THESE ARE HEINLEIN’S CRAZY YEARS — WE JUST LIVE IN THEM: Mexican Women ‘Marry’ Trees in Mass Wedding Ceremony.

LEAKED AUDIO RECORDINGS OF RUSSIAN MERCS: Business Insider seems to think the recordings are authentic.

Leaked audio recordings said to be of Russian mercenaries in Syria capture expressions of lament and humiliation over a battle in early February involving US forces and Russian nationals.

Published by Polygraph.info — a fact-checking website produced by Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, news organizations that receive funding from the US government — the audio recordings paint a picture of Russian mercenaries essentially sent to die in an ill-conceived advance on a US-held position in Syria. Polygraph says the audio recordings are from a source close to the Kremlin.

MORE:

…apparent in the audio is displeasure with how Russia has responded to the situation. Initially, Russia denied that its citizens took part in the clash. Later, a representative said five may have died. Last week, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the fight left “several dozen wounded” and that some had died.

The audio recordings, in which voices can be heard saying 200 people died “right away,” appear to back up reports from Reuters, Bloomberg, and the Pentagon that roughly 100 — if not more— Russians died in the fight. Reuters has cited sources as saying the advance’s purpose was to test the US’s response.

SOME TRANSLATED AUDIO:

…well … to make it short, we’ve had our asses f— kicked. So one squadron f— lost 200 people … right away, another one lost 10 people … and I don’t know about the third squadron, but it got torn up pretty badly, too … So three squadrons took a beating … The Yankees attacked … first they blasted the f— out of us by artillery, and then they took four helicopters up and pushed us in a f— merry-go-round with heavy caliber machine guns … They were all shelling the holy f— out of it, and our guys didn’t have anything besides the assault rifles … nothing at all, not even mentioning shoulder-fired SAMs or anything like that … So they tore us to pieces for sure, put us through hell, and the Yankees knew for sure that the Russians were coming, that it was us, f— Russians … Our guys were going to commandeer an oil refinery, and the Yankees were holding it … We got our f— asses beat rough, my men called me … They’re there drinking now … many have gone missing … it’s a total f— up, it sucks, another takedown … Everybody, you know, treats us like pieces of s— … They beat our asses like we were little pieces of s— … but our f— government will go in reverse now, and nobody will respond or anything, and nobody will punish anyone for this … So these are our casualties.”

Doesn’t sound like he’s embracing the suck. Well, he’s a mercenary fighting a “gray zone” war and he tried to surprise American soldiers. A “merry go round” with heavy machine guns. Sounds like Ma Deuce at work.

Here’s the polygraph.info report Business Insider used as its source. Check it out.

NEWSWEEK’S BITTER END: Dozens Of Journalists Bail As Fraud Probe Heats Up.

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Dems Worry: Are We Overplaying The Gun-Control Hand?

Forget it — they’re rolling.

WHERE ELSE BUT LA-LA-LAND? San Diego State University (SDSU) are now offered a course entitled “Trump: Impeachment, Removal or Conviction?” This must be an offering from the moderate wing of the SDSU faculty. The radicals would call it “Trump: Racked, Drawn and Quartered or Burned at the Stake.” LifeZette’s Michelle Blood has more of the gory details of PC run amuck on yet another college campus.

SPACE: Cape Canaveral could see two launches in one day Thursday.

Two launch pads at Cape Canaveral could host a pair of satellite launches separated by fewer than 17 hours Thursday, a rapid-fire turnaround made possible by an automated range safety mechanism and other upgrades to cut the time between missions at the Florida spaceport.

A spokesperson for Hispasat, which owns a communications satellite set for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, told Spaceflight Now on Monday that the mission is scheduled for liftoff shortly after midnight Thursday, Florida time.

The Falcon 9’s two-hour launch window opens at 12:34 a.m. EST (0534 GMT) Wednesday, pending final approval from the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Space Wing, which runs the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral, a network of communications, tracking and safety installations used by every launch from Florida’s Space Coast.

Assuming Air Force officials grant SpaceX’s request for a launch date Wednesday, it would be the first of two blastoffs from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in a span of around 16-and-a-half hours.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is on track for launch Thursday during a two-hour launch window beginning at 5:02 p.m. EST (2202 GMT).

I’d say “Faster, please,” but in this case that feels presumptuous.

SOCIALIST SANDERS’ SON SEEKS SOLON’S SEAT: Yes, it’s true, the crusty Vermont Independent Socialist has a crusty son and he’s a socialist, too. He’s seeking a seat in the House of Representatives. If he wins, Bernie and Levi will be the first-ever Socialist father-son team ever in Congress. And to LifeZette’s Kathryn Blackhurst we now go for the rest of the story.

REVIEW: 2017 BMW M2.

AT AMAZON, Shop Amazon Warehouse Deals – Deep Discounts on Open-box and Used Products.

Plus, Shop Amazon Outlet – Clearance, Markdowns and Overstock Deals.

NOTHING MORE THAN A FRIENDLY SUGGESTION, I’M SURE: Internal Email Shows Broward Sheriff’s Office Urging Staffers to ‘Stand With’ Sheriff Israel.

GENTLEMEN, YOU CAN’T OPINE HERE — THIS IS THE OP-ED PAGE!: “The newsroom feels embarrassed”: Backfires and Explosions at the New York Times as a Possible Future Chief Re-invents the Paper’s Opinion Pages.

LUCKILY, IT HAS NO MILITARY APPLICATIONS: China’s New Hypersonic Plane Could Take Us From Beijing to New York in 2 Hours.

SO THIS IS WHAT “AMAZING LEADERSHIP” LOOKS LIKE: Three media companies filed a lawsuit Monday to force authorities to release security camera video footage from the exterior of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to shed light on the actions — or inaction — of law enforcement during the mass shooting.

It’s bad enough there’s a school shooting, it’s bad enough there’s a plethora of evidence that the FBI, the school administrators and the Broward County Sheriff’s office stumbled through a cascade of failures resulting in this tragedy.

No, not bad enough. Now, you have to add Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel refusing to allow the press and public to see videotape from cameras outside the Parkland school on the day of the shooting. Where deputies were not only hiding, but according to later reports, prevented paramedics from entering the building.

BUT WILL WE BE PLAYING DEFENSE? Air Force Chief Goldfein: ‘We’ll be fighting from space in a matter of years.’

THAT WOULD BE NICE: FDA wants to improve effectiveness of flu shot for next year.

MICHAEL WALSH: Turks are fleeing Islamist Turkey for… of all places… Greece.

CHANGE: Saudi military leaders replaced amid stalemated war in Yemen.

Plus: “The kingdom also announced a new female deputy minister of labor and social development as it tries to broaden the role of women in the workplace.”

SHOCKING NEWS FROM 1945: Vaccines best way to stop spread of epidemics, experts say.

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE: Bernie Sanders struggles to address Russian support after Mueller indictment.

A bombshell Feb. 16 indictment filed against 13 Russian nationals in Robert Mueller’s Russia probe bolstered those allegations, in stunning detail — but also said the Russians sought to help Sanders.

Russian nationals, the indictment said, “engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.”

The details create an awkward situation for the Vermont senator, as he is seen to be positioning himself for a potential 2020 White House run.

Sanders, however, has yet to give a clear response on whether he and his campaign were aware of, or took action to address, the interference — like Russian bot social media accounts allegedly supporting his campaign. Instead, Sanders, I-Vt., has tried to shift the scrutiny toward Clinton’s campaign for not doing more to prevent Russian meddling.

I’d say let him squirm, but what of it? Sanders has a long history of playing footsie with brutal socialist regimes like the Soviet Union and “Bolivarian” Venezuela, while insisting that his own socialist beliefs were the kinder, gentler, “democratic” variety.

That wasn’t enough to sink him with millions and millions of Democratic primary voters — so why should this more recent revelation be a worry?

IT’S COME TO THIS: Experts: Children can’t hold pens anymore.

WELL, THERE WAS NOBODY WITH AN AR-15 INVOLVED, BUT THIS IS MORE THAN A LOT OF POLITICIANS WOULD DO: That time an unarmed Trump stopped a mugging.

COLLUSION! Ceremony Outside Russian Embassy to Mark Street Renaming After Slain Putin Foe. “Marking the third anniversary of his murder in the shadow of the Kremlin, starting Tuesday Russian Embassy officials will have to go to work each day on a D.C. street named after opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.”

FORMER AG MICHAEL MUKASEY SAYS FBI ‘VERY IRRESPONSIBLE’ ON FISA APPLICATION: The bureau was “very irresponsible” in not disclosing to the FISA court all of the details about the funding and sourcing of the Steele Dossier, Mukasey told Laura Ingraham on her Talk Radio program.