Democrats have been weaponizing the abortion debate and successfully turned it into a choice of either supporting women’s rights or stripping women of those rights. Having been subjected to the advertising onslaught in Virginia, the idiots that the Republican Party put in charge of campaigning have zero response to this.
Zero.
I saw NO effective counter ads, and the ads I did see were bland, “vote for me because I’m a veteran/good person” style ads. These are fluff and filler ads that don’t sway people.
Since Republican leadership can’t figure this out, I will humbly suggest the following ads that might help reframe the abortion debate:
Play a nice slow song, showing a mother cradling her baby. Now overlay a dark figure of (insert politician here) saying “If the baby is born after an attempted abortion, we’ll place it in a bucket and consult with the mother about what to do next.” Cue to a frame saying “We can all get behind protecting mothers and stop politicians from murdering babies.”
Show a black mother with two kids looking a little frazzled. A white lady in a suit walks up and asks if she needs help. She says yes, and the white lady recommends she abort her children in the future. Cue to a frame showing “40% of abortions are from black women. Let’s stop this racist practice. Make our politicians care about taking care of kids, not killing them.”
In the background show a woman and a man crying in a doctor’s office. Have the speaker voice say “Some couples want babies but just can’t have them. Instead of making adoption easy, politician (insert name) wants to kill off healthy babies.” Add a split screen showing another woman on a operating table crying. “Abortion creates two broken couples. We can all get behind expedited adoption laws to make them both whole again.”
This was just me daydreaming for an hour on actual, useful ads, plus a bit of time using these three scenarios when my pro-abortion friends bring up “women’s health” issues. I dated a young lady that had an abortion before I met her, and even 4 years later, she was still bothered by it.
Republican leaders lose on abortion because they refuse to roll up their sleeves and talk about the evils of abortion. Get off your stupid high horse and fight back. Talk about the genocide abortion is causing in the Black community. Push for expedited adoption rules and break the stranglehold the state bureaucracy has on adoption. Highlight the politicians that are totally cool murdering kids after birth. Yeah, its ugly, but Democrats are doing the same to you, and if you fail, millions of innocent children die, and part of that blood is on your hands.
BTW, the cute picture at the top: that’s the best Bing AI would generate. I tried to show a donkey holding a uterus, or put Planned Parenthood on the clinic, and the AI wouldn’t let me. One more sign that Satan is deeply entrenched in this debate.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.
Side note: The overwhelming majority of abortions (86%) are by single women, and a large chunk (nearly 40%) were from Black Americans.
Newsweek took a stab at writing an article about the recruiting crisis, titled “Americans Don’t Want To Fight For Their Country Anymore.” Like most of these articles, it hits the typical, overblown points (culture, war, economy, etc.) and missed some very important points (we lost Afghanistan, the eroded benefits, and the lack of job satisfaction because we promote morons as flag officers). It was another “blah” article I would normally skip, except when I breezed through it I found one gold nugget.
Eustice said that these sorts of culture war debates were unlikely to deter the military’s target generation who were “very open…to all sorts of different lifestyles.” But he added: “Some parents will be turned off by those things and maybe not endorse military service as much.”
“It’s usually a little bit of a challenge to get parents to be for it anyway,” he said. “They’re supportive of their military but would prefer it to be someone else’s child.”
Someone else’s kid.
Someone else paying the price for deciding to not win wars decisively. Someone else doing the dirty work. Someone else having the nightmares after traumatic experiences overseas. Someone else having the aches and pains from years of combat. Someone else having a difficult time connecting with their kids because they were deployed for so long. Someone else not being able to share stories because they are either classified or too raw.
Someone else should pay the price so I don’t have to. Someone else should get their kid to volunteer so I can vote for politicians that needlessly break these people in unnecessary wars. Someone else should be a Gold Star parent so that I can feel good about admirals and generals that prioritize killing babies over terrorists.
Veterans Day becomes a harder and harder day to truly celebrate every year. I know that people mean well when they thank me for my service, and I always reply “Just doing my job.” I know most people do care at least a little when they offer to pay for a meal, or offer me a discount at their business.
But it increasingly feels cheap because the American people continue to tolerate politicians and senior military leaders that put our military personnel in losing situations. Time and again we go somewhere with a half-baked plan because a politician won’t accept the realities of war, we get shot at, and then in the end, we spent a lot of money to make the CEOs of the military industrial complex wealthy, while too many parents grieved over their child being laid to rest. I understand the sacrifice when we go somewhere to win and stop the advance of evil. Are we really doing that in Syria? How did we not do that in Afghanistan?
This Veteran’s Day, I’d invite you to do something far more important than buying a meal. Start questioning our senior leaders in government about the overseas voyeurism. This is a problem on all sides of the political aisle. We wouldn’t have the recruiting problem we have now if we had actually won our nation’s wars. We wouldn’t be shelling out so much money in VA benefits if we didn’t break those veterans in the first place. And perhaps more than anything else, that would be the best gift you could give next year on November 11th.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.
Here are the rules for the 2nd season (1997) of the 1996 short season draft league.
How the league is to be played
We will be playing the 1997 season We will be playing under 1997 rules with two exceptions. There will be at least one interleague play to allow each player to play each other player at least one home and away series. There will be no wild cards.
The schedule
We will be playing an 80 game schedule with two series against each opponent.
2 Two game series vs interleague opponents
2 Three game series vs teams in the same league but different divisions
2 Four game series vs division rivals
One change in this season is that at least the final series of the season will be within the division
Frequency of games
There will be one series per week. This will make it easier to get in series vs division rivals and to prevent conflicts with my other leagues.
Number of teams
We will have a fixed number of teams 16.
Division setup:
2 leagues, 2 divisions in each no wild cards.
Trades and waivers.
After the fifth series of the season teams may trade. Any player on the current roster may be traded along with any of the first seven draft picks for the next season If a trade is made that increases a roster beyond the 40 man limit a player must be released before the next series is played. Any trades agreed will not be executed until all the teams involved have the same amount of games played.
Waivers takes place after the sixth series. Teams make waivers picked based on their current record and are made from the undrafted players not on rosters.. If a pick brings a Roster over 40 a player must be released or an injured player not on the DL must be placed there to make room.
Note:Any player who is planning to leave the league at the end of the season is encouraged NOT to trade as it is unfair to both the other teams and the player who will replace him or her.
NEW DRAFT TRADE WINDOWS
Pre-Draft Trade window:
There will be a 48 hour window before the formal draft where trading will be allowed.
Any player on the roster (rookie or retained player) may be dealt along with drift picks up to the 7th round at this time.
Only draft picks for the upcoming draft will be tradable.
The trade window will end 15 minutes before the start of the formal draft to allow for any updates to lists to be recorded before the start.
Draft Day Trading up or down window.
At the end of each round there will be a 10 minute window for rosters to be adjusted and all the paperwork to be done.
For the first five rounds of the draft During those 10 minutes teams will be allowed to Trade. NO PICKS BEYOND THE 7th ROUND ARE TRADABLE
Early Waivers:
Teams who drop out of the draft early (before round 26 season) can qualify for Early Waivers
Early waivers begin after week 1 and end after week 4
Players who leave the draft before round 30 may pick early waivers after week 4
Players who leave the draft before round 29 may pick early waivers after week 3
Players who leave the draft before round 27 may pick early waivers after week 2
Players who leave the draft before round 26 may pick early waivers after week 1
During Early Waivers the following rules apply
Players may choose up to two players
Order depends on when the player left the draft the earlier you left the higher you are in the order
If two teams picking early waivers left the same round the team who drafted later in the base draft has priority
Unlike regular waivers teams with a worse record can’t “counterclaim” you get who you pick.
The DL:
The DL WILL count toward your roster but to make up for it we will have a maximum 40 man roster. We will still only draft 30 but players may expand their rosters to 40 via trade and waivers.
Playing Games.
All games must be completed before the next scheduled series. the Dynasty system will take over and auto play any games that are not completed one hour before the next scheduled game (even if said unfinished game is in progress) Players are encouraged to use the chat room and the Dynasty message system to reschedule games if needed and are also encouraged to make a manager profile in case a game has to autoplay. Instructions on how to do that are here.
Be aware that if you have your team on AUTO and your opponent requests a rescheduled in the system Dynasty will automatically allow it so keep this in mind when or if you turn auto on. Also be aware if both team are on auto and you reschedule the game will be played automatically so make sure your team is not on auto before you do this. I also suggest when you go on auto if you plan on playing your next series make certain you checked off the “take off auto before the next series” button.
Expansion
This league will NOT have expansion. It is designed as a short season to contrast with the 1969 league and to give me an easy schedule to make. If you want a longer season and / or a bigger league check out my 1969 league currently playing 1971.
Selecting a franchise:
Players picked from existing franchises keeping two batters and two pitchers the rest go in the draft
Franchise locations and parks
Every team is presumed to have the park their team played in during the season they entered the league.
Franchises whose teams move in real life are not required to relocate their teams. So the Montreal Expos are not required to move to Washington but they retain the option to do so at the start of any season but such a move must be announced by draft day.
Franchises are NOT required to build new stadiums and my continue to play in their old stadiums if they wish. So Houstony can stay in the Astrodome if they wish but they retain the right to move into Minute Maid park at any time If a team chooses to move into their new park in the same city the old park is considered demolished and no other team may use it from that point on.
A team may NOT move into a park that in a different city because the Dynasty system bases the weather on the park used NOT the city that a team’s label claims it is in. .Example from the 1971 league: If the Seattle Pilots want to play in Country Stadium they MUST move to Milwaukee
A team may NOT move into a park in the same city that belongs to a future franchise. Example from 1971 league: If the Seattle Pilots choose to remain in Seattle rather than move to Milwaukee they may NOT move into the Kingdome because it is reserved for the Mariners franchise when it becomes available.
Old parks
A team MAY move into an old park from the same city under the following conditions:
The park was once the home park of the franchise OR
The franchise that once owned the park is now located in another city
You or the previous owner of the team in this league did NOT move the team out of the park.
Examples,
the Seattle Pilots move to Milwaukee the Mariners if taken MAY move into Sick Stadium.
The Cardinals may move into sportsman park because it was once their old stadium.
Both the Yankees and the Mets may move into the Polo Grounds because the park is in NY and both teams were once based there.
Franchise Moves and or Replacement players or teams
A player may decide to take a different franchise after playing one season under the following rules
The player who movies will get the city and park of the new franchise at once but will NOT get the rookies for said new Franchise until the season AFTER the move
Example: Boston decides to move to California after the 2010 season. he does NOT get the rights to Mike Trout but retains the rights to any RedSox player who has their first card in 2011. If Boston makes the move to California in 2009 then after keeping the Boston rookies for 2010 in 2011 Mike Trout is his as a rookie (see rookies below)
If due to circumstances in the real world a player has to temporarily drop out of the league their team will be put on auto until a substitute can be found. Said substitute shall take over the team and play games until the original player can return but may not make trades or drop players from the roster (excepting for injury).
If at the end of the season the base player can’t return the substitute has first rights to the team and gets full control over it.
If a player has to drop out permanently the team will go on auto until a substitute or replacement player can be found. Said player will get full rights to the franchise unless they declare that they will only be a substitute till the end of the season.
If no replacement player is found during the season a new player will be recruited for the next season. Said player will retain the franchise and draft picks of the player he is replacing. If said new player wishes to move the franchise he can per the limitations listed above, namely he retains the rookies of the current franchise for his first season and then get the rookie rights to the new franchise the following year.
Example The Yankees drop out of the league due to illness. A substitute is found to play their games. The sub places the games until the Yankees recover. If they do not recover sufficiently to return to the league the substitute may over the Yankees franchise permanently
Example 2: A replacement player is found for the Yankees in the above example but is a big Texas fan. Said substitute can move their franchise to Texas but will retain the Yankees rookies for the 1998 season. Starting in 1999 they will have rights to Texas rookies.
Rookies
A “Rookie” is define as any player who did not have a card for the previous season.
A rookie is considered to be part of the team listed on their card regardless of who they actually played their first game for (Dynasty lists cards based on who a player finishes a season with thus any rookie that was traded by an MLB team in his first season will have their card listed for the team they were traded to NOT the team they played their first game with.
All teams retain rights to their rookies prior to the draft and rookies for a franchise are not eligible to be drafted in any expansion draft.
A Rookie becomes a part of a team after said team names their protected players for the draft. They count toward the 35 man roster
Any team that doesn’t want to retain a rookie may release them before the draft to open up a roster spot but once release all rights to said player are surrendered.
Players retained list
At the end of a season teams may retain a number of players based on their finish in the previous one The players retained list for 1997 is
World series winner 4 players (Florida, OR Boston, OR Toronto)
World series runner up 5 players (Florida, OR Boston, OR Toronto)
Division winners that don’t go to the series 6 players (San Diego, Boston OR Toronto)
Teams with the 5th and 6th best records that didn’t win a division 7 players (Houston, Cincinnati)
Teams with the 7th and 8th best records 8 players (St Louis, Chicago White Sox)
Teams with the 9th and 10th best records 9 players(Yankees, Baltimore)
Teams with the 11th and 12th best records 10 players (Atlanta, Seattle)
Teams with the 3rd and 4th worst records 11 players (Pittsburgh, Los Angeles)
Teams with the worst and 2nd worst record 12 players (Cleveland, Minnesota)
Once the AL Pennant winner and world series are complete this list will be updated.
Rookies do not count toward the keeper list total.
As soon as all the keeper/rookies are finalized the draft day will be set. A minimum of one week wait will be given to make sure people can check out the cards the 1997 cards are here:
NOTE: 1 For teams with identical records we go to the tiebreakers
Head to head record the team with the worst head to head record is considered to have the worst record.
How many games behind the players were in their division. A team closer to a playoff spot his considered to have the better record.
The best record in their division.
The best record in the league
Dice Roll, high roll is considered the team with the better record.
NOTE:If a player on your current Roster does not have a card for the next season due to injury, military service etc but WILL the following year a team may choose to retain the rights to said player but will have to spend a protected spot for it and will have to keep a space for him all season.
Example: Rheal Cormier was out the entire 1998 Season. If a team has him after the 1997 season and wants to keep him they can choose to hold his rights when his season ends and keep a roster spot for him. He will play 1998 with 39 players and in 1999 will hold the rights to Cormier.. If at any time he chooses to release him Cormier will be considered a rookie for Boston because
He had no card the previous year
No team held his rights
His 1999 card says “Boston”
The draft order of teams for each season will be based on their finish the previous season. Any team that is not retained will of course not be drafting BUT If a team holds the draft pick of a team that is no longer in the league he will draft those picks as if that team was still in the league in the round that he holds them.
Worst team (12) Cleveland Indians
2nd worst team (12) Minnesota
3rd wort team (11) Pittsburgh (head to head vs Min)
4th worst team (11) Los Angeles
5th worst team (10) Atlanta (Fewer GB than LA)
6th worst team (10) Seattle
7th worst team (9) Yankees (Fewer GB than Sea)
8th worst team (9) Baltimore
8th BEST team (8) St. Louis
7th Best team (8) Chicago White Sox
Team with the 2nd Best record that didn’t win a division (7) Cincinnati
Team with the best record that didn’t win a division (7) Houston
Division winner not in WS with worst record (6) Boston OR Toronto
Division winner not in WS with best record (6) San Diego
World series loser (5) (Toronto, Boston OR Florida)
Word series winner (4) (Toronto, Boston OR Florida)
NOTES
Tiebreakers are the same for the keeper order
The 2nd tiebreaker if teams had identical records AND split their season series is draft order for the previous season
The pick order of traded picks remain the same even if a team is replaced.
Examples: If San Diego traded the NYY their 3rd round draft pick last season but are not an active team in 1997 then during round 3 the Yankees would get a pick in the sport where SD would have been had they played..
When all teams have drafted that will be considered the end of a round and the next round will commence.
Teams WILL continue to draft in this order until:
Round 30 OR
A team reaches 40 men OR
A team with 25 or more players on their roster voluntarily drops out
Once a team has dropped out of the draft they may not re-enter it. If they have less than 40 men the can only increase their roster either through trades or waivers.
The Formal & InformalDraft.
Formal Draft & Designated Draft day(s):
A date and time will be set for the initial rounds of the draft. It will almost certainly be a Saturday or Friday as those are the days I have off. Because my schedule is full from Thanksgiving to Christmas this may be delayed. If/When a designated draft day is set All teams will be expected to be either:
Available in the slack chat room (preferred)
Available by phone
With me in my home at the time of the draft
Have a list of players to be drafted submitted
All currently players are presumed to have looked over the card(s) for 1997 online or at least looked up stats by draft day. All teams are encouraged to start doing so at once.
There will be one designated draft day per week.
On a designated draft day a strict 5 minute limit will be allowed to make a pick.
If a team misses their pick will be moved to after the next player on the list who will be considered on the clock and allowed to pick. Example: Cincinnati misses their pick and Houston is next, Houston is allowed to pick and Cincinnati picks after them
If a team who has been skipped has to be skipped twice their pick can be made any time before the end of the round. Example Cincinnati is scheduled to pick 11th They miss their pick If they figure out who they want they can make a pick or submit a list any time before the end of the round and that pick will be valid.
If a team that has been skipped has not picked by the end of the round then a pick will be made for them by me. Said pick will be the player from your franchise who played the most games that season based on their card. Example: Boston does not pick or submit a list for round 5 I will look at the Roster for the actual 1997 red sox to see who is available. If John Valentin has the most game played among unpicked players he will be Boston draft pick. If Boston already has 2 shortstops that will not matter Valentin becomes the pick.
As soon as a round ends there will be a ten minute period to update the rosters and lists and confirm players were put on the right team. During that period draft day trades may be made (see above)
The opening Scheduled draft days will go on for 100 picks. Other scheduled draft days will be 60 picks. Once the number of picks is reached the clock is turned off
The Formal Draft generally begins at either 11 am or 1 pm EST to give west coast folk the time to be awake. Be aware that if you are scheduled to pick
BE AWARE THAT EVEN WITH A FIVE MINUTE LIMIT THAT CAN MEAN 80 MINUTES FOR 16 TEAMS TO PICK IN ONE ROUND. PLEASE DO YOUR BEST TO PREPARE FOR THE DRAFT TO CUT DOWN ON THE TIME REQUIRED. The more prepared everyone is the faster things will go.
Picks off the clock and on non-draft days
As soon as the initial draft ends the “informal draft” begins
During the informal draft a team has 24 hours to make a pick. Picks can be submitted in the draft room or via the Dynasty message system or in person if the person picking is local or via the phone to me. If there is an existing list from the formal draft it will be used to continue the informal draft.
Once the pick is made and recorded on the draft sheet and the player moved to the roster I will announce the pick in the slack chat room and inform the person up, the person on deck and the person in the hole to be prepared to pick. Until you see that announcement the pick is not official.
The Informal draft ends when:
Round 30 is complete OR
The next formal draft begins
The informal draft resumes after any formal draft that doesn’t reach round 30.
Be aware that trading can be made at any time during the informal draft until:
round seven is complete
15 minutes before a formal draft that has not completed round 7
IMPORTANT: Once round seven of the draft is complete trading is finished until the end of week 5 of the season.
The season will begin one week after the draft is complete.
Game Play Etiquette:
Given the weekly nature of the game it should be not difficult to get games in on time or at least get series started but here are some basic guidelines.
If you know in advance you can’t play on the scheduled game day and time try to contact your opponent to arrange a different time both through the chat room and the dynasty system.
If gameday comes and your team is on AUTO your scheduled opponent should assume they can play all or part of their series if they choose.
If gameday comes and you haven’t heard from your opponent check your “Friends” list to see when the last time they signed on was. If it is 10 days or more then play the series vs the PC
If gameday comes and you haven’t heard from your opponent give him or her at least two five minute waiting periods before letting the computer take over the team
On occasions when you and your opponent are in touch but just can’t seem to find a time when both are available I make the following suggestion.
The player who shows up on gameday should play one game (2 game series) or two games (3-4 game series) against the pc.
When those games are finished exit the system and put yourself on Auto being sure to check the “Take my team off auto after this series”
Then your opponent can finish the series as his or her time permits
Keep in mind that the Dynasty system is designed to keep games moving the default position should always be to get games played when possible.
If you have any questions not covered here please let me know.
Update: Casual / Informal draft now gives people 24 hours to make a pick or provide a list before the rules of the timed draft apply.
If you are interested in joining this league or going on a waiting list to join leave a comment on this post or contact me via the Dynasty system.
The incessant whining about Senator Tuberville is just non-stop these days, but a recent article in the Marine Corps Times absolutely takes the cake for the sheer hypocrisy shown concerning the Senate approval process.
First, we start with good news: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer decided to…wait for it…bring a vote on Lt Gen Christopher Mahoney to the Senate to confirm him as the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps.
But wait! Didn’t that dirty, mean, America-hating Senator Tuberville have a hold on all nominations? Of course, the answer is no, and as I pointed out many times in the past, all Senator Tuberville has done is make the Senate follow its own rules and not shortcut the nomination approval process, since the DoD decided to focus on killing innocent American babies instead of protecting the country from foreign threats. He even voted in favor of General Mahoney, and the heads of the Air Force and Navy. The Marine Corps Times, after a few paragraphs, finally admits the truth:
That’s because since February Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, has refused to confirm senior military nominees through unanimous consent, in protest of a Pentagon policy covering time off and travel expenses for service members who travel out of state for abortions.Tuberville has argued that the military’s leadership gaps aren’t his fault and that it’s on the Pentagon to reverse its abortion policy or the Senate Democrats to hold individual roll-call votes on nominees. Democratic leaders estimated in September it would take 100 days of nothing but holding votes 8 hours a day to confirm what were then 273 nominees.
-Marine Corps Times
Reverse your illegal policy or else I’ll make you vote in accordance with existing rules?
Just a thought…if your rules make it hard to do work, you might want to fix the rules. Even better, maybe you reduce the vast number of generals and admirals, most of whom are totally worthless anyway and don’t contribute to the success of the military.
But the Marine Corps Times just can’t let it go, they have to come out against the evil Senator, so they fixate on an interview with the Commandant in September where he complained that his schedule was not sustainable, and he was only getting five hours of sleep a night.
From Bing AI image generator
5 hours of sleep!! The horror!!!
My brother in Christ, I have 5 children at home, and my wife and I are lucky if we get five hours of sleep a night. More importantly, generals and admirals have been telling junior Marines, soldiers, Sailors and airmen to pull long hours since…well, at least since I’ve been in, and probably before that. Anytime someone brings up sleep studies or the negative effects of not getting enough sleep, that person is chastised as a whiner. Will anyone do that to Smith?
Probably not, since he’s in the hospital. While Senator Tuberville did say he was praying for Smith’s recovery, he also, correctly, called out the nonsense remark on X:
“This guy is going to work 18-20 hours a day no matter what. That’s what we do. I did that for years.”
Or, more likely, they still don’t care, and they just want to score some cheap political points, because mean Senator Tuberville is asking hard questions about abortion that these so-called leaders don’t like answering.
If you’re not willing to answer hard questions, or (gasp) maybe rescind your illegal policy that murders innocent babies with taxpayer dollars, then perhaps you shouldn’t be in a leadership position.
Don’t whine about the systems you built. Generals Mahoney and Smith created the Marine Corps they now lead, and it apparently promotes a terrible sleep schedule. Well fellas, you own it. You made it over the past 20 or so years. You don’t get to complain about it. Same goes for the Senate…you made nominations hard, and you created hundreds of flag officer positions, so don’t whine when you have to actually review these people and follow your own rules.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.
It’s no surprise that many American kids are part of the “boomerang” generation, moving back in with their parents in their mid to late 20s. Rising housing costs and student debt load, coupled with a low inventory of cheap starter homes makes it hard to make it on your own. Even 18 years ago when I had to find housing on my own for the first time, I purchased a house and had to rent two of the three bedrooms to friends to make it economically feasible.
Generated by Bing AI
It’s tempting to say the current generation of 20-somethings is lazy and just doesn’t want to leave, and even more tempting to say it’s an American thing. Too many people just assume that Americans, on average, are lazier and fatter than your average European, Indian, Chinese, or other ethnic population. But I’ve traveled the world quite a bit, and I’ve found that is often not the case.
The 75-year-old mother, whose name has not been publicly released, made several unsuccessful attempts to persuade her sons, also unnamed, to move out of her home in Pavia in northern Italy, the news agency reported. Despite having jobs, the men —aged 40 and 42 — refused to find alternative accommodation of their own, ANSA said. They also refused to contribute to household expenses despite having their own incomes and failed to help out with household chores, per ANSA.
Insider.com
I mean, dang…42 years old and has a job? Talk about a freeloader! This article sparked my curiosity on what the average age of moving out in Europe is, which apparently varies widely by country:
The EU average is around 26, and the US average is….24-27, with 78% of kids 27 and older not living in their parents house. The only weird outliers in Europe is Sweden, where it appears to be strongly encouraged to leave the house at 18 no matter what.
Interestingly enough, even when kids in America move back into their parent’s house, it’s not for long, as almost 40% of them moved back and then out again before the age of 27. My guess is for every loser son or daughter that is staying at home and not contributing, there are 10-20 kids simply saving money with the plan to move out, and are grateful for their parents help, and compared to Europe, they are doing slightly better than the European average.
Let’s not jump onto the “American 20-somethings are adult babies” bandwagon…the kids might be alright after all.
…when you realize you got exactly what you voted for.
This a reference to this article about “progressive” Jews complaining that their “progressive” left-leaning friends are totally, 100% OK with Hamas fighters butchering Jews in Israel. The article is essentially a “we didn’t see that coming” list of complaints.
My first thought was…wah?
Seriously, I’m tired of the “nice person” argument, which goes along the lines of “I voted for/supported these people that I thought were nice, while ignoring all the obvious red flags.”
All the progressive Jews that supported left-leaning losers who are siding with murderous Hamas militants…you got what you voted for.
All the progressive “Christians” who were shocked when the pro-abortion people they supported were totally cool with infanticide and murdering babies in a bucket after birth…you got what you voted for.
All the “mean tweets!” whiners that are now shocked we have two large, open conflicts within a few hundred miles of each other and involving major nation states…you got what you voted for.
You can whine about conservative candidates at the local, state and federal level, and you can vote for the left-leaning candidate because it makes you feel good in the moment…but it has consequences. The conservative politicians might not be polished (or maybe the news media is altering their coverage), and he or she might demand some responsibility in spending or enforcing the law, but we’re seeing what happens when people continually pick the politicians that sound nice on paper. We get murdered babies, both in the womb and out of it. We get wars that we either choose to lose or can’t really win. And we get encouragement towards all our enemies to take actions, whether its kidnapping Americans or shooting missiles at US Navy ships.
Those same people will come back and demand that the responsible politicians fix the mess. And after those people do, the same people will forget and vote again for losers that sound nice on paper.
It’s like the story of the ant and the grasshopper, where the ants stored up food for the winter while the grasshopper played a fiddle and gaffed off, only to then beg the ants feed him in the wintertime. I always hated that story as a kid, because I thought the ants should have let the grasshopper freeze to death. I mean seriously, he’s like 100 times their body weight. He’s gonna eat you out of house and home! Screw that lazy bug, let him die in the cold.
Those of us who did the “uncool” thing and worked responsibly, supporting things like balanced budgets, protecting life and being strong overseas to stop wars, we are tired of bailing you out. Don’t cry to me that “you didn’t know” your left-leaning friends would throw you under the bus. Just like the grasshopper living it up in the good times, you’re only complaining now in hopes of finding a free meal at someone else’s doorstep.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.
Armed Forces Brewing Company Tap Room, from their website
I don’t think too much about Civic Leagues, since the one for my neighborhood isn’t very active. I’ve spoken at some before in nearby neighborhoods, and most seem pretty tame, simply trying to connect people with their local officials and help the cops keep better track of crime.
Then there is Norfolk. Because Norfolk always seems to do something stupid, and in this case it was to not recommend that Armed Forces Brewing Company open a taproom in their city.
Was it because AFBC was bringing alcohol to a residential neighborhood? Nope. The location previously hosted O’Connors Brewing.
Was it because AFBC tried to use bad paperwork, bribes and other tactics to flout the rules? Nope. None of those shenanigans seemed to take place.
Civic League people were mad about statements made by AFBC spokesman Rob O’Neill. According to Joe Hamm, the vice president of the League, these were really bad!!!
“So a business that comes in and has insinuations of threats and violence, intimidation through guns in their marketing, does not align with our vision for having a healthy neighborhood and healthy city,” Hamm said.
Threats and Violence!! And using guns in their marketing!?! Better not tell the US Navy to use any guns in its marketing…but I digress. What did Rob say that was so bad?
Alright. The U.S. Navy is now using an enlisted sailor Drag Queen as a recruiter. I’m done. China is going to destroy us. YOU GOT THIS NAVY. I can’t believe I fought for this bullshit.
Uhm….sure, you may disagree with his statement, but is it violent? I don’t see Rob calling on people to kill anyone, certainly not any drag queens. I scrolled through Rob’s feed, and while he’s brash and swears a bunch, I didn’t see him once suggesting someone be killed.
Meanwhile, supporting Palestinians and BLM supporters that ACTUALLY hurt and/or killed people is totally fine.
Did people grow up to become huge wimps, or are they calling “violence” on purpose whenever they hear someone say something they don’t like?
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.
The latest Star Wars movies and TV shows suck. I watched Episode 7 with my son on opening night, and while I gasped along with everyone when Han Solo died, I was left wanting. At the time, I said “Man, Rey seems a bit overpowered and kinda dull.”
Well, she only got more overpowered and dull as the series went on. The Ahsoka TV series is, sadly, the same way. Now I should mention I love the character of Ahsoka that was built up in the Clone Wars animated series. She started off as a kinda-snotty little kid, and I didn’t care for her attitude, but when she lost a bunch of clone troopers by not following orders, as a military officer, I felt very much in her shoes. She grew on me as the seasons went on, becoming a more interesting character that worked hard to overcome her flaws. When she went on trial and was kicked out of the Jedi Temple, only to be found innocent and eventually offered to be readmitted, I shed a tear when she rejected the offer and walked away. She was a cool character with believable motivations and a character arc I enjoyed following.
I liked her so much I purchased her light saber set while at Disney, and they hang up in my office. So when Disney announced an Ahsoka series, I was thrilled, and quite willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.
And sadly, I wasn’t happy.
Ahsoka is nowhere near as interesting in the TV series as the Clone Wars. By far the best character is Baylan Shen, with Ahsoka a distant second, and almost everyone else far from that.
So I wondered, why is Ahsoka, a character I’m already primed to like, so bad? I think it boils down to two things:
People taking dumb actions
No consequences for the “good guys”
Weak bad guys with poor motivations
Let’s start with dumb actions. The season opens with two dark jedi, Baylan Shen and Shin Hati, requesting to come aboard a New Republic jail vessel. The ships commander thinks their transmitter is fraudulent, so he personally plans to meet the ship with a security detachment and arrest them. Obviously, this goes horribly wrong, and Baylan and Shin lay waste to everyone and rescue a prisoner on the ship.
How many ways is this wrong? First, if you suspect a ship has ill intentions, why don’t you BLOW IT AWAY AT A DISTANCE??? Nobody, and I mean nobody, in the military wants to get close to the enemy if they have a safe way of killing them at a distance. This decision makes no sense and we’re only 10 minutes into the episode.
Then the captain brings a security detail with no armor and light weapons, which they don’t even have pointed at the ship. Baylan walks right up and gets within arms length of the captain, and nobody thinks this is a bad idea?? If you were to walk up to a military gate looking even remotely suspicious, you’d have at least one pistol trained on you. How are the guards not nervous and on-edge? Why would they let a potentially dangerous person, or at least a person that they don’t know anything about, get within choking distance of their captain?
None of this makes sense. It’s totally illogical and used to drive the plot forward. It would be more believable if Baylan snuck onboard, or boarded stealthily, or hired a band of pirates to hijack the ship. You’d still get a cool fight scene, and it would make far more sense. We get illogical decisions all throughout Ahsoka: stormtroopers don’t shoot at Ezra on site, robots trying to steal a map decide to try and blow it up instead, etc. etc. etc. None of these actions make sense, and it makes the show feel cheap.
There are never consequences for the good guys. Sabine runs off with the mystical map and eventually takes a lightsaber to the gut, but then she’s fine at the beginning of the next episode. Somehow a magic laser sword that CUTS THROUGH HARDENED STEEL only leave a tiny mark when its rammed into your stomach. Like, really? I don’t believe that at all.
Protagonists have to suffer consequences or else the audience doesn’t get invested in them. Look at Tony Stark in Iron Man. He’s a playboy millionaire in the beginning of the movie, banging hot chicks while riding around in limousines. And then in the first half hour of the movie, he gets captured, tortured, hooked up to a battery, and has to build his way out of a mess. Along the way, he loses a friend that is a far more ethical and moral person than him, all because Tony wasn’t strong or fast enough to save him. It’s heart wrenching. We got from thinking Tony’s a total loser to rooting for the guy to punch terrorists on his way out of a cave.
More importantly, consequences have to be permanent. Tony Stark has metal shards that must be held outside of his heart. He turns this otherwise bad turn of events into a power source for a suit to do good. He uses his bad consequences to grow and become a better person in the end. But Sabine, Ahsoka and Ezra never do. Nothing is permanent. Lightsaber gut stabs, isolation in another galaxy, getting knocked off a cliff…nothing permanently damages our heroes. They are never in danger, and thus they never need a reason to grow.
Lastly, our bad guys are weak. Grand Admiral Thrawn in the Timothy Zahn books is amazing. He’s cunning and smart. He takes over planets through trickery. He rebuilds the Empire. He defeats enemies by studying their art and understanding them as a person. Thrawn always has a plan B. He’s like Bismark, always scheming, always taking advantage of the situation, always one step ahead.
Thrawn in Ahsoka? Not imposing at all. Why even be scared of him? He lays mines for space whales…that fail. He uses some mystical Night Sister magic to try and ambush Ahsoka…which fails. He sends his troops to kill Sabine Wren and Ezra…fails (why didn’t he kill Ezra earlier, btw??). He’s not imposing. None of this plans come off.
In less than 15 minutes in Star Wars: A New Hope, Darth Vader lifts a dude in the air and chokes him to death. He is imposing and downright frightening. He never loses his cool, and he ALWAYS wins, right up till his last fight with Luke and the Emperor. He’s imposing, intimidating, and when he is finally defeated, we all sigh in relief at how HARD he was.
Thrawn in Ahsoka? Or even Thrawn in Rebels? Lame. It’s not significant when our heroes beat him because he’s just not imposing.
I wish Disney would stop focusing on “ooooo oooo we’ve got a female character!!” and instead build us cool protagonists and scary villains that interact in a cool setting with an intriguing story. That’s what we need now more than ever.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.
There was a time I truly believed that the Admirals in the Navy cared about Sailors and were smart enough to run the Navy efficiently and effectively. Early in my career I worked in an Admiral’s office, for a person who I grew to admire and felt could effectively fight our adversaries and win.
Nowadays, I can’t find a single Admiral that I would want to follow into battle. None. I’ve seen firsthand how our current Admirals obsess over minute details on PowerPoints that don’t matter, refuse to hold civilian employees accountable, and grossly abuse the military justice system. These so-called leaders got away with this gross mismanagement by running the infrastructure built up by previous generations into the ground. Well, that infrastructure is finally crumbling, with Navy buildings and ships rusting and rotting away, and the young people that once manned those buildings and ships leaving in droves. The Navy will miss its recruiting goals by 7,000, and you would think that would cause Navy leadership to think about all the surveys in the past that pointed to straightforward ways to improve the Navy.
According to Franchetti, it will take “years” for the Navy to recover from these promotion delays, which have resulted in acting commanders leading Naval Surface Forces, Naval Air Forces, the U.S. Naval Academy, among other commands.
“As we look right now, our Navy is facing challenges all around the globe, threats from our adversaries,” she said. “We want to have the right people with the right level of experience in those positions. And as we continue to not have the confirmed people that we’ve nominated with that experience, we’re going to continue to see an erosion of readiness.”
It’s going to take “years” to recover from promotion delays? You mean delaying promotions of all the people that screwed up the Navy so far? That caused us to decommission ships from 2016? That broke our shipyards and crews? That continue to IA Sailors even today, so that they don’t get a shore duty break from arduous sea duty?
Never mind that the SOLE REASON for the hold on nominations was the DoD pushing commands to spend travel money (your taxpayer dollars) on abortion. ADM Franchetti fails to address that issue, and instead makes blatantly false statements about the effects of delaying promotions.
Which, BTW, aren’t delayed. The Senate could proceed and vote on each one individually, but that would open these people up to questioning about their past records…something most of them don’t want to do. Pesky Senators might ask “Hey Admiral, why did you run our shipyard into the ground?” or “Why did you make openly racist statements in the name of DEI policy?” These questions are pertinent, relevant, and totally undesired by today’s Admirals.
If you can, please write to your elected federal officials and tell them you aren’t happy with how the existing Defense Department Generals and Admirals ran our military, and ask them to do a bit of house cleaning. The media spins these stories totally one-sided. Much of the mediocrity in today’s military leadership cuts across party lines, so its an issue that both Republican and Democrat Senators and Representatives need to solve. Unless you write, and write a lot, its going to be swept under the rug.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. According to those agencies, everything is fine, and the Defense Department is doing a great job! Nothing to see here, move along now peasant!
When I first joined the Navy, I served onboard the USS HAMPTON, a nuclear fast-attack submarine. You would think that would be super cool. My non-Navy friends were certainly impressed. But the sad reality was that being on a submarine sucked.
I started in the shipyard, which was an absolute hell-hole of a place to work. Our submarine was torn apart, and we had to always be ready for the shipyard workers to stop by to begin working. Instead of scheduling a time, they would often come down early, and if we weren’t ready, would then tell their boss it was our fault they couldn’t work. They did this to score overtime work on the weekends or after hours, while making us stay late. My days started at around 5:30 am and didn’t end until 6 pm. That didn’t include the drive time either.
At least I wasn’t a woman…some of my fellow female officers would get constantly cat-called and risked sexual assault walking into some shipyard environments. We’re talking legitimate, in-your-face sexism, not the made-up stuff of college students at Harvard. On top of that, if you didn’t leave before the sun went down, you risked your car’s windshield getting smashed in. Good-ole’ Portsmouth, Virginia! Thieves would smash in your windshield just for fun and not even steal anything, and the shipyard and Portsmouth police did nothing.
That whole time, I was told to suck it up and make the best of it. The situation is a big, fat turd, and my job was to polish it and make it shine. The smart people above me, the Captains and Admirals of the world, assured me they were doing their best to make it better. I couldn’t possibly question them!
Image generated by Bing AI
So polish I did! And I made it work.
During my flying tour, I spent 10-11 hours in a plane that had no working toilet. They had a toilet, but the Navy wouldn’t send the equipment to pump it out, so we pooped in a bag and pissed in a tall cylinder that we hand-carried out and dumped in the grass. Even the ladies peed in the tall cylinder (and I have no idea how they did it). The Navy HAD pumping equipment, but the powers that be said we didn’t need it, so we never got any. Now, next to us was an Air Force plane that had pumping equipment and didn’t hand carry out their piss in a giant cylinder after every flight. We were flying out of Greece, so it’s not like the plane landed in a hard-to-resupply area.
Polish that turd, I was told, by the supposedly smarter Captains and Admirals. So polish I did!
At a large staff, I put up with a tyrant Captain who seemed to simply enjoy screaming at us over nothing. He played favorites with the staff and pitted people against each other until he was finally fired. You would think that would make it better, but it didn’t, because then I had to help restructure and fix everything he broke.
Polish that turd, I was told, and I did, a bit begrudgingly this time.
Later in my career, I ran a small detachment of Sailors and worked to fix their aging building. The basement ceiling would literally shake when we operated machinery, and the base’s engineering team simply added some scaffolding to hold up the ceiling.
Yup, scaffolding. “It’s a bad situation, that’s the best we can do. You’ll just have to polish that turd.”
Well, I challenged that notion. I worked an engineering study and eventually secured the $6.6 million to fix the building, despite the obstinate objections of the base engineering team. That’s when I realized I’d been polishing turds for no reason. The Navy HAD most of the resources to fix these issues, but they spent them on fancy Admiral events, attended by the smartest Captains, who smoozed up to Senators and Representatives to get their pet projects funded. Whether it was the Littoral Combat Ship, the F-35, or a host of poorly designed boxes whose primary job was to send money into the pockets of Lockheed Martin while claiming Sailors were too stupid to operate them, it was all the same: wasted money that would be better spent elsewhere. This is the same Navy that was happy to use command travel money to pay for travel expenses for Sailors to get an abortion, but couldn’t find the money to fix barracks room issues at the shipyard.
So now I’m at my last command. My hope was to do something useful on my way out the door. Instead I found myself being stuck with all the crappy jobs nobody wants to do, then getting told I’m an idiot by a Captain that definitely acts like he’s smarter than everyone in the room. “You’ll need to polish that turd” he told me the other day.
I didn’t join the Navy to polish turds. I’ve been constantly told to make other, stupid ideas work while the “smart” people get fancy offices and plenty of resources. I’m not alone in this either. All of the officers I looked up to, the one’s I would willingly go into battle with, are all leaving in droves. They tell me they are tired of putting up with mediocre leadership that won’t put in the time to build real solutions, but instead look for “quick wins” (oh how I hate that term!).
Nobody joins the Navy to polish turds. We should stop asking our Sailors to polish poop and actually put resources where they belong.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.
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