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To quote one of my favorite lines from the movie "Tommy Boy" when he is asking for a map, and is dismissively told he needs a "new map":

DAVID SPADE: Hey chief, could you tell me how far it is to Davenport?

LAZY GAS STATION ATTENDANT: (not looking up from his newspaper) Five miles.

DAVID SPADE: I can't find it on this map.

LAZY GAS STATION ATTENDANT: Well, get yourself a new map.

DAVID SPADE: Well, its gotta be on the map, Davenport, because you say it's five miles away. And you're really smart...Yet it's not on the map.

LAZY GAS STATION ATTENDANT: I'm picking up your sarcasm.

DAVID SPADE: I'd hope so...'cause i'm laying it on you pretty thick.

LAZY GAS STATION ATTENDANT: That's a map of Illinois, which we're in. On the border of Iowa. Which is where Davenport is, five miles away. You're in the wrong state. Get yourself a new map!

In all seriousness, yes I was being sarcastic. I think we need to give them time, while we can all agree, there isn't a lot of time to do this (months, rather than four years as many people think)

I was saying it somewhat light heartedly, but I admit that I view all these entreaties to put people in jail the same way I view people who criticize the Founders for not outlawing slavery and giving women the franchise in 1789.

This takes time. Granted, I fully understand we need to blow up what I would call "Deep State Time" which I view as...forever. We need to get it done. but we need to give them time. If we don't do it right, they will undo it.

For a long time, I was a reader of Sundance's work. But I have had to part ways with him on various things, and I part way with his take on this one.

I am careful to point out that Sundance was defending both Patel and Bongino from an X poster who said "Dan Bongino is playing the part of a glorified FBI press secretary. Not the flex we thought we were getting." So I credit him with taking that approach with his observation that it was unfair, and then he goes on to criticize them by saying they are not up to the task.

That is where I part ways with Sundance on this.

He makes the assertion that Bongino and Patel don't know how to delegate responsibility with his comment: "...You might note that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noticed this need very quickly, because he was/is a subject matter expert in large institutional leadership. Bessent has experience, Patel and Bongino do not...

Sundance is not in the FBI, and is not privy to what is going on there. He has no idea what is going on. He may have sources, but he didn't specify that. He just takes a Patel/Bongino comment that "X percent of the FBI are good people" and takes that to mean they don't know what is going on. Perhaps he is right.

But I am not going to criticize either of them, and I don't agree with this chorus of criticism just over sixty days into this Administration, with less time on the job for both Patel and Bongino.

They need time to do this, and they need time to do it right. I do expect results. But it is going to take longer than a few weeks.

I view what is going on the DOD and the FBI in much the same light. There are woke and corrupt people embedded in both, who have built fortresses to protect themselves. Digging them out is going to be an internecine battle that will be like going door-to-door in Fallujah, because those people aren't going to do a Perry Mason-like confession "Okay. I did it. I am responsible for [insert outrageous and illegal activity here]..."

They are going to hunker down like the insurgents in Fallujah or the Japanese defending Iwo Jima, and fight to the death (figuratively speaking) or are going to pull the ejection handles when the heat starts getting closer. We can always hope.

For those who DO hunker down and fight to the death (again, figuratively speaking) I expect there are people who hate what has happened to the military and the FBI, and they are going to help Hegseth, Patel, and Bongino root them out. They know what is what.

So this hand-to-hand combat is going to go on largely out of sight of our eyes and the news. We are only going to hear about this grim battle through firings and news leaks, perpetrated by both sides in the combat.

Our side will leak out things to make the snakes want to leave. Their side (the snakes) is going to leak out stories of dissension on the Trump team and unfair treatment of "loyal FBI agents" who have "spent their lives in the service of their country".

There are going to be internal meetings and confrontations, service files reviewed, careers ended, possibly some unjustly, hopefully some overdue, and there will always be snakes in the grass that convince the people trying to root them out that they are on the right side, even if they aren't.

But I am optimistic that, in the end, they will make a dent. I simply take issue with people screaming for scalps just two months in for the entire administration, never mind the positions of SecDef and FBI Director/Assistant Director which have been in office less than that.

I apologize for the sarcasm.