"The lightning. It is good for you! Your father was Frankenstein, but your mother was the lightning!"
Ygor, The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

"I taught strategy at the Naval War College to military officers and senior civilians for a long time," Nichols writes. "The subject does not have a lot of hard-and-fast rules; wars share common characteristics but each conflict has its own peculiarities and exigent circumstances. One good guideline, however, is to avoid threatening your enemy and then immediately announcing that you really have no stomach for a fight. Strong leaders keep their own counsel and let their actions speak for them; weak leaders make threats and then broadcast how much they don't want to carry them out."

Tom Nichols points out:

The Trump administration, for its part, bumbled into this war without a strategy. Instead, it relied on bad assumptions, outdated information, and the president's gut feelings. It assumed"because the president wished very hard"that the Iranian regime would collapse quickly. Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (who encouraged Trump to go to war) ignored years of analysis and war-gaming from the military and the intelligence community, and then were caught flat-footed when the Iranians closed the strait and choked the international economy, the one thing everyone else in the world knew they would do. The administration has since tried to bomb its way out of this war, but without the ability to hold territory, the United States is now merely depleting its stocks of expensive ordnance to little strategic effect.

So I guess the president of my high school class should properly be addressed down at the Winn-Dixie as "Madam President"?

"Serpentine, Shelly! Serpentine!"

Well, AU, Terry Kiser is still around, and with him you get a twofer: Bernie Lomax and Vic "The Narcoleptic Comic" Hitler from Hillstreet Blues.

Darializa Avila Chevalier - fantastic NPR name

#3
Me, too, right up the walls whenever I hear it. Not sure when, how, or why it started but it's gotten way out of hand. When you're in office or actually holding a rank use of your job title is okay. But when you're out? Baby, you're o-u-t. You want to do it? Go for it. You don't? Please feel free to join me over at the lemonade stand. Same for standing up when so-and-so enters the room or makes their way to the dais. You want to show them some respect? Fine. You don't? Also fine. I mean, I would personally pick and choose because it can be taken as a hugely confrontational act by some people. But respect is earned. Rank and office are held and then they are not.

"Kaplan, in his order Wednesday directing the money to be disbursed to Carroll, pointed to the language of an agreement between her and Trump that called for the money to be given her if the Supreme Court denied his request that it hear his appeal of the verdict in her favor."

Now wait just a minute!?!?! Are you telling me I have to abide by an agreement I made?!? On what freaking planet does this kind of b#llsh##t happen?!?!
~ DJT
Aggrieved

These people, all parties, who hold positions of public trust - Jayzus, that sounds quaint - need to get their acts together. These offices are not intended to be lifetime sinecures. If you're not up to the job, get out before people show up to yank your sorry a## out of there. Get some goddamn dignity and root around for a sense of responsibility. You are not the office. Like Kean in NJ, someone clearly not temperamentally suited for public office, stop trying to explain and just get the ------ out.

Maybe.

The Republicans who control SCOTUS and Congress have made clear their role in this rolling disaster: they are, simply put, aiders and abetters, boot- and ars#-lickers who have absolutely no intention of doing anything that even remotely calls Trump to account.

This guy is giving us a bad rap.
~ The Sh#tenouse Rats

Ever at war with Eastasia..

The wet spot in his underwear from you not swallowing.
#30 | POSTED BY FORTFISHER AT 2026-07-08 01:38 PM | FLAG: The Voice of Experience

In Trump's increasingly grandiose, logorrheic, disconnected, and looping behaviors you behold the deteriorating mind of the broken-down salesman sitting alone in the gloom at the end of the crowded bar, staring into a half-empty glass, mumbling to himself.

Coriolanus, bookstore vet here. When paperbacks didn't sell we core the covers off and returned them to the publishers for credit. Coverless books were donated to prisons. Loved the job for that time, place, and stage of life.

Leon's been taking too much ketamine while reading too many comic books.

You're sure this isn't a simulation, right? Right, HAL?

We are introducing the MAGA Service Ribbon! It's a non-communist version of Overseas Service Bars that involves tattooing with red, white, and blue ink - liable to go sludgy green, so whatchit- and, for a small $1776 surcharge a pop, a drop of Rust-Oleum's Golden Sunset paint harvested hourly by loyal MAGAts from the Presidential KKKrapper. Remember: We can never squeeze you too hard and you can never give enough. Thank you for your attention to this matter. DJT (34 MAGA Service Bars - Eat your heart out, Byron Donalds!)

You'll probably remember Akim Tamiroff playing "Pablo" in the 1943 film of For Whom the Bell Tolls: "I don't provoke." Here's actor Nehemiah Persoff what recalling what happened when he, having subsequently been cast in the "Pablo" role in another production, shared a scene with Tamiroff while filming in NYC.

Expect no less from a bum who pleaded "no contest" to a felony theft charge.
Remember your MAGA values, kids: You're not a real MAGAt unless felonial behavior lands you in court.

Well done.
Beats bats in the belfry.

Vincent "The Chin" Gigante and the "Bathrobe Defense." Lol.

Just wait: Trump will end up blaming his monumental failures and felonies on Natalie "You're All That Matters To Me" Harp.

And a wiggle of the nose.

I think this is what the Republican regime considers a "Kavanaugh Killing."

That pair of over-the-hillerd appeared to be searching for the entrance to the legendary Elephants' Graveyard.