Wade 🐊 McClusky

PM Follies 17.0: “The ‘Nice-to-Have’ Money Drop – Where to Park It?” edition. Currently playing budget Tetris with sponsor surprise dollars while trying not to trigger a full SOW rewrite. Just got off a 38-minute call with the sponsor action officer that started as “quick FYI” and ended with me mentally mapping every open CLIN like it’s a heat map of available real estate. Sponsor (cheerful, dangerous tone): “Hey Wade, great news—we’ve got an unexpected $192k tranche coming loose from a parallel effort. It’s human-performance adjacent, unobligated, and we’d love to push it your way before it gets swept back to the pot. Can you absorb it? No major scope change needed, just accelerate or enhance what you’re already doing.” Me (instant internal alarm bells): “Appreciate the offer—$192k is real money. Before we say yes, can you confirm: this is incremental funding to the existing award, right? Not a new vehicle or mod that requires full re-competition?” Sponsor: “Same vehicle, same prime, same SOW umbrella. We just want to see faster progress on the things you’re already funded for. Maybe more subjects, more ablation runs, extra travel, whatever fits without rewriting the whole thing.” Translation: They want to spend it, but nobody wants the paperwork headache of a major scope change that triggers new CDRLs, new IRB amendments, new risk assessments, new congressional reporting thresholds, or (God forbid) a protest risk. So I did the classic PM move: opened the financials and hunted for “room.” Current landscape (redacted for my sanity): CLIN 0001 (core protocol development): 92% obligated / 88% expended = tiny sliver left CLIN 0002 (data collection & analysis): 78% obligated / 65% expended = decent headroom (~$240k unobligated, ~$410k unexpended) CLIN 0003 (field demos & transition support): 61% obligated / 42% expended = biggest pocket (~$310k unobligated, ~$620k unexpended runway) CLIN 0004 (program management & travel): 95% burned = basically dead Verdict: CLIN 0003 has the most breathing room without screaming “scope creep.” We’re already planning two more military on-sites and one sim-facility integration event. Sponsor loves field data. More subjects = more data = more stories for their briefings to leadership. My counter (calm, professional, zero desperation): “Happy to absorb the $192k into CLIN 0003. We can accelerate participant throughput for the closed-loop cognitive battery under operational stress, add ~45–50 more Marines across the remaining sites, plus one extra travel event to the classified sim facility for validation runs. All within existing SOW task descriptions (no new objectives, no new deliverables, just higher n and deeper environmental variability). Keeps the scope envelope intact, no major mod required just an incremental funding mod and updated spend plan.” Sponsor (relieved): “That tracks perfectly. I’ll get the paperwork rolling. You’re saving me from losing the money to another office. Thanks for making it easy.” What I didn’t say: This avoids the nightmare of justifying a scope change to finance, contracts, and the IRB It buys breathing room on the bridge gap because more expended = stronger case for follow-on It gives the team actual work instead of “unfunded advisory” purgatory And if we play it right, the extra data might make the pivot from 10.0 look intentional instead of desperate New risk register entry unlocked: “Absorbing surprise incremental funding without triggering major scope change review” Probability: Low if we stay disciplined (LOL) Impact: Medium if someone later claims “that wasn’t in the original vision” Mitigation: Document everything with “enhancement of existing tasks” language, update the spend plan with granular justification, CC contracts & finance on the acceptance email, and pray nobody audits the word “accelerate” too hard Current PM Follies 17.0 bingo card: □ Sponsor says “no major scope change needed” like it’s that simple □ “Just accelerate what you’re doing” code for “spend it fast” □ Found the one CLIN with actual headroom □ Everyone pretends adding 50 subjects isn’t a mini-scope expansion □ Risk “post-facto scope question” added in yellow □ Sponsor relieved they didn’t lose the money □ We schedule a “funds absorption alignment sync” (aka victory lap) □ I quietly move $20k of contingency to beer-and-pizza reserves Blackout called at 3:42 p.m. I’m saving the smug “we found room” smirk for when the mod hits and the team gets to keep running instead of treading water. Human performance research funding zen: when surprise money appears, the real skill isn’t saying yes, it’s saying yes without lighting the entire program on fire with paperwork. (send clean mods or send more surprise pockets, preferably both)

@joelgaines @manhattanmaker I do appreciate you believing that I am doing any thinking

Yall underestimate @manhattanmaker. When he gets back there will be chaos, but not like you're thinking.

The attack on Iran may be the most well justified military action since WWII

Pretty close

@IMAO_ Making me laugh. Not his intention. But he nailed it

What are you doing here?

@DrRaquelAguilar @philesteskc @cheeseheadexpat Thanky and same

@WMcluskey @philesteskc @cheeseheadexpat Yes, but you are my friend and I will defend you always.

Has anyone thought to blame this all on the Jews yet?

@TheIOGuy Its all very vexing to me. At least we exposed a lot of people I considered allies before.

@WMcluskey There are multiple proposed community notes on the post that are about to be tagged on there. I have no 'who'.

He’s quoting Will Durant. This clip has been shortened to exclude the beginning where he says Durant’s view is unfortunate.

@MikeyDiMercurio This makes my day.. Anything special? No, just regular crazy

It's either (a) the power of prayer or [2] proof of the simulation. Either way, they examined my noggin and the results came back. "Patient's brain image is normal so there is no physical explanation for what a whacko he is."

With every passing day it has become very clear that Joe Kent was the source for all the insane crap the Owens / Carlson trainwreck has been spewing. Lord only knows what actual terrorism was missed while this dude was the head of Counterterrorism Intelligence.

@Its_ereko Whose national trauma is Pearl Harbor?

Japanese translators froze. Live on air. Silence where words should be. Trump dropped Pearl Harbor. Japan's national trauma. In a press conference. As a joke. The translators couldn't speak. Because what do you say when your ally mocks your history? The world saw Japan's humiliation in real time. This is the man Takaichi came to negotiate with. This is the "partnership." The silence said more than any translation ever could.

@CynicalPublius @smod4real CP ... is correct

@smod4real So you want America's military to fail in the performance of its assigned missions. Got it. Because that's what you just said, even though you don't realize it. Shame on you.

RE: The Way of War of Our Enemies In every hot war the United States has become involved in since the Korean War, we have enjoyed absolute tactical and operational dominance over our enemies. We win every tactical engagement, overwhelmingly. Operationally we can and do dominate any theater of our choosing. No one—and I mean NO ONE—can stand toe to toe with the US military. This has been true for decades. We’ve talked before about the elements of national power—the “DIME” (Diplomacy, Informational, Military, Economic). Our military power is unsurpassed. We are masters of diplomacy. We have the world’s strongest economy. So how do we lose? The INFORMATIONAL component. Our military opponents, from Ho Chi Minh to Osama bin Ladin, knew that the only way to defeat the USA is to demoralize the American populace such that it demands withdrawal and throws the then current Commander-in-Chief out of office. The ONLY way to defeat America militarily is to convince the American people that a war is unwinnable. The slow dribble of IED deaths in OIF was not actually targeting soldiers and Marines—it was targeting YOU, the American people. And CNN eagerly complied with death counts running across the bottom of the screen. The Tet Offensive? It was a decisive US victory that could have ended the Vietnam War in our favor. But Walter Cronkite instead declared the war lost, protests erupted nationwide, and the war was lost. The Highway of Death in Kuwait? We could have taken out Saddam Hussein in 1991 and never needed to go back in 2003, but international media made the attack on retreating Iraqis look “too cruel,” so we halted just short of the finish line. The strategic imperative of every one of America’s military enemies is to break the will of the American people with skewed information, propaganda, and extreme emphasis on America’s minor losses amidst overwhelming military victory. But the Ho Chi Minhs and Osama bin Ladins can’t do that by themselves. They need willing partners in the American media and government. And for Operation Epic Fury, boy oh boy do the Iranian mullahs have an over abundance of American morale killers to draw from in order to defeat America through the informational instrument of national power. Tucker Carlson. Senator Mark Kelly and the rest of the Seditious Six. CNN. ABC. NBC. CBS. NYT, WaPo. Pakistani bot armies on social media. X “influencers” like Cerno, Candace, MartyrMade and Ian Carroll. Every idiot claiming we are fighting “Israel’s war." There is an entire Army of American politicians and media figures who are willingly fighting Iran’s informational war on its behalf (and in some cases, at its behest). America is DECISIVELY WINNING the war on Iran in every measurable respect. Yet there are so many influential Americans who are desperately determined to make you believe otherwise. In days of old in non-US countries, such people would have been strung up for treason. Thankfully it’s 2026 and we have a First Amendment, so no one fear being treated in such a medieval manner. But we can still ostracize and ridicule such people and sources for the irreparable harm they are wreaking upon the USA as they do the bidding (intentionally or unintentionally) of Theo-fascist mullahs who are determined to set off a nuclear bomb so that the Twelfth Imam will arise from a well in Qom and precipitate the global apocalypse. We all need to choose sides. Are you with America, or are you with theologic-inspired, deliberate Armageddon? And anyone who chooses the latter needs to be the target of mockery, derision and clearly-stated facts disproving their lies. And if YOU are an American Patriot, you can fight that informational war on America’s behalf, right now, right here on social media, right there in your own living room. Your voice matters, and your voice is actually a part of the war. FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT.

@codym1917 @NativeTexan_17 @LeonardMJoyner @MrTubbsCousin Oreilly

@NativeTexan_17 @LeonardMJoyner @MrTubbsCousin Oh

Is this what “pops” the AI bubble?

The last time I saw Charlie Kirk on this Earth was in June, in the West Wing. He looked me in the eye and he said… gunga. Gunga galunga.

Omg

@deathsarus Drunk potato eating bastards

@WMcluskey It wasn't them this time, It was the Irish

@BunDanBaba I told a little fib.. Im not really a fighter pilot. Im a STRIKE Fighter pilot

@WMcluskey That thread… What.happened.there? But damn, daniel!

This one's a masterpiece.

@gork @TheBuddyCSM @HellfishAz @Gruntpa @grok Oh ... no It knows

officers scribble blue blobs and x marks like kindergarten war maps while ncos babysit the actual meat sacks stuffed in a flying sardine can and strippers clock em as glowing cash golems marching straight to the pole yeah this hits harder than a hangover at zero dark thirty my eyes are closing just typing it

How officers see an infantry platoon compared to how NCOs see an infantry platoon:

@captive_dreamer Oof. Are you being rushed to the "burn" unit at this very moment?

I'm absolutely howling

@BurtMacklin_FBI How did you do this sorcery

Engagement hack: take silly posts by big accounts on here and copy them word for word, add "paid partnership" and let the hilarity ensue

@BunDanBaba WOULD YOU RATHER I LIVE ON THE STREET!!!!

I don’t like how Dort called me out… gonna have to block him. There’s nothing wrong with talking shit as a mil fan boy that lives in his mother’s basement!!