Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

I really should read my own blog.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

You are here: Home / 2019 / Archives for November 2019

Archives for November 2019

Repubs in Disarray Open Thread: Crowdstruck

by | 47 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

It could be worse, you could be a Republican (assuming you could drop 40 IQ points and every moral qualm)…

show full post on front page

Repubs in Disarray Open Thread: CrowdstruckPost + Comments (47)

DisOrder & UnDiscipline: An Out of Control E7, an Out of Control Fox & Friends Weekend Loud Mouth, and an Out of Order Chain of Command

by | 154 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , , ,

The Secretary of the Navy, Richard Spencer, has accepted being terminated (no one told me you could ignore that sort of thing, but what do I know…). His resignation letter is below.

At this point it is unclear what actually has transpired with Secretary Spencer’s termination. The initial reporting was that he’d made an end run around Secretary of Defense Esper, which led Secretary Esper to ask the President to fire him. In this recounting of events, Secretary Spencer is accused of going to the President and ensuring him that if the President let the Naval Special Warfare review board convened by Rear Admiral (RADM) Green, commanding admiral of Naval Special Warfare, play out, then Secretary Spencer would ensure that Eddie Gallagher would retire shortly at the rank of E7, as a member of the SEAL community/with his trident, and with his full benefits.

All of this occurred after several days of reporting that Secretary Spencer and RADM Green had made it clear that if the review process regarding Gallagher remaining a SEAL, as well as three officers in his chain of command at the time of the crimes he’s alleged to have committed, was not allowed to play out, then they’d both resign. This was quickly followed by Secretary Spencer stating he’d never made this ultimatum. So if you’re confused, that isn’t surprising. Until the all too predictable leaks occur over the next several days to fill out the narrative, we won’t really know how this all went down.

We do, however, know that a major problem here is that the President is, as usual, not listening to the people he actually hires and/or promotes into the positions to advise him on issues and manage those issues for him. This leaves the President susceptible to influence by those with their own agendas. In this case Gallagher himself, as well as weekend Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth. Hegseth hosted Gallagher this morning on the Sunday weekend edition of A Blonde with Two Boobs on a Sofa, D/B/A Fox & Friends Weekend. Hegseth honorably served in the US Army National Guard for 11 years, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, earned the rank of major (O4), and has basically been influencing the President’s views on the US military and the VA from both his weekend perch at Fox, in private meetings, and on calls with the President on the President’s unsecured cell phone (Estonia, if you’re listening, and we know you are…) since the President began his campaign. During his appearance with Hegseth this morning, Gallagher publicly went after his chain of command, especially RADM Green, accusing him of being derelict in his duty by trying to suborn the clear orders and guidance of the President, as Commander in Chief of the US military, regarding Gallagher’s case.

I cannot express not only how irregular what I’ve just recounted is, but how BATSHIT FUCKING INSANE it is as well! Serving US military personnel, and to a lesser extent DOD and the Service civilians (civil servants) do not speak to and/or engage with the news media unless it has been approved by the Public Affairs Officer at their command. And they certainly don’t go on a cable news talk show program and publicly accuse their commanding officers of being derelict in their duty and insubordinate. If you were wondering if Gallagher was a disciplinary problem waiting to happen and a real impediment to good order and discipline, wonder no more. What he did this morning should dispel any doubt. And if you were Gallagher and trying to show the review board and the commanding admiral that you weren’t either or both of these things, going on Fox & Friends Weekend and making these statements is a really stupid way to demonstrate that you’re not a problem child and a shitbird.

Even before Gallagher made himself the poster boy for an out of control culture within the SEAL and Naval Special Warfare community, Rear Admiral Green had already begun a commander’s strategic initiative to try to understand the problems that have developed within the Naval Special Warfare community’s culture and develop specific ways and means to address and correct them. His initiative is inline with those of GEN Clarke, the Commanding General of US Special Operations Command, who has instituted a similar strategic review. GEN Clarke, as well as RADM Green and GEN Clarke’s other subordinates at the Army, Air Force, and Marine special operations commands are rightly concerned that the corrosive nature of war, especially a war in it’s 18th year, that is poorly defined at the strategic level, and that is overly reliant on Special Operations at the tactical and operational levels, has done major harm to America’s Special Operations Forces. And the effects of the corrosion that this ongoing war has caused on US Special Operations culture and those within that culture needs to be assessed, analyzed, and understood so that corrective measures can be developed and put in place.

What we’ve seen with the way Gallagher behaves, obviously empowered because he feels that his advocates like Hegseth have the President’s ear and, therefore, the President has his back, is a very public example of the cultural corrosion that GEN Clarke, RADM Green, and their peers in the Special Operations community are concerned with. Just for his actions today, Gallagher should be facing an Article 15 hearing, popularly known as a captain’s or admiral’s mast, first thing tomorrow to answer for his public insubordination. What he did today on Fox & Friends should make whether he keeps his trident the least of his worries.

At this point, however,  I have no idea what is going to happen. RADM Green, GEN Clarke, ADM Gilday the Chief of Naval Operations, GEN Milley the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary Esper, and RADM (ret) Braithwaite, the announced nominee to be the next Secretary of the Navy all know by now they have both a good order and discipline problem and that the public face of that problem’s name is Gallagher, who thinks he’s untouchable. The President’s undue command interference in Gallagher’s trial and the post conviction handling of him as a personnel matter, as well as several other military prosecutions and disciplinary matters all involving accusations of or convictions for war crimes, has created a good order and discipline problem within the ranks. Leadership knows that if they don’t make an example of Gallagher, then any Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine who gets in trouble and can get to Hegseth or anyone else who has the President’s ear, has the ability to short circuit the military justice system. And unless that notion is quickly disabused, then good order and discipline is going to become nothing more than a hollow slogan. And this problem is as dangerous as the message the President’s interference in military justice for Gallagher and others sends both our allies and adversaries about the behavior that will be tolerated by the US military because it will be tolerated by the President of the United States. That makes our allies uncomfortable and provides aid and comfort to our adversaries by giving them seeming approval to conduct war however they like, regardless of the Law of Armed Conflict, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the Rules of Engagement for any specific operation.

Open thread!

Full disclosure: I served as a Senior Special Operations Fellow at SOCOM’s Joint Special Operations University from May through August 2015.

DisOrder & UnDiscipline: An Out of Control E7, an Out of Control Fox & Friends Weekend Loud Mouth, and an Out of Order Chain of CommandPost + Comments (154)

Recipe Exchange: Thanksgiving Food Coma, Anyone?

by | 47 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Spatchcock Turkey finish

It’s that time of year again here in the United States, when we sit around a large table, stuff our faces and argue politics and religions. Remember, the people you piss off at Thanksgiving are people you won’t need to buy Christmas gifts for in December.  ?

In anticipation of the big day, here are the links to all the Thanksgiving recipes and my still favorite way to roast a turkey. I prepped one last night, the hour-plus cooking time takes much of the stress out of turkey roasting. My Thanksgiving is going to be a bit different this year, so I wanted to make sure I had leftover turkey.

I’m also thinking this may be this year’s Christmas Eve party menu. We’ll see. And starting in December, I’ll be posting food gift recipes, just in time for your cookie platters and tins.

From 2015:

This is the only way I’ve been preparing turkey since my first attempt. The only thing I changed up from that first time I prepared it, I skip the metal rack and instead place the bird on a bed of carrots, celery and onion. With the shorter cooking time, the flavor needs the boost the roasting veggies add. The brown sugar not only helps brown the skin, it also adds a yummy, unexpected flavor.

Sometimes the scariest part of the Thanksgiving Dinner is the worry that the turkey will not turn out properly – undercooked, overcooked, dry, flavorless – and ruin the whole meal. I’ve cooked in bags, roasted, braised, fried, deboned – about everything but brine. I’m not a fan of brining. And still every year I worry.

This year I decided to try removing the backbone and flattening the bird, cooking it at a high temperature for a shorter cooking time. It was pretty foolproof, stress-free, and the bird turned out great.

BTW, my recommendation is to always get two smaller birds instead of one massive bird – you’ll have a much better outcome with shorter cooking times. Not to mention not having to worry about fitting a huge bird in the oven. We usually do an oven bird, then grill, smoke or fry another.

For this recipe, a good set of poultry shears makes quick work of removing the backbone. I prepped the bird yesterday, wrapped it up and refrigerated it. This gave me time to make a nice broth from the backbone, giblets and neck last night (see notes below) and make the cranberry sauce, because it’s always better the next day.

show full post on front page

Recipe Exchange: Thanksgiving Food Coma, Anyone?Post + Comments (47)

Your Daily Treason Update

by | 134 Comments

This post is in: 

Unethical and dumb is his brand, to be fair.

In other news, the White House has discovered that they were in on the cover-up:

A confidential White House review of President Trump’s decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal, according to three people familiar with the records.

The research by the White House Counsel’s Office, which was triggered by a congressional impeachment inquiry announced in September, includes early August email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds after President Trump had already ordered a hold in mid-July on the nearly $400 million in security assistance, according to the three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.

Woopsie! Apparently not everyone got the memo to use whatsapp. Obligatory Stringer Bell clip:

And then there is this:

The House Intelligence Committee is in possession of audio and video recordings and photographs provided to the committee by Lev Parnas, an associate of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who reportedly played a key role in assisting him in his efforts to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and Ukraine, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

The material submitted to the committee includes audio, video and photos that include Giuliani and Trump. It was unclear what the content depicts and the committees only began accessing the material last week.

That should be fun to listen to! Finally, I will not be happy until this motherfucker and his buddies Derek Harvey and Kash Patel are not only out of jobs, but doing time:

Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican member on the House Intelligence Committee, spent nearly $57,000 on a trip to Europe for him and his staff to allegedly investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, records show.

The figures seem to confirm allegations made by Lev Parnas—a Ukrainian-born American who worked as a “fixer” for Rudy Giuliani before being indicted on criminal charges—who said that he helped Nunes arrange meetings with various Ukrainian officials to dig up dirt on Biden.

Intelligence is a select committee, and the moment there is hard proof in the hands of the house, Pelosi should remove Nunes, as is her right.

I’m sure there is more, but that is just from this weekend.

Your Daily Treason UpdatePost + Comments (134)

Dear WaterGirl: Featuring… Featuring!

by | 47 Comments

This post is in: ,

It may be true that you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you do.

Recent changes/fixes:

  1. external websites automatically open in a new tab

Frequent Questions loosely taken from the Balloon Juice Mailbag (aka Site Feedback)

Dear WaterGirl,

Not to be rude, or anything, but what’s the point of Featuring?  Oh, hell, it’s Balloon Juice and we’re like family, so I’ll just say it straight up.  There’s the Featuring section, there’s View by Topic, and there’s the Category Bar at the top – aren’t they all pretty much the same thing?  Why do we have all of those? What were you thinking?  Were you even thinking?

Dear Thank You For Asking So Politely,

What’s the thinking behind Featuring?  For one thing, we want the featured items to be timely.

It’s ACA Open Enrollment, so David Anderson is linked under Featuring.  When Tom Levenson’s next book comes out, Tom will be featured.  But you don’t need to be a writer, or be nationally known, to be in Featuring. On the Road is featured right now, because we want everyone to be able to easily find their beloved On the Road posts until they learn the other easy ways to find them.

Featuring has a lot of potential, I think.  Any author, future or past, can be featured.  Any topic, any subcategory, or even sub-subcategory can be featured at some point, when the timing is right.

Besides the timeliness factor, we want to call attention to some of the fun and eclectic things we talk about here, or things you wouldn’t necessarily know about if you didn’t read every thread, every day. First up will surely be the addition of duck blogging, which makes it likely that one of the existing items will be swapped out.  But hey, it’s Penelope; we all have to make sacrifices for the greater good.

Dear WaterGirl,

What’s in Featuring right this minute?
How often will it change?
Is it the same as it was yesterday?
What about tomorrow?

Dear Wow, You Have a Lot of Questions,

There will typically be 5 links under Featuring at any given time.  John Cole is timeless, so I am making him stay there forever.  Translation: I told John that as Blog Lord, I thought he should always be in the #1 slot forever, and he grudgingly agreed.  Or, alternatively, John wasn’t paying any attention to what I was saying, which could mean that he has no idea that he agreed to that!  But I digress.

Aside from the timelines factor, Featuring will almost never include a top-level category; it’s intended to call attention to particular authors or to subcategories that are fun, or interesting, or that might never see the light of day otherwise, unless you happened upon them in a front page post.  But, because rules are made to be broken, there are two top-level categories under Featuring right now.

What’s in Featuring right this minute?  Check for yourself in the sidebar, under Featuring!

How often will it change?  Featured links (except John) will change over time, generally every month or so, but some will change in a hot minute based on what is happening around us.

Is Featuring the same today as it was yesterday?  No, it is not!  I swapped out “Impeachment Inquiry” and added the more specific “Impeachment Hearings”.  We had a hundred front page posts on the hearings, so it seemed appropriate.  I added “Dear WaterGirl” after several people repeatedly asked me to put website posts in an easy to find spot.  That will be swapped out once it’s no longer timely.

What will be in Featuring tomorrow?  We’ll have to see what tomorrow brings.

Dear WaterGirl.

I had so many questions, I couldn’t get them all in with my first letter!
Who gets to decide what’s in Featuring?
Who decides when it changes?

Dear Oh My Gosh, You Still Have More Questions!

This is perhaps best answered with a story.

For years, I had two dogs: Murphy, my cocker spaniel and AC, who looked like a big, black bear.  I have no idea where the name AC came from or how to spell it, because he was left behind when a coworker’s neighbors packed up the kids, the car, the cat, and the other dog – and drove off, leaving AC behind when they moved to California.  Bastards!  The least I could do was let him keep his name.

AC and Murphy would race down the hall when I threw the ball; it was anybody’s guess who would get to the ball first.  If AC got there first, sometimes Murphy would take the ball right out of AC’s mouth, and friends thought my cocker was the alpha dog.  Nope!  AC knew he was the big dog, and he didn’t need to prove it to anyone.  On the rare occasions when it really mattered to him, AC always got his way.

Cole is like my beloved dog, A/C, and I mean that as the ultimate compliment.  So who gets to decide what’s in Featuring?  I imagine that will be me, most of the time. With, I hope, input from all of you.  But when John has an opinion, I will surely know about it, and John is the big dog.

Dear WaterGirl,

What if I have a great idea for something that could be featured under, well, Featuring?  Do I have to keep it to myself, a potentially great idea that will never see the light of day?  That could be lost forever? That would be terrible!

Dear Funny You Should Ask,

I would love to hear your ideas!  Even if you post your suggestions in a comment, please make sure to also send an email message to my WaterGirl account at Balloon Juice.

THAT’S ALL THE LETTERS FOR TODAY.  I’LL CONTINUE TO DO THESE UNTIL EVERYBODY IS UP TO SPEED.

Dear WaterGirl: Featuring… Featuring!Post + Comments (47)

Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: The Way ‘Trump Nation’ Lives Now

by | 71 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

It would be funnier, if they weren’t so damned sad…

The SPLC’s take on organizer Harim Uzziel, “Hardcore American Patriot”.

Errol Webber, U.S. House candidate caught between the warring armies.

Award-winning closer on the full video!

Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: The Way ‘Trump Nation’ Lives NowPost + Comments (71)

Sunday Respite Open Thread: Food for the Soul

by | 27 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

 

They also had a piece on Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul pay-what-you-can restaurants. Denver has three pay-what-you-can cafes and Fort Colins has one.  I believe, SAME Cafe was the first successful model.

 

 

Speaking of food… I have a Thanksgiving recipe exchange planned for this evening. So stop by and bring your favorite family secret recipes.

Respite open thread

Sunday Respite Open Thread: Food for the SoulPost + Comments (27)