The headline is heartbreakingly eloquent.

This is so humiliating I almost feel bad for McCarthy.

This is no time for the faint of heart, RCADE.

"The ship is equipped with the latest hypersonic missile system " Zircon' " which has no analogues," Putin said before ordering it to begin combat service.

His word is his bond, so no worries.

With Trump, there's always an ugly new level.
Ugly new level same as ugly old level.
Just newer, uglier, and less on the level.

Cellphones? Sure, okay, got it. But whose bright idea was it to plant those recruits atop an ammo dump within spitting distance of HIMAR-armed Ukrainians? Here's a wild guess: someone who wasn't intending to spend New Year's Eve at that barracks.

Thanks for posting this with a link to the site in the article. I checked out two of the names and they're still there, the names on The Wall. Now with photographs, a horrifyingly graphic presentation very much akin to that June 1969 issue of Life featuring the 10-page "The Faces of the American Dead in Vietnam: One Week's Toll." One picture after another of the 242 Americans killed in the war over a single week. It was a gut punch. So is wandering through this site. Kudos to its creators.

PS: As for The Wall, first time I saw it was in winter, on a Sunday morning, the Mall cold and foggy. It seemed to rise up from the ground. And I thought, as I slowly walked up to it, curious and horrified. Reading the names, crying, I thought: what a pity LBJ, Robert McNamara, and a rotating crew of the war freaks who sat in their offices theorizing and playing with maps while unleashing so much misery couldn't be put to washing and polishing that edifice, day in, day out, on their goddamn knees using iron buckets of soapy water dabbed onto toothbrushes.

But wait, there's more! And when I snort "more," I mean moooore: a bonus Corinthian at no - that's no extra charge! Yessir, rubes, that's two for the price of one. But only if you hurry, hurry, hurry! Toot-toot.
~ Donald J. "Daddy Issues" Trump ... Junior.

#1
Nah, they call it "M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i." That's "Mizz-sippy," as in if Gawd hadn't given it to the United States there's a good chance Ol Scratch would've just kept it.

#67
SITZKRIEG

The examples you cite each featured a significant underestimation of the enemy's capabilities coupled with an unnecessarily high opinion about one's own prowess. To which, add either bad/no intel and/or a commander's refusal to believe what his outriders saw with their own eyes. While Napoleon had a point about audacity, there's much to be said for Sun Tzu.

I've been a fan of Fanone's style ever since I heard him respond to a question about what he might have to say to a seditionist who dragged him away from some of his wouldbe mirderers. Basically, "thank you for dragging me away and eff you for being there."

#63
Russia is hardly "fighting the entire NATO alliance."

Putin ordered an invasion of a neighboring nation and got bogged down for a number of reasons. That he evidently didn't give serious consideration to the possibility that NATO nations (not all and not even those participating in the effort doing so to equal degree) might decide to do something about pulling the plug on him is, well, nothing short of amazing.

And now? Well, the Ukrainians get some help attempting to repel the thug in the Kremlin and his orcish horde. The rest of us get some insight into whether/how some interesting Western weaponry actually works; you know, like, in the field under less than optimal conditions.

But, most of all, we are required to stand as witnesses, watching terribly desperate people in Ukraine fight for their very lives against Russian chauvinism and revanchism. And help is offered, because perhaps many people think the moment requires some serious behavioral modification for Putin, his cabal, and his enablers.

It's Groundhog Day!

#6
I thought it was a nosebag.

TWINPAC

I feel like I took a ride on the Wayback Machine and ended up at a particularly acrimonious high school student council meeting or an especially tedious Model UN session.

TWINPAC

Like you, I'm hoping Thompson has the bases covered. As for the unfolding circus in the House ... well, whew! It's both fascinating and depressing. Toot-toot, if you're a political junkie. And a deep downer when you realize just how far the Republican Party has fallen and just how potentially destructive these incompetent clowns are.

There really doesn't seem to be any erasing of history going on here. Think of historical commemoration, interpretation and observation as influenced by something akin to an Overton Window. AP Hill violated his oath to the Constitution and engaged in an armed revolt against the United States of America. Will that be "erased"? Not likely. But does the fetish folks in previous generations had for these people need to occupy a prominent place today, other than as objects suitable for study in, say, a museum? (A matter for discussion, to be sure.). My view is that unless that effigy of Little Powell commemorates him being so incapacitated by the clap that he needed to repeat his final year at West Point (there's a historical fact plus one of those solemn oaths of allegiance again), how on earth does that monument inform the present?

Die! Die! Die! [whimpers]
~ Gen. (Ret.) Edwin Spangler
Commandant
Martin Academy
Alabama

Lazy, pampered, whiney whites won't do a job a self-starting, self-respecting Black man who's not afraid of work happily accepts. Lol.

Come on, TWINPAC, you know darn well Who's on first base, What's covering second, third base has What's His Name, Why is way to hell and gone out in left field, center's where you'll find Because, with Tomorrow winding-up on the mound and Today flicking the pitches back, and, last but by no means least, we've got I Don't Care dancing away in the shortstop slot. Waaaay more organized than the GOP's Klown Kar.

But wait, there's more!
You can read it upside down, just like Cheeto Jeebus!
Hurry, hurry, hurry rubes, step right up ...

#41 "Russia is an indigenous power being broken and "civilized" by the Western Hegemon"

Wtf are you babbling about now?

#22
Isolated troll farmer mired deep in the motherland or towel taker at the Esalen hot springs? Quien sabe?

The concept of Wu-Wei calligraphy is applicable to art in general.
And worthy of deep respect.

There are, in any given electoral cycle theoretically 435 seats in the House up for grabs. Discounting seriously gerrymandered districts, you still have a lot of folks running for those seats. Local news could cover them, but there haint no local news of consequence that gets around much in most places anymore. So the media, always there to blame, covers what they can of candidates among the normals and especially within the population of freaks and geeks who garner clicks. At least the NYT finally got around to upping its game on the Santos story. (The WaPo is there, too, on this young reporters' gem of a story). You might even be forgiven if you're getting the feeling the NYT especially has a score to settle with this guy. Which they do, I guess, especially if they took him at face value (although that's also on them). There's enough lazy "research" getting done these days without a major newspaper like the NYT giving this mug a pass.

Of course, let's lay the blame where it really belongs: the Republican Party. You built this pile of trash. Don't whine next time reporters start digging in your compost heap. It's obviously a target-rich environment.