Water Cooler 1/4/18 Open Thread; Honey Did You See Where I Left The Launch Codes ?; Navy Secretary Causes Lefty Heads To Explode; Chelsea Clinton Denies Worshiping Satan;

Honey Did You See Where I Left The Launch Codes ? Oh Check For The Keys To Air Force One As Well

This is one of those things I’d really rather not know about the competence of our government. It seems back in 2000 then President Clinton managed to misplace the nuclear launch codes opening the country to a window of vulnerability.

According to Gen. Hugh Shelton, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1997 to September 2001, the number of redundancies in the nuclear-launch process “is staggering.” All of steps are “dependent on one vital element without which there can be no launch,” he wrote in his 2010 autobiography, “Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior.”

However, around 2000, according to Shelton, a member of the department within the Pentagon that is responsible for all pieces of the nuclear process was dispatched to the White House to physically look at the codes and ensure they were correct — a procedure required to happen every 30 days. (The set of codes was to be replaced entirely every four months.)

That official was told by a presidential aide that President Bill Clinton did have the codes, but was in an important meeting and could not be disturbed.

“This comedy of errors went on, without President Clinton’s knowledge I’m sure, until it was finally time to collect the current set and replace them with the new edition,” Shelton writes.

“At this point we learned that the aide had no idea where the old ones were, because they had been missing for months,” he added. “The President never did have them, but he assumed, I’m sure, that the aide had them like he was supposed to.”

—Business Insider

For me the sad part about this, is that Clinton leaving the country vulnerable to first strike through total incompetence and not immediately taking action to rectify the situation qualifies as just another incident in his administration and not even a particularly major one. If this ever makes it to a movie, it’s doubtful they will bother to pressure Hollywood to sanitize it the way they did the Clinton Administration’s handling of Bin Laden.

Can someone explain why the civiilan head of the Navy is wearing a sidearm?

I read that, at first I thought it should be an easy thing to do but then I realized it’s like explaining the difference between green and viridian to a congenitally blind person. You have to fill in an entire universe of concepts before you can even start.

Let me ask you a simple question. If you were going to a war zone, even if it was unlikely you would be at any real risk, would you prefer to be armed while there?

For me, I’d rather not risk it.

Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer apparently agrees.

Equipped with a sidearm, Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer visited Marines and sailors at Camp Shorab, Afghanistan, to wish them a happy holiday season. (Sgt. Lucas Hopkins/Marine Corps) pic.twitter.com/X3TChTv0yz

— Marine Corps Times (@Marinetimes) December 28, 2017

Considering where he was, this seems somewhat prudent. I think we can all agree that the secretary of the Navy would be quite the catch for the Taliban, and Spencer would be unlikely to enjoy the experience, much less survive it.

But that doesn’t stop some supposed experts from not understanding the move.

Can someone explain why the civiilan head of the Navy is wearing a sidearm? @chinfo @SECNAV https://t.co/8YyrgkZSUf

— Barbara Starr (@barbarastarrcnn) December 28, 2017

Barbara Starr is CNN’s Pentagon correspondent. You know, the person at CNN who you would think would be most likely to understand that people are still shooting at Americans over in Afghanistan?
–Bearing Arms

The best I could come up with as an explanation is that the secretary of the navy would like to go on living and having a weapon while in a war zone will help him do that. Somehow that doesn’t seem like it’s enough for the people who need the explanation in the first place.

Chelsea Clinton Denies Worshiping Satan

This is from The Hill and it seems a very credible statement

Chelsea Clinton on Wednesday denied that she practices Satanism after a Trump supporter on Twitter took the former first daughter’s exchange of New Year’s wishes with the Church of Satan to mean she was affiliated with the group.

“I’m a Methodist & my husband is Jewish, thank you for asking,” Clinton responded to the woman.

–The Hill

Of course given her family’s well known ability to parse questions into forms that generate little real meaning it should be noted that she never said she was a practicing Satanist just that she wished the Church of Satan well, and by implication their lord and master as well.

https://twitter.com/ChelseaClinton/status/948305271495053314

It’s been so long! Happy New Year!
Replying to @ChurchofSatan @chrissyteigen and 4 others

Personally my New Years wish for the Church of Satan is they stop trying to aggravate their parents and open their hearts to God.

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