MWhite

Hey, look at that! We're not entirely out of good stuff!

would you trust him to vote down authoritarian SCOTUS nom and Cabinet Secs, and against $100B DHS budgets **more than Collins**? Then that's 'broadly defending liberal democracy.' maybe he's a genuine progressive in 29 when the tide turns. maybe he's fetterman2.

but we KNOW what collins is.

there were like 6 of these dudes who were like the Mercury Astronauts of journalism in the 90s.

even in the way that they were 50-50 equal parts gifted talents and pushed as the public face of ungodly cash machines.

Marine who crawled under bridge to plant explosives approved for Medal of Honor Capt. John Ripley hung 500 pounds of explosives under a bridge, swinging hand over hand for hours, to stop a major offensive in Vietnam.

From me:

Col. John Ripley, whose courage under fire beneath the Dong Ha Bridge is one of the Marine Corps' most hallowed stories of combat valor, will receive a posthumous Medal of Honor. The Senate OK'd it last week.

Truly, an astounding American combat story.

taskandpurpose.com/news/marine-...

F yeah, the Checkerdome. as a super small kid, went there to see the Blues and another time to see Barnum & Bailey Circus. maybe a 70s/80s-era indoor soccer team, too?

Tom Junod Would Like to Tell You About His Father

you seen this?
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/s...

if you are a writer in your 30s or early 40s, a thing lost forever to you is how insanely big and wild and absurd Magazine Writing was in the 90s.

helps quite a bit if I'm being honest

we had to 'write' off this press release when it came out. most surreal hour of editing ever

if it don't go with "It Shines For All," they're haters

Oh damn!

DM me, I'll send ya some offline info from that story

I I fully share that. This one just happens to be right in my little universe.

and also, its just sad as hell for him and what could have been.

brother.... i am among those who needed this kid back, largely BECAUSE OF 'this moment in our history.'

sometimes devastation is as devastation does.

this is not the Welcome Lt. Col Tech Bro of a couple months ago. im not sure its needed or even 'right' but its not terribly different from a JAG who comes in a Cpt. its not the same, but its much closer

noo

you're hurting your audience puffing up these glimmers of legalese.
It was strategically stupid and morally cruel where cruelty was easily avoided, but it wasn't even close to 'illegal' however you're defining it.

Stop it.

tell me why it was stupid, because it was, along with being astonishly cruel when cruelty was absolutely avoidable.

but stop with this crime shit

i dont think reenlistments after Break In Service are grandfathered. You go through a recruiter and have to meet current regs.

I think this is inaccurate or at least not a 'gotcha'.

As described here:
1 -Planter has forearm tats
2-07 USMC bans FA tats, grandfathers current marines
3-08 Planter ETS.
4-09 Planter tries to reenlist.
He would not have been 'grandfathered' on a reenlistment.

I wish this quote wasn’t still so relevant

I wonder what Zohran-style figure from out of nowhere is going to have the honor of humiliating Gavin Newsom for two years until he tumbles backward into a metaphorical political grave and goes full maga podcaster out of spite

finally watched Casablanca. wild in this day and age for something to actually live up to the hype

Bernard LaFayette, Selma voting rights organizer, has died Voting rights organizer Bernard LaFayette has died. LaFayette's son says his father died Thursday morning of a heart attack. He was 85.

Bernard LaFayette, the advance man who did the risky groundwork for the voter registration campaign in Selma, Alabama, that culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has died.

Time series plot depicting predicted Nino 3.4 region ocean temperature anomalies from the latest (Mar 2026) ECMWF ensemble. It depicts an extremely rapid rise in such temperatures, from modest negative anomalies to strong positive anomalies, by mid-summer 2026--indicative of a transition from weak-moderate La Nina conditions to moderate-strong El Nino conditions over just a few months.

Whew.

All signs are increasingly pointing to a significant, if not strong to very strong, El Niño event. I'll have more to say in coming weeks & months, but for now I'll just say that this is increasingly likely to become a major regional-to-global climate driver in 2026-2027.

You know what? I would prefer a norms based order to a rules based order but I also think flight attendants should have qualified immunity.

I appreciate that response. I definitely am not a criteria expert or historian on valor awards.

interesting. I've been thinking today a parallel thought, and putting them together might be something like, "In politics, you can't shoot a dog, because people remember. In war, you can't sink a ship with no reason, for the same reason."