Maxim 29: The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy. No more. No less
ETA: Ninja’d by a mere eight hours.
50% of Americans, including 1 in 4 Republicans, support abolishing ICE.
Translation: “We are running out of ammunition. And, I have no idea what I’m talking about.”
When he had an aircraft carrier in the Caribbean Sea for an extended period when he was planning to act against Venezuela, someone pointed out that that ship was already due for an overhaul and that mission was delaying it. So his adventures in the Middle East aren’t just using up American ammunition stores but also contributing to a maintenance defeat for the ships and planes. Probably he is exhausting the members of the military as well.
? Maintenance deficit?
I don’t disagree with the substance of anything you wrote, but that one turn of phrase puzzled me.
You can put off routine maintenance for a time, but that just means that problems pile up and parts start being left unmaintained longer than recommended. “Use it until it breaks” isn’t good practice with something like a warship.
Yes, I get the concept of “maintenance deficit”, but I was confused by @Dewey_Finn’s term “maintenance defeat”. Either “defeat” was an error for “deficit” there, or I’m not sure what he’s referring to.
Is there such a thing as a “maintenance defeat” meaning that you lose a battle specifically because your undermaintained equipment craps out on you?
Sorry. I am on my phone and meant deficit.
In particular, one of the involved aircraft carriers and its attached escorts have been at sea well over its usual deployment schedule. The crews are physically and mentally beat. Routine maintenance is put off for operational necessities. It adds up to accidents and breakdowns.
Good old $ash Patel, FBI podcaster and hockey drunkard. Still prosecuting Demento Don’s edict to pursue and punish anyone who investigated his attempt to overthrow the US government.
And I read it as “deficit”, which is why I replied like I did.
Why am I suddenly thinking of this?
Auto-guess, the second biggest bane to modern civilization, beat only by O-rings.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s reign of terror is over!
I present you the next Supreme Leader of Iran… (checks notes) Ayatollah Khamenei!
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/world/middleeast/iran-mojtaba-khamenei-successor.html
The senior clerics responsible for selecting Iran’s next supreme leader met on Tuesday to deliberate, and the son of the slain former leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, emerged as the clear front-runner, according to three Iranian officials familiar with the deliberations…
“He was slated to become the successor for a long time,” Mr. Nasr said, “but for the past two years, it seemed to have dropped off from the radar. If he is elected, it suggests it is a much more hard-line Revolutionary Guard side of the regime that is now in charge.”
Khamenei is dead. Long live Khamenei!
Think of the savings from reprinting the stationary.