

Here is the NM filing:

The information Trump wants buried by his Epstein Coverup is at the DOJ.
Which is run by his former personal attorney Todd "Thank You, Sirrr - I Love You" Blanche.
Betcha Trump isn't losing any sleep over this.

#6
I'm waiting for the GOP's Congressional Cowards' Caucus to swing into action.
Oh, wait, they're preparing as I write to sprint out of DC.
When they actually do something about this - riiight - I have a request:
Please place a clipping about it in a bottle and drop it in the Reflecting Pool.
But watch out: That might be a capital offense by then.

So far, Trump's Epstein Coverup is holding up pretty well.
Tip of the hat to the GOP's Congressional Cowards' Caucus.
Couldn't do it without you
No, really, take a bow: you've earned it and, besides, your spines are so bendable.

You might not realize it but the US is in a Cold War with my homeland Chyna.
#23 | POSTED BY ONEIRONAUT

I think that's been widely accepted for quite a while now, and certainly more clearly perceived by the Chinese hierarchy than that in the current US regime. I wouldn't be surprised if Xi has to pinch himself every so often, just to make sure the barbarian he's dealing with is really as easily played as has proven to be the case this far. Perhaps he wonders about proceeding with caution, lest the spell guaranteeing the opponent's idiocy break.

Haven't heard from "Hot Tub" Tom in ages. In fact, it was a bit of a surprise to learn he's alive.

So the vinyl siding is, what, free?

Donald Trump
August 10, 2022
Fifth Amendment
More than 440 times
But that's ... different?
Effin loons.

"Combat operations"? Say whu? This isn't a "combat operation." It's a Trump Forever Cruise.

Based on the pardon situation, you pay for release. For further details, perhaps best contact:

Boris Epshteyn
Personal Senior Counsel to Donald Trump,
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

One rule for the Trump family, another for everyone else?
Jayzus in a jerky jalopy, folks, what the actual fluck is the matter with you GOPers?
You've oozed us waaay beyond a "normal" Republica Bananera.
This is Daniel Ortega territory, FFS.
Those Republican "standards," to the extent they ever existed?
Dead, buried, fossils ready for museum display.

From the article:

Trump and his appointees during his current and previous terms bear only part of the responsibility for the current situation. The fundamental problem has been a bipartisan neglect of America's military-industrial productive base over the past three decades. The United States allowed many of its strategic industries, such as shipbuilding, to wither. Its post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan involved brief invasions followed by years of relatively low-intensity counterinsurgency warfare that, whatever its difficulties, did not require mass stockpiles of munitions.

Informed by these experiences, military planners appear to have been operating under the assumption that future wars would be short and containable. If China attacks Taiwan and the United States wants to come to the island democracy's aid, the Pentagon will not be prepared for a protracted war.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration has failed to learn from the war in Ukraine ... .

It was interesting, watching John Cornyn and Thom Tillis go through the ritualistic motions of a silly kabuki dance; one in which they pretended to accomplish something other than underscoring the standard Republican pattern of willingly performing acts of personal humiliation on Donald Trump's behalf. It was a bit sad, though, noting of the GOP's Senate Cowards' Caucus that even those claiming to possess standards to uphold and nothing to lose on their way out the door - other than future lobbying and corporate moolah - still feel compelled to harken to the sound of their master's braying.

Now that boom-boom supplies are down, down, down here comes shrieking for more, more, more at a ramped-up pace, as - coincidentally, of course - costs shoot up, up, up.

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Farewell Address
1/17/1961

Ka-effin-ching!

#6
Both funny (because it's funny) and newsworthy (because it's true). Life isn't all bad on the wrong side of that big neon "Jurassic Park" sign.

That the blame falls on Trump's slumped shoulders seems obvious.
After all, he started it.
It's Donald Trump's Forever & Ever War of Choice.
Come on, GOPers, puff out your chests: this is what you wanted and voted for.
And inflicted on your own nation.

"If the United States appears less powerful and less reliable than it once was and is running through munitions faster than it can produce them, many more countries will follow Ukraine's example. The Pentagon is belatedly ramping up its efforts to develop less expensive self-guided weapons. But those initiatives so far seem inadequate to address the problem that the war with Iran has revealed: a gap between America's military needs and what it is capable of manufacturing quickly and cheaply."

Unfortunately, the Trump administration has failed to learn from the war in Ukraine. Iran has learned to mass-produce cheap drones"ones that the Russians first imported and now produce themselves. In other words, their effectiveness had been tested, and their existence was widely known. But that seemed to make no difference to U.S. planners. Perhaps in the arrogant belief that a war with Iran would quickly end in a decisive victory, the Pentagon did not have cost-effective systems ready to intercept these weapons. Neither did the Gulf countries that have counted on American weaponry for their self-defense.

The "latest evolution of warfare" noted above:

Making America's challenge still more daunting is a major shift in war-fighting technology toward cheap, unmanned aerial vehicles. The United States and its allies in the Persian Gulf have been forced to use expensive, advanced air-defense systems"such as Patriot PAC-3 missiles that each cost millions of dollars and have a long production cycle"to shoot down Iranian drones that can be swiftly assembled for about $30,000.