Posted on 03/16/2026 7:54:29 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
It is a terrible time to be a news consumer. Sadly, the only way to explain today’s media is to write them off as either malicious or hopelessly incompetent.
Consider “lobstergate,” one of the more achingly idiotic so-called controversies in recent years. This episode begins with a watchdog report from OpenTheBooks finding that, in the fourth quarter of 2025, the Pentagon spent an estimated $6.9 million on lobster tail, $2 million on Alaskan king crab, and $15.1 million on ribeye steaks.
Now, if you have served in the U.S. armed forces, or you know someone who has, you know all too well what those food purchases are about.
American mess halls often treat servicemen to special meals — usually right before deployments or other rough assignments, as a morale booster. Those special meals? You guessed it: lobster, ribeye, or crab. Special meals are also provided for the occasional non-deployment situation.
“It’s been a tell since at least World War II for garrisoned troops,” Marine veteran and former Daily Caller editor-in-chief Geoffrey Ingersoll explained. “They come into the chow hall. There’s steaming, often poorly cooked, sometimes even boiled, ribeye. Mass-produced lobster tail basically devoid of flavor beside it. Huge signal that some tribulation is coming. Either you’re about to get hazed or shot at, one of the two. So leadership wants bellies full and morale high.” There’s a reason U.S. Navy submarines are equipped with soft-serv machines......
For a possible explanation for this otherwise unbelievable display of ignorance, it’s worth noting that their fake story is also being spread verbatim by top-ranking elected Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). They have seized on the story to accuse the War Secretary of waste and abuse. Schumer even called Hegseth a “grifter”
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
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Michael knows how to handle a grill.
He should have been the one running for office.
All through GWOT service members were seating steak with lobster or crab over in Afghanistan, and I presume, Iraq. Now, all of a sudden, it’s a big deal.
“For a possible explanation for this otherwise unbelievable display of ignorance...”
Ignorance is the LAST thing it is......the deceitful and despicable media know full well it is a lie and negative propaganda because orange man must ALWAYS be painted in a bad light.
Media has sunk low?
Coming soon, onsite reports from the Marianas Trench.
Ah, the memories of surf and turf.
Poorly cooked steaks and bland frozen lobster.
I never had crab when I served. That must be a new thing or for shore stations.
When does the article about money spent on 3.2 beer come out?
/sarcasm
Basically, the media is saying that the troops are never allowed to have anything expensive to eat. Just eat low-cost slop and be happy about it.
Makes me wonder how much of this was attached to club operations? There are numerous clubs on any particular post, Officers’, NCO’s, and all rank clubs that serves these items in a restaurant atmosphere that is paid for by the consumer unlike normal mess facilities. So the price is recovered for them. But the purchasing budget for the clubs does fall under the Pentagon as an expense, that can be transferred to NAF funds for the sale. And the NAF budget is at base level so the recovery is never determined to be anything but appropriate funds for the base. But the purchase started at the top level even though it was slashed going up and back down.
wy69
Of all the fabricated outrages this one pissed me off more than just about any of the others. Point 1: bought in September when ALL government agencies spend the last of their budget; Point 2: This food will be served over a long period of time, not in one month; Point 3: every dining facility in the U.S. military has a budget. That budget includes luxuries every once in a while. Nobody is eating steak and lobster every day. Point 4: The total spent on this food is a freaking rounding error in the defense budget; Point 5: The troops deserve it. Point 6: the furniture budget. The U.S. military is huge. For $225 million you probably couldn’t put a chair in every office in the Pentagon.
I think this started because some idiot thought these items were for the actual Pentagon, not the entire military.
For welfare constituents though...only the best for them (I took this image in a grocery store near me):
it shows that we must be doing a really good job IF ALL they have to complain about is soldiers getting a good meal once and awhile-
They try to ke it seem however that soldiers are eating this way morning noon and night 7 days a week- But yeah- shows how pathetic the lame stream media is when they criticize our soldiers for enjoying a good meal once in awhile! Makes the media look like petty brats-
And if you don't, just a tiny bit of research would have yielded that information.
Bottom line is this: The Democrats and the media are flat out lying. Again.
I remember coming in from the field late at night a few times and a cook going into the dark mess hall to slice some ham and putting it between white bread for us to eat, I always found that touching, the same with often having those big containers of broth or coffee during the winter nights out in the field, I liked the luxury of being nurtured in the Army sometimes, all the milk you could drink in the mess halls, c-rations, later MREs sent out to you, the military can sometimes seem like a warm place to be.
.
Right - it is not ignorance. They are lying.
Scott Jennings pointed out even Democrats who served in the armed forces are making the same claims - obviously they would know first-hand what they were saying was false.
When I was in the submarine service, I thought WE were the only ones to get steak and lobster Fridays.
Where else could you feed 1.2 million men and women steak, crab, and lobster dinners for about $20/person? To me, you can’t feed those people well enough at any price.
Think about this article.
It’s from a Liberal rag and they are calling out the Dems and the media.
That’s how bad the propaganda is.
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