I tell you what – I was hot under the collar. Fit to be tied, even.

After hearing everyone was safe, we have all have had a good chuckle about the “Miracle on the Hudson” style landing the Navy P-8 pulled off in the fog the other day at MCAS Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. The pilots “overshot the runway” – meaning they initially touched down too far down the runway to stop in time, and it’s a pretty short runway to begin with. And, rather than goose it and go around for another approach, they tried to stop the plane, and ran out of room. A slick runway didn’t help the situation. The rather ignominious slide into the bay with (praise Baby Jesus) no resulting casualties but some pretty spectacular visuals was the end result.

Had to be exciting.

These things don’t happen regularly, but they do happen in conditions with fog and rain. Plenty of examples from the big boys with a quick search.

…Heavy rains reduced visibility at the airport and caused the plane to lose traction on its tarmac.

Southwest flight skids off end of runway at Hollywood Burbank Airport https://t.co/tjaJkABCad pic.twitter.com/DHywAjS4ry

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) December 6, 2018

This was also a Navy crew from Whidbey Island, WA, so this short runway at Kaneohe was not their home turf, and, again, you can tell from the pictures right after the accident happened that the weather was socked-in crap. Having spent time working with our birds at the hangars right near the end of that runway, I can tell you there’s no wiggle room. Although it makes for a spectacular flightline view – it’s hard to get any work done.

So. Thank God no one was hurt: fix the airplane, find out exactly what happened, integrate the lessons learned into aircrew training so it hopefully wouldn’t happen again, and listen to the locals spaz about the water quality in the bay.

Move on, right?

Oh, no. For some reason people seem to want to make political hay out of this, and do it in the lowest fashion possible.

I frickin’ blew a gasket when I saw this.

What I retweeted as commentary was pretty…um…pithy. Ed would shoot me for posting it. Honestly, it would look like a Hunter Biden FBI FOIA file if I redacted the spicier parts. So I’ll summarize my objections:

• There were 9 crew members onboard – a simple headcount debunks the picture

• No crew info had yet been released as of his tweet

• There are some FINE *$#*ing MILITARY PILOTS who happen to be female – as opposed to being “affirmative action,” “diversity” – whatever slur you feel it incumbent upon your smug self to smear them and, by extension, women in the military with.

If the years’ long training military pilots go through, constantly aware of the possibility of being dropped for cause, makes them dismissible as “affirmative action/diversity hires” when they EARN their Wings of Gold to some pundit who never even wore a United States military uniform as a supply clerk less mind a Naval Aviator?

Some ‘conservative’ values there.

It turns out that other folks were incensed, too, eating him alive in the comments and Community Notes.

But the damage was already done. The guy’s got 3.7M people following him and so the comments were also filled with knuckle dragging goons burping, “Yeah, man!” Vile and completely uncalled for, because it was a lie.

Not a joke – a lie.

Apparently he’s finally deleted the thing.

What I don’t get is, it’s not like there isn’t plenty to go after military brass and this God-forsaken administration for without attacking the troops themselves so shamefully and in such a spectacularly mendacious fashion. Where is this clown’s brain?

Even yesterday, as that plane’s floating in the bay, and this ‘conservative’ is yukking it up to millions of followers, look what the Department of Defense was doing!

Pentagon asks for $114M to spend on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in 2024
The Pentagon’s DEIA funding request is the most expensive of its kind from the department in recent years

Holy crap, dude – there’s your target! Go get ’em, tiger.

…”The FY 2024 President’s Budget request demonstrates the DoD’s commitment to DEIA and includes $114.7 million for dedicated diversity and inclusion activities,” the department wrote in its Strategic Management Plan for fiscal year 2022 to 2026.

You know what makes me crazy about this? The MONEY.

…The funding request is the largest of its kind yet for the DOD, which earmarked $68 million for DEIA initiatives in fiscal year 2022 and $86.5 million in fiscal year 2023, according to reports from the Daily Wire.

“Leaders at all levels are responsible for fostering a climate of inclusion that supports diversity, is free from problematic behaviors, and does not tolerate retaliation or reprisal against those filing complaints,” the DOD previously wrote in its Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request.

They’re taking a chunk that size for pronouns and pandering when troops who are in are struggling?

For example, our son Ebola is on track for orders to yet another European country in the spring. Do you know what he just got told when he touched base with the fellow he is replacing? Be prepared to spend at least $8-15K of HIS own money to set up when he gets here. “It’s the most expensive place I’ve ever been stationed and our OHA doesn’t begin to cover it.” Um, hello?

OHA is ‘Overseas Housing Allowance.’ There is no base housing where he’s going and that is supposed to cover a good part of the cost of a roof over your head. Our troops stationed abroad (also Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, etc) also depend on OCOLA (Overseas Cost of Living Allowance) to help offset their living costs. And that is something that this administration has been reducing for service members, like those stationed in Europe, even as European utility rates and fuel prices go through the roof. In Germany last year, Ebola had troops living in one room of their homes, because, with a family, that’s all they could afford to heat, regardless of what the US government’s OCOLA calculations were adding up to.

Merry Christmas from POTATUS – they are cutting them again this year, based on two-year-old data.

The season’s greetings American troops and their families in the largest overseas U.S. military community can expect from Uncle Sam this year will mean less holiday green to spend.

Starting Nov. 16, the overseas cost-of-living allowance for service members stationed in the Kaiserslautern Military Community and other areas in Europe is going to drop, with the first slice coming in December’s paycheck.

…In the Kaiserslautern area, an E-6 with 10 years of service who lives off base with a spouse and two children is currently pocketing $270 in COLA every pay cycle.

This buffer is slated to shrink to $232 by December and down to $193 by May, according to an 86th Airlift Wing statement.

…The reductions are based in part on survey data last collected from service members in 2021. Living in Germany, however, became noticeably more expensive in 2022, when inflation peaked at 8.8% in October in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of that year.

From food to energy, clothing and gasoline, service members in the area, which includes Ramstein Air Base and several Army installations, have been paying higher prices.

While inflation has slowed in 2023, the cost of living remains high in Germany and price averages for goods and services have further increased by more than 3% from a year ago, according to Germany’s federal statistics office.

Gosh – not like anything’s happened in the world since 2021 that might have affected prices, huh?

Where are ‘conservative pundits’ on troops getting screwed over by bean-counters while the DoD and POTATUS poop scarce greenbacks for the rainbow, drag queen. and grievance industry crowd?

Before the age of X and Facebook, I was known as the scourge of our extended email chains because I would always debunk the outraged, but complete BS claims – not memes, but presented as fact – that came in from some rabidly conservative quarters. My rationale has always been that there’s so much “there” there, why do you have to make Schlitz up? You devalue the truth, erode your own credibility, and maybe seriously damage someone innocent maliciously.

Why go there, conservatives, when there’s such a basketful of the really risible and truly wrong fruit to forever pluck feasts from?

But yuk yuk yuk, huh?

Yeah. You’re a funny guy.