Sorry not sorry

Huh.

The Chief Scout Executive issued a statement yesterday about the Jamboree in which he buried a non-apology for the debacle that was the Kleptocrat’s address to 40,000 Boy Scouts (or 3.6 million scouts, in Klepto-numbers) on Monday.

The single paragraph (out of ten) to deal with the appalling spectacle of the actual rambling, self-aggrandizing, bullying, disjointed and unequivocally revolting speech, and the scouts' behavior was this one:

“I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent. The invitation for the sitting U.S. President to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition that has been extended to the leader of our nation that has had a Jamboree during his term since 1937. It is in no way an endorsement of any person, party or policies. For years, people have called upon us to take a position on political issues, and we have steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters. We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program.”

First of all, it took you three damn days to hawk this up? You scrambled your high-priced PR squadrons for damage control for three whole days and this is all you could manage? The old “we’re sorry you feel that way [but that’s your problem and we don’t really give a toss]” apology? That’s just pitiful. You owe your scouts a gigantic refund.

Second, at no time in the past four decades has the Kleptocrat given any indication that he has a sense of place, or that he’s capable of talking (or, indeed, thinking) about anything but his own pathetic, needy self. What on earth possessed you as an organization to invite him to the Jamboree and give him a literal and symbolic platform to rave like Martin Bormann? Which is precisely what he did. I thought the Boy Scouts motto was Be Prepared, no? You totally screwed the pooch on this one—where’s your apology for that?

Third, once he started down that path, why did your AV people not cut the mic? You saw what he was doing and you just let him go on. That kind of implies that you were jake with it; with him swaggering and slagging off his predecessor. and his presidential opponent. and Congress and whoever else came to his brain stem. In every possible respect he not only did not display Scout values, he mocked them. And you let him do it. Where’s your apology for that?

Fourth, what the all fuck were you thinking, letting your 40,000 scouts cheer and boo on cue like a Hitler Jugend rally? The cheering was bad enough, but booing mention of Barack Obama—a fellow Scout? Shame on you. Where’s your apology for that?

Man—you waited three days to issue this slimy, pitiful, hand-wringing non-apology and you think the country is fooled? We. Are. Not.

The unit got over it

You’ll probably be aware that yesterday morning, the 69^th anniversary of Harry S Truman integrating the armed forces, the Kleptocrat’s latest attempts to distract the nation from the deepening pit of his campaign’s Russian ties opening up around him involved tweets proclaiming that (contrary to a tweet from only last year—ever so long ago in Klepto-years) he’s gazed into his…well, wherever a navel would be on any ordinary human being…and discovered that he chooses to ban transgender people from his military.

(Remember—in his little brain, it is indeed his military.)

It seems the five-time dodger of the Vietnam-era draft has decided that “Our military [“our” in the imperial sense] must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”

He even ended his series of tweets with “Thank you”, which is kind of bizarre.

Bizarre to the contrary notwithstanding, let me address his points.

Bwahahahaha!

No, seriously—a guy who wanders off in the ten feet between Air Force One’s stairs and his waiting limo is talking about focusing?

And the guy who lost the popular vote is banging on about decisive and overwhelming victory?

Oh, please.

As for the medical costs—concern for those would exclude all women of childbearing age from serving in any capacity. And, for that matter, all men with families.

And as for the rest of it, for the unit disruption, lemme give you Admiral Percy Fitzwallace from The West Wing.

Beat that with a stick.

Where the devil is

Last week I had a conversation with a colleague who’d submitted an idea for possible implementation as a new product. The guy has an MBA (albeit in marketing) from Drexel University, but apparently things like revenue potential and feasibility aren’t part of the curriculum. Not even actual market need, it seems, because none of these concepts were in evidence.

It was a careful conversation, because he was genuinely confused that this idea wouldn’t be snapped up for immediate development. And he’d come up with it during our first run of the new business ideas course. So…why wouldn’t we jump at the chance?

Money, dude. It’s always money. This idea wouldn’t drive enough revenue to pay for the requirements document, much less build out, market and maintain the system. So, no.

Further, do MBA courses not require that students cough up some kind of detail to back their claims? Even in marketing? Because my intern had to extrapolate all over the place to try to research similar products already on the market (which are definitely not monetized); there was no there there.

So this is why this cartoon resonates with me.

Plague of coconuts

Oh, dearie me. The Kleptocrat’s alternative seat warmer apparently likes to tweet the occasional Deep Thought to remind people that she, too, has a mobile device. But, jeez-Louise—can she possibly be this much of a dim bulb?

Because here’s her effort for Sunday:

Look, her followers probably eat that stuff up with a manure shovel, but thank God there were people out with some critical faculties and connectivity. Viz. this cluster:

And these tweets:

But then, hokey Smokes, Bullwinkle—some poor social media monitor for Verizon apparently has the awareness of a member of the Klepto-klan, and did his/her best to help out.

God bless the Twitters-dot-com.

Gratitude Monday: The rains came

All last week we here in the District They Call Columbia had temperatures approaching triple digits, with the heat index well over that mark. So when we got rain—chucking it down in sheets and blankets rain—on Saturday, I was so happy.

(We got more yesterday, including a couple of spates of deluges so powerful, I actually got up to check that the windows weren't leaking. But, hey—windows held and the power stayed on, so it's all good.)

Happy in general, but also because with that kind of rain I didn’t have to don anti-mosquito gear to go out to water my garden.

Hard luck on the mosquitos—they’ll have to find another aedes buffet. But I’ve certainly enjoyed sitting in my livingroom watching it pour.