I don’t remember Hare Krishnas at all. Lot’s of stereotypical people, though. As far as groups of people, there is a mariachi band out about town.
Getting back to Hegseth: Turns out he and Donald hoped we wouldn’t learn WHY the USS Lincoln wasn’t getting resupplied. It’s because the Iranians took out the main US resupply base in the Gulf of Oman:
I often used to try to play “Friendly Tank”. It was amazing how hard it was to not get a wanted level just by accidentally crushing a few cars.
Something’s off in this article, though:
It says at one point
the U.S. Navy’s main resupply base in the Gulf of Oman was destroyed by Iranian strikes
but later:
From late February until June, Iran launched extensive missile and drone strikes on Naval Support Activity Bahrain
But Bahrain is in the Persian Gulf, not the Gulf of Oman. Those two bodies of water are separated by the Strait of Hormuz.
Which also means that even if the U.S. had been able to successfully defend NSA-Bahrain from Iranian strikes, they could not have used it as a base of supplies unless the Strait was open to U.S. military traffic. Everything points to the central assumption of this entire war being that Iran would collapse quickly and everything would work out perfectly.
The other thing with using “time off when the new video game releases” as an incentive is that it means that everyone is going to be getting their time off then. I.e., all at the same time. Doesn’t a military base have some things that need to be staffed continually?
You are correct, but not only that, look at this article:
And if that source isn’t reliable enough, here is the WSJ with essentially the same story around the same time (except it’s paywalled).
How Iran Devastated an American Naval Base—and Caused a U.S. Recalculation
Those articles are from a month ago, so the suggestion that this is some new revelation being hidden that just now got out is wrong. We’ve known about that base being demolished for a while now. Heck, this article is from the beginning of May.
The Trump administration does a lot of terrible shit and has badly mismanaged this war, but this seems like one accusation that isn’t accurate.
Smapti’s original post stated that this was an incentive given by one battalion, so maybe about 700-900 troops (I’m not up on the current US Army Table of Organization & Equipment).
And any of the slackers who aren’t re-enlisting can be the ones to fill the duty roster for those four days…
I’m wondering if this is why pubbies think voting by mail is not secure
It’s more like bringing in pizza.
I turned down $10,000 1978 dollars to re-up in the navy. If they’d offered it as a lump sum so I could invest it I’d have been tempted but it was parceled out for the enlistment period. They’d had too many sailors using it to buy a hot car then wrapping it around a tree.
The homeowner whose mail Fine examined will not press charges
I’m assuming we’re missing some nuance, but I didn’t think the homeowner would have a choice in the matter. Once they’ve reported it to the police (and provided video evidence), I’d assume whether or not charges are pressed would be entirely up to the USPS or whatever state/fed prosecutor has jurisdiction here.
(quoting the article)
I would have thought any charges would focus on tampering with the mail itself, not damaging the mailbox. Although given that he didn’t appear to steal or damage any of the mail, anything he could potentially be charged with would likely be extremely minor.
Yes, it’s up to the authorities to decide to press charges or not. And sometimes they do even when the victim is uncooperative. But in nonviolent, low-level crimes like this, it’s not worth the hassle if the victim and primary witness doesn’t want to cooperate with the prosecution.
When I was friends and coworkers with a bunch of sailors in the 90s that was still pretty common for them to do. Lump sum signing bonuses clearly came back into place at some point.
IMHO, this is a case where I think they should press charges regardless of what the homeowner wants since it was a politician. It’s too easy for a politician to use what they find in a mailbox against the recipient. If they want to make it easy, hit him with a fine for a few hundred dollars. Something he’ll probably just pay rather than fight, but will hopefully prevent him or others in similar positions from doing the same thing.
I was never in the Navy but I toured Groton while trying to get in. I was impressed with all the hot cars parked along the docks. Then I thought of them rusting in the salt air while the crew was underwater for two months.
QFT. That’s why I always parked my car at my girlfriend’s house across town while I was at sea.
And two months is a walk in the park. Six months, on the other hand, really sucks. That’s long enough to get an unexpected bill in the mail and have it go to collections before you can get back to address it.
Trump is going full Soviet style Command Control Economy. He’s going to get the government to import 300,000 tons of beef, and then set the prices. Of course, I’m sure there is plenty of opportunity for the usual Trump Grifting.
This part made me laugh:
When pressed by The Independent about who Trump had been negotiating with, the source of the imported beef, the identity of the person or persons who’d committed to impose a price control on the imported beef, a White House official would only say that it was with “foreign beef exporters” and that Trump would “formally sign an executive order” to execute the agreement “within the next two weeks.”
“Two weeks” Good one!
Trump claims deal to flood US market with beef as prices skyrocket
Trump Beef is made with Soylent Green.
“Now with extra screw-worm larvae!”
I was trying to figure out how much that compares to existing production. I found a USDA site that said that in 2024 28.7 billion pounds of beef were used “in the domestic market on a carcass weight basis.” That’s 14,350,000 tons; I think 300,000 tons is roughly two percent of that.