Open Thread – 13 August 2023

Posted on August 13, 2023 by TTG

There’s plenty going on out there, but I’m busy with a new bunny in the house. Perhaps something new on bats later.

TTG

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107 Responses to Open Thread – 13 August 2023

  1. walrus says:
    August 13, 2023 at 3:53 pm

    If you are a Democrat, tell Joe Biden to get his ass on Airforce One and head. to hawaii right *&^&* now.. If you are a republican tell trump to get there before Biden and I guarantee the first man there will win the election. Now that’s the political angle.

    As far as tragedy goes, from the helicopter footage and my own experience, this is an unfolding tragedy that isn’t yet comprehended by the politicians or the media….yet. This is big. Even the first responders and military will have cases of PTSD over this fire. Neat rows of nails in the ash where floor joists were, empty square holes in the dirt where posts stood, now empty, not even charcoal. That’s what firestorms do.

    Our former idiot Prime Minister was on holidays while I and tens of thousands were fighting fires. – this six second sound bite followed him to the next election and destroyed him.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW0UPRa1i8I

    • F&L says:
      August 13, 2023 at 7:54 pm

      You have a high estimate of our politicians. You think they care about votes over a natural catastrophe that took between 93 and 1000 lives while they let 100,000 die of fentanyl and other drugs per year, over 700 mass shootings, flood the country with illegal immigrants from an open border etc? They win votes for being crueler than their opponents, not otherwise. It’s primary season. Nixon said a republican candidate has to go as far right as possible to win the gop nomination and then tack to the center for the general. The democrats already skrewed themselves and everyone else by trying to outwoke the woke – i.e. practicing sensitivity over a human rights issue. And Democrats start the wars – see Vietnam and Obama overthrowing Kiev in 2014 or Joe Biden now. Plus they’re in a World War with Russia & China up next. If they appeared to be concerned about mass casualty events, their adversaries might get the mistaken impression that their own threats to retaliate as in MAD might be a good strategy because American leaders valued the lives of their own citizens. They don’t. See Hurricane Katrina or their willingness to lose 40million American lives or more during their nuclear war gamesmanship with the old USSR. Americans vote, if they do, out of their passion for the hate fest that Presidential elections inspire every four years. Not because they care about human life. People in general are ridiculous. A commie dictator can kill all their sparrows? No, the people will do it because he said to. And then a few million of them will die at the hands of his secret police because a famine ensues due to his policies so he needs to blame someone else – them. But if a foreigner criticizes the dictator they will outdo each other to defend him. US politicians would burn down their grandparents houses and rob their graves two weeks later if they thought it would help them get reelected. But maybe there’s an opportunity for Joe Biden to pound his index finger into the chest of a weeping victim or representative while being filmed in the Maui airport. So he might show up.

    • billy roche says:
      August 13, 2023 at 10:20 pm

      Walrus; u r b/h the times. The American Democratic Party entered a death watch some 30 years ago, about 1992. During that summer’s convention dems c/n bring themselves to add a plank to defend Israel and argued over symbols and anthems praising America. It was the first time the mask began to slip from the party’s face and the first time I asked “who are they, really?” The slide to socialism really started in 1900 with the so called Progressives. It continued slowly but inexorably and today there is no longer a traditional dem. party in America. If they had any honesty dems would openly admit they are socialist (I give socialist Sanders credit for that, and AOC as well). Today it’s a political party which hates everything about America starting with meritocracy, competition, capitalism, and traditional love of country. U R right, Biden “belongs” in Hawaii now. But he will only go if there are political points to be made. Political points, not humanitarian compassion.

      • F&L says:
        August 14, 2023 at 6:10 am

        Mr billy roche,
        It’s difficult, from my obscured vantage point, to ascertain whether you are an overly cautious and frankly (though the thought is appalling), even possibly a wimpish variety of person who exercises excessive tact and diplomacy out of an indiscriminate sensitivity and regard for people’s feelings or something even worse such as an entity who I cannot permit myself the indulgence to let a whisper of it escape my thoughts and leak onto these blog pages. But then a bluebird of serenity visited me in a vision and said “you know it’s just possible he doesn’t check the Daily Telegraph every morning, and you’re being your usual merciless self to a kind old man who despises socialism and by the lord’s discretion suffers with too much patriotism due to the British burning of our Capitol in 1812 to even consider consulting a publication from that nation of .. ” And then the bluebird vanished from my dream and I awoke to find this link below in my inbox. And then I was overcome with terror and gratitude, realizing that God was sparing you from full contemplation and appreciation of horrifying facts about the Democratic party USA which might cause you to fall into despair.
        And so I kneeled and prayed to the lord of our forefathers like this:

        Please, stern master of all things and lord of hosts, allow your servant billy roche, afflicted at your discretion with sensitivity and a forgiving nature, to see the photographs published at this link, because you are also a merciful lord.
        ————————————

        Obama revealed he thought about ‘making love to men daily’ in unearthed letter.
        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/13/barack-obama-letter-make-love-to-men-imagination-redacted/
        The former US president wrote about his androgynous mind in previously redacted letters 40 years ago to an ex-girlfriend.
        Barack Obama wrote that he made love to men every day “in the imagination” in a letter to an ex-girlfriend that has surfaced 40 years later.

        The comments were revealed in correspondences with Alex McNear, in November 1982, which were previously redacted to remove the more salacious parts.

        In one letter, a 21-year-old Mr Obama wrote: “In regard to homosexuality, I must say that I believe this is an attempt to remove oneself from the present, a refusal perhaps to perpetuate the endless farce of earthly life. You see, I make love to men daily, but in the imagination.”

        He went on to suggest he wanted to train his brain to become more balanced in the approach to men and women.
        Androgynous’ mind.
        “My mind is androgynous to a great extent and I hope to make it more so until I can think in terms of people, not women as opposed to men. But, in returning to the body, I see that I have been made a man, and physically in life, I choose to accept that contingency.”
        It is not clear if Mr Obama was referring to sexual fantasies about men or merely making a point about engaging intellectually.

        The excerpts inside a letter – which is currently held by Emory University, a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia – were previously redacted by Ms McNear, who went out with Mr Obama when they were both students at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

        Some of the contents were revealed earlier this month by David Garrow, who wrote a 1,472-page book on Mr Obama’s rise in 2017: Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama.

        Such is the sensitivity of the letter that the university has refused to allow it to be photographed. Instead, Mr Garrow arranged for the contents to be transcribed and sent to him. (Continued at link)

        • billy roche says:
          August 14, 2023 at 11:57 am

          Thanks for caring. Empathy is often missing today. I’m neither wimpish nor “overly” cautious. I try (not always successfully) to be diplomatic b/c that’s how I imagined Col. Lang (who was sometimes not!) would want correspondents to his blog to be. He wanted informed and useful commentary from correspondents so sometimes days go by and I can offer nothing. But I read posts regularly. As to my comments on the dead dem. party I only hope some patriotic Americans who still think they are dems. will awake and realize their party is no longer their party. I don’t believe they can make common cause w/a group of people who hate America. That is all.

          • F&L says:
            August 14, 2023 at 1:49 pm

            And the fact that the Democratic president Barack Obama fantasized about loving men does not melt your cold heart even a bit in that party’s favor?
            Mr roche you are a hard customer.

            You’re quite right though that the D party as now configured hates a great deal, but I’m not sure what.

            Ironically it was the defeat of the USSR that brought the final betrayal under Clinton. The commies and socialists brought the US it’s worker and civil rights because it was a huge international movement that the US capitalists had to compete with. Once it disappeared so did everything that the Democratic party used to pretend to stand for. The republicans aren’t even worth discussing especially these days. They are lizards.

            It’s God for no one and every man for himself since Yeltsin took the reins from Gorby.

          • billy roche says:
            August 14, 2023 at 6:01 pm

            F&L; my heart rarely melts. The dems began their embrace of socialism with the Populist movement (had to be popular right) and then the Progressive Movement (and it had to be progress right). By 1900 they had committed themselves to labor and held capital in contempt. They were thrown off their anti Americanism by WW I, WWII, Korea, and initially Nam. By ’70 their mask was beginning to drop. Twenty years later their true face began to show. Socialism is just the economics of envy supported by the politics of fascism. If you don’t agree w/today’s socialist dems they have no tolerance for you. If they are ascendant they will bring back the gulag. So watch your ass. As to the GOP, it was hijacked in the election of ’48 by the Dewey gang of “professional” politicians and has never looked back. Yes, they are lizards and care for nothing but themselves. I’ll try to make my opinion clear. They are lying disreputable scumbags not worth the sweat on my stool. You have socialist zealots on your left and n’re do wells on your right. That is the state of American politics today. Does that melt your heart.

          • F&L says:
            August 14, 2023 at 7:16 pm

            Thank you billy. You are the winner and still champ. Well said. You’ve made a believer out of me. I like when you take off the gloves.

  2. Barbara Ann says:
    August 13, 2023 at 6:46 pm

    New bunny, as in Bugs? Would love to hear about that – or bats. We have a bat nesting under the eaves and at dusk if I wait patiently I can watch him dive out to go hunting. One of life’s small pleasures. Another one recently was rescuing a baby wren which my daughter brought over one evening after work. Someone had left 2 foundlings in a shoe box outside the door. One died, but a week and a half of feeding its sibling a mixture of egg yolk and crushed meal worms (with a syringe at first) did the job. We let it go after it started flying around the house cra**ing everywhere.

    In other news, it seems the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 and the response to it was pre-planned has reached Senatorial level. I’m very surprised Fox aired this. Something will have to be done.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/sen-ron-johnson-says-pandemic-preplanned-elite-group-people-who-conducted-event-201

    • TTG says:
      August 13, 2023 at 8:20 pm

      Barbara Ann,

      Our new bunny is a rescue from the Richmond Animal Care & Control. He was found in the Oregon Hill district of Richmond running wild. He’s definitely a domesticated rabbit either let loose or escaped. Judging by his claws and behavior, he’s been on his own for a while, although he’s settling into a house rabbit’s life very nicely.

      We’ve had pet rabbits since our time in Germany where the DODDS school science class had almost a zoo. We first adopted two and when the school was closing down due to downsizing, we took in two more. We paid for four to come back to the States with us when we returned. Over the years we adopted a few more from local animal shelters. We’ve been rabbitless for a few years, but my younger son has two adopted rabbits in his quite large house. My older son has stuck with tropical fish.

      Congratulations on rearing that young wren. It says a lot about you and your daughter.

  3. Fred says:
    August 13, 2023 at 6:50 pm

    A bunny? “sigh”. That’s like a Texan having “a” gun. There’s only one way to do that right. A brace of coneys. And taters.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdMqdjhRAYs
    Unless you like them raw and wriggly.

    Walrus,

    Did the 81 million ballot guy make it to Ohio? That was a disaster, the response was worse.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsw4ZKkLQp8

    Here the state government has done a very bad job of risk management:
    “… Authorities have confirmed sirens were not sounded in Lahaina, and acknowledged evacuation alerts didn’t reach many because cell phone towers and power had already been lost…”
    https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/08/13/live-governor-maui-county-hold-news-conference-with-latest-wildfire-response/
    There more bad news for local government, whose officials should be voted out of office, but ….Barack, Bezos and the big O (Oprah) all have homes that are untouched. I wonder when they’ll do the fundraiser…..

    • TTG says:
      August 13, 2023 at 8:40 pm

      Fred,

      We can’t eat rabbit any more than a dog lover would eat dog.

      Bezos just donated $100M to the Hawaii wildfires relief fund. Saw a video of Oprah handing out new pillows to the displaced. Hope that’s not the full extent of her help. You’re right about Obama. He should be doing one hell of a fundraiser.

      Hawaii did a terrible job of fire risk management, but I don’t know if sounding those sirens would have helped matters or not. The sirens always sounded for tsunami warnings. They were tested monthly when I lived there and they were always associated with danger from the sea, not from the land. Hearing them may have sent people heading towards the flames.

      • F&L says:
        August 13, 2023 at 9:22 pm

        Did you see New York City’s 3 minute film clip last year which advised residents that if the city was hit with hydrogen bombs that all they had to do was go inside and they’d be all set? A nice young confident slim and trim young person of color of a coffee with lots of cream or half n half said it. So you knew they wouldn’t be lying.

        And you said to yourself: “I’m going to vote for the people in power when that wonderfully helpful video was made with tax payer and borrowed money and distributed on the internet! What if they hadn’t made it or distributed it widely and my friends, loved ones and family hadn’t seen it and we stayed out on the swing set during a hydrogen bomb attack?”

        And then you realized you might have left a bunny outside too and you said, that’s it, I’m going to donate my spare time and really get out the vote!

      • scott s. says:
        August 13, 2023 at 10:31 pm

        From what I read today, much of MFD was fighting the Kula fire in upcountry (think, Oprah neighborhood, but not to save her estate, many homes also burnt up there — there’s also lots of McMansions up there on what used to be A&B sugar land ). At 1530 it sounds like Lahaina fire went out of control, and by 1630 things were beyond hope. I would guess it takes a minimum of 30-40 min to get apparatus from point A to point B, and that’s without traffic with only 2 ways out (N and S). Looks like so many died in their cars!

        As far as politics, this will be a test for Gov Green who was elected last Nov. Years ago Maui did elect a republican mayor (though county elections are officially non-partisan) Linda Lingle. Due to some fortuitous situations with democrat corruption she was able to use that to become gov. But in the financial crisis she imposed “Furlough Friday” on the public workers and you just don’t do that here. So her LG Duke Aiona ran to replace her but there’s no way the unions would allow that.

        As far as civil defense, we had the alert that Korean missile was inbound and Gov Ige didn’t know his Twitter password which was needed for some reason to pass a “false alert” (it was supposed to be a test message but went “live”). We had people stuffing their kids down manholes. They didn’t sound the sirens then so I ignored the text message (I did turn on AM radio — child of the 50s after all — and there was nothing so concluded to ignore frantic smart phone alerts).

        • F&L says:
          August 14, 2023 at 11:52 am

          Interesting. Was he following orders so that Kim Jun Dum would see the panic and desist, thinking he scored a great victory? Usually I’d say no, it’s a case of simple incompetence. But look who gives the orders lately.

    • F&L says:
      August 13, 2023 at 9:31 pm

      Fred,
      Gadzooks, you’ve discovered who set the fires so they could demonstrate how much democrat ex presidents and mega billionaires really care enough to kill a few hundred people just to get Joe Biden reelected as the nicest man in the world with the most famous and charitable friends! (And can even spare a pillow).

      • Fred says:
        August 14, 2023 at 8:25 am

        F&L,

        I hear there were 60+ mph winds coming down off the mountain. Knowing how our politicians and billionaire share blow hards I made a natural conclusion. Plus electric power lines in that well managed state blowing and arcing, just like California under the Newby guy.

        Of course I only heard this thanks to TTG ‘s link spuring me to get a way from the electionstream media and stories about Florida lobster (better than the yankee kind) and red snapper (the only good Red). I am shocked though, just shocked, that the good lady who once gave away cars is now handing out My Pillows. Bidenomics is worse than I thought.

        • F&L says:
          August 14, 2023 at 11:58 am

          There was the giant red rat of Sumatra of one of Conan Doyle’s last Sherlock Holmes series. But you’re right – Sherlock said to Watson,

          “The tale of the Red Rat of Sumatra, Watson, which the world is not yet ready for.”

          Which Dr Watson cited in his explanation to his creator’s readers as to why he wasn’t going to tell them about it. So how good could it have been?

  4. drifter says:
    August 13, 2023 at 8:18 pm

    I think this blog still has a chance to be part of the Ukraine conversation. I would have said “a useful part” two months ago, but now just “a part”. On the present trajectory, you’re flat-lined pretty soon.

    • TTG says:
      August 13, 2023 at 9:26 pm

      drifter,

      You’re free to dine on a pure diet of MacGregor and Ritter if you choose.

      • billy roche says:
        August 13, 2023 at 10:44 pm

        I wrote quite awhile ago that I drove up to New Paltz to see/hear some guy named Ritter talk about the situation in Iraq. I thought Bush “the decider” made a terrible decision in 2003, horrible, and I wanted to see who this guy Ritter was. He was interesting. Funny, in the crowd some of the same idiots who graduated w/me back in ’68 were still protesting anything American. What I remember most about Ritter was his hatred for America over took his story. He must have failed Public Speaking 101.

    • F&L says:
      August 13, 2023 at 9:37 pm

      You’re really an ungrateful and very inconsiderate human being. This blog goes out of its way and does research and analysis everyday for many purposes. But the primary one is so that ungrateful humorless individuals such as your esteemed self will at least find someone they can think they feel superior to and not give up entirely on life.

      And another thing – how many homeless bunnies to you nurture and bring back to life every year? That many! I thought so.

      • drifter says:
        August 18, 2023 at 6:57 pm

        Dear F&L – Thank you for calling out some of my many faults. I will ask God for the graces to overcome them at Mass this coming Sunday. But I don’t know anything about the bunnies.

  5. F&L says:
    August 13, 2023 at 9:09 pm

    Here’s a nice vegetarian and teetotaling distinguished head of state who would never eat a bunny. It’s so fantastically sick I have to post it under the header –

    What if Nazi Germany had Nazi Twitter (now X) during the second world war?
    To understand stand why, turn to time = 1 minute. (Or watch the whole thing it’s only 2 minutes in length anyway).

    “No one says anything about the tens of thousands who asphyxiate themselves out of despair every year .. .”

    If you show this to a friend or relative over 55 who doesn’t understand how a meme-making Twitter user of 1943 Germany (or earlier in the thirties when the gassing of mental patients was in full swing before the Archbishop of Mainz shut it down) might have some mischievous fun at the old WWI Corporal and mass murderer’s expense, just be amusesd and continue to enjoy your day and be grateful they don’t teach history.

    Hitler Speech – “We Shall Never Capitulate!”
    https://youtu.be/Jy3Mv3uMoxI

    It’s a very strange world and you live in it.

    • TTG says:
      August 13, 2023 at 9:23 pm

      F&L,

      The Jesuits showed us the full “Triumph of the Will” film in high school to show us the power and danger of what we now call information operations and perception management. They taught us history back then.

      • F&L says:
        August 13, 2023 at 9:52 pm

        TTG,
        I walked 5 miles to school every day and back and farther once we moved. My closest older friends killed squirrels with rocks from well over 90 ft pretending they were pitching no hitters at the world series, so their moms would have something to cook for dinner. We were taught by WW2 and WWI veterans and all our neighbors fought or stayed inside never appearing in public if not unless they were really old, but really old people don’t go out anyway. If you didn’t stand for the Star Spangled Banner at as much as a JV football game they would tell the local police that you were a child molester. Germans, who actually did live in the same neighborhoods, if they didn’t serve – were never ever ever seen, and as kids we were told never to ring their bells on Halloween because the people who lived there were suspected of eating little children. In short – it was a wonderful time.

        • TTG says:
          August 13, 2023 at 10:09 pm

          F&L,

          I was lucky. Our house was right next to our grammar school. I even got to play on my own swing set during recess. We did have a lot of WWII and Korean War vets as teachers. Mr. Grey, a language arts and social studies teacher was an OS2U Kingfisher pilot flying off a cruiser catapult. He had some great stories. My father shot the squirrels with his 20 gauge and fried ’em up himself. We never threw rocks at them.

        • scott s. says:
          August 13, 2023 at 10:44 pm

          Grew up in suburban Milwaukee. On my Dad’s side were Wisconsin pioneers, but his mother was SE Wis German, and my Dad would relate how there was suspicion about who was in the “Bund”.

          Since Hawaii has been a topic lately, there was a Hawaii business of note “Hackfeld” that during WWI thought better of things and was reborn as “American Factors”.

      • ked says:
        August 14, 2023 at 4:20 pm

        a friend’s Dad, from the Balkans, was an engineering student in Germany, late ’30s. he attended one of adolf’s pep rallies in company with fellow students who were German. he related his experience to a small group of us when we were heading off to college in the early ’70s.
        he was overwhelmed by the power of the little guy … his outsized control over the assemblage of all types & ages. he felt it a tragedy he wasn’t born German… he wanted so much to be close to the power, in that same vaunted class.
        that feeling wore down as time passed, the effect abated, news from home trended tragic for some of his friends. he became sickened – ashamed of himself for the impact that experience had on him. & I think he was confessing to us as a practical warning in the face of intriguing sickness… in the source, society & ourselves.
        the price of fealty to political sickness via amorality is high. at this American juncture is victory so worthy that the highest price is a good deal? are we comfortable w/ innocent’s death & certain of virtuous consequence? are we beyond social evil & personal shame?

        • Barbara Ann says:
          August 14, 2023 at 7:18 pm

          ked

          Hitler relates in Mein Kampf how his oratorical gifts made his father “somewhat anxious”. He was undoubtedly a brilliant speaker who was able to put almost everyone who heard him under his spell. The resulting combination with Goebbels’ propaganda machine was lethal.

          I am presently reading Diary of a man in despair by Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen. It is the account of a witness to the political and moral sickness that overcame the whole German nation during the mass psychosis which accompanied Nazis rule. Reck’s testimony doesn’t feel as out of place today as it should.

        • F&L says:
          August 14, 2023 at 8:41 pm

          Tired of consulting for Vampire movies or showing the Frankenstein monster how to hide the latest head of an innocent little child that he clumsily plucked off again, thinking it might be a flower? It gets the best of us down in the mouth.

          Don’t deprive yourself. See the original vivid spectrum of colors, the garishly costumed and uniformed gentle folk of 1930s Deutschland (Uber Alles). It’s the closest thing to being there.

          Adolf Hitler | Consolidation of Power
          https://youtu.be/Jd1hRoYLK_U

          Will they cover his murder of his loving young niece Geli with whom he carried on a mild affair of incest? Don’t believe everything you hear. Was Marilyn Monroe done in by powerful men who remain behind the sordid curtains of history? Stay tuned.

  6. John Merryman says:
    August 13, 2023 at 10:10 pm

    Like the leather awl. Comes in handy for lots of things.

  7. English Outsider says:
    August 13, 2023 at 11:32 pm

    On the wildfire, looks as if it was just waiting to happen.

    https://www.turbulenttimes.co.uk/news/front-page/wildfires-a-significant-oversight/

    It didn’t look like the situation where a controlled burn would have prevented the disaster. But maybe a mown firebreak would have. In Australia and California there’s a clash between conservation imperatives and fire precautions of that sort around houses. Did those considerations prevent precautionary measures in this case?

    • TTG says:
      August 14, 2023 at 12:01 am

      EO,

      All that land surrounding Lahaina was once well managed sugar cane plantation. As part of the harvesting, it was control burned prior to it being cut down and sent to the sugar mill. In the 2010s, and maybe earlier, sugar cane became a losing proposition. As Richard North, our Scott S. and many others have said, the fallow fields now taken over by invasive grasses are a tremendous fire risk compared to managed sugar cane fields. Rehabilitating that area and managing it will require a massive effort, probably federally funded.

  8. Keith Harbaugh says:
    August 14, 2023 at 9:04 am

    “In the 2010s, and maybe earlier, sugar cane became a losing proposition.”
    Curious about the economic factors that caused that.

    • Fred says:
      August 14, 2023 at 10:37 am

      Regulations.

      • TTG says:
        August 14, 2023 at 12:17 pm

        Fred,

        That’s the simplest and most accurate answer to Keith’s question I can imagine. The sugar barons brought about the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy because of royal demands made on the industry. But becoming a US territory brought US labor laws and regulation. In the 1950s, tariffs and trade protections were being dismantled. The loss of those regulatory protections crippled the industry. Further trade liberalization and foreign competition finally did it in.

        • Fred says:
          August 14, 2023 at 2:16 pm

          TTG,

          Protective tariffs (or their elimination) and OSHA rules were not causes of this tragedy.

          • TTG says:
            August 14, 2023 at 2:40 pm

            Fred,

            The lifting of protective tariffs on foreign sugar has everything to do with the collapse of the Hawaiian sugar industry. Once the US labor standards were applied to Hawaiians, the sugar barons couldn’t treat them like indentured serfs anymore thus raising labor costs.

          • Fred says:
            August 14, 2023 at 6:50 pm

            TTG,

            We still sanction Cuban and Venezuelan sugar. Mechanization replaced a great deal of that manual labor.

    • Sam says:
      August 14, 2023 at 8:51 pm

      The history of sugar is the history of slavery, exploitation, racism, protectionism, state intervention, interest groups, big corporations and many Latin American countries, including Mexico. This book captures all of it splendidly.

      https://twitter.com/jorge_guajardo/status/1691199121284009984?s=21

      This book should satiate your curiosity.

    • John Minehan says:
      August 18, 2023 at 12:20 pm

      Corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup.

  9. walrus says:
    August 14, 2023 at 12:10 pm

    Biden has just outed himself as an unelectable POS. When asked about the tragedy in Hawaii his response was “no comment”.

    He is finished. It’s playing on Twitter now.

    • John Minnerath says:
      August 14, 2023 at 1:40 pm

      Even though by now Biden’s out of touch comments have become regular, his recent comment on the terrible fire in Hawaii is beyond the pale.

    • F&L says:
      August 14, 2023 at 1:59 pm

      Was he ever an electable piece of shit? He lost every single time he tried. Only an orange bozo with a half million pandemic deaths heading to 1 million + and wide open mail in ballots got him over the top finally. He never could have defeated a real politician in a fair election – just listen to his speeches. And I’m not saying the election was rigged. It looks like to get reelected he has to send trump to prison. I’m not saying Trump isn’t an atrocious bastard who doesn’t deserve jail, he does. I’m just pointing out how low this system has sunk.

      Say hello to a President Kamala Harris in our future unless I am mistaken. It doesn’t require a crystal ball. Or maybe we can hope for a Josephine (Konstantine) Bidenenko who lives forever.

    • ked says:
      August 14, 2023 at 3:43 pm

      while the other piece of shit is just ducky, eh?

      • F&L says:
        August 14, 2023 at 7:21 pm

        More like sucky in my opinion. But he’s plucky, I’ll give him that. Billy Roche hit a tape measure shot in an earlier reply. Sums it up nicely.

    • TTG says:
      August 14, 2023 at 4:27 pm

      walrus,

      Biden’s “no comment” was tone deaf and not surprising coming from the gaff master. He could have done better. But he should not be traveling to Maui right now and definitely not to Lahaina. He would be getting in the way of real help just to get a photo op. That would be a POS move. But he should be going there soon to reinforce the help he already set in motion with the federal disaster declaration and authorization of use of the military.

      • walrus says:
        August 14, 2023 at 5:18 pm

        With respect TTG, Biden is in “holiday mode” right now. That is absolutely and completely inappropriate, wrong, stupid and dangerous.

        The correct position for Biden right now is in the Whitehouse. He should already have made a national broadcast with a message to Hawaiians. That message should include his intent to visit ASAP.

        There are two reasons for that one is Presidential and concerns the victims. The other is that as commander in chief his forces are working their butts off, as are everyone involved in the recovery effort. They need their boss on hand.

        “No comment” doesn’t cut it.

        By way of example, the moralising, holier than thou POS Scott Morrison, was discovered skulking on a secret holiday (in hawaii no less) while the Australian defence forces and twenty thousand volunteers were trying to stop the New South Wales fires in 2019/2020 that burnt 13 million acres.

        When he was caught and made to sheepishly return to work his response to media accusations was” ” But I don’t hold a fire hose” (in Australian : I don’t hold a hose mate”. That excuse was broadcast again and again and became the epitaph of his government.

        It’s time for Biden to man up or quit the field.

        • TTG says:
          August 14, 2023 at 6:42 pm

          walrus,

          Inappropriate or politically stupid? Maybe. Perhaps you missed the 9 August written statement released by Biden detailing the immediate federal assistance provided and urging tourist evacuation from Maui. This is in addition to the declaration of a federal emergency. Actions beyond this right now are just optics. His presence in Maui will be appropriate in the near future, but not while all those now homeless survivors are stuck in their cars on the only road to Lahaina. His presence right now would impede rescue and recovery efforts.

      • Peter Hug says:
        August 17, 2023 at 10:09 am

        New York Times is saying that President Biden will be going to Lahaina on Monday; the timing was coordinated with the Governor in order to minimize disruption to the search and recovery efforts. I don’t particularly think he’s mismanaged this yet (although there’s plenty of room for that still to come in the rebuilding phase).
        https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/us/politics/biden-hawaii-maui-wildfires.html

  10. blue peacock says:
    August 14, 2023 at 2:15 pm

    Chairman James Comer says Republicans on the Oversight Committee have ‘no confidence’ in Special Counsel David Weiss and insists his panel will continue its investigation into Hunter Biden.

    Comer said that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Weiss on Friday is ‘a joke,’ and says it only further proves the politicalization and weaponization of the Department of Justice.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12405045/Weiss-appointment-Hunter-Biden-special-counsel-joke-evidence-DOJ-weaponization-says-Rep-Comer.html

    This is correct. Now special counsel and also US attorney Weiss did a sweetheart deal with Hunter on the tax avoidance matter but sneaked in provisions providing him immunity from future prosecutions including the pay-to-play scheme with the Chinese, Russians and the Ukrainians. The judge blew up that deal precisely on the blanket immunity on unrelated matters.

    This is a perfect example of corruption at the highest levels in the DOJ. But….the Republican majority in the House will make a lot of noise but do nothing of consequence like impeaching AG Garland.

    • Al says:
      August 14, 2023 at 4:37 pm

      Blue, if Hunter Biden goes to trial look for the discovery process reveal the dozen or more interactions by Trump’s “private attorney” Guiliani (still unpaid, lol) with FBI/DOJ and his dirty water carried from Ukraine.
      Weiss knows what is in the file containing inappropriate political influence/pressure during the 3 yrs after his appointment by Barr. This likely motivation by Weiss to go lite and avoid trial discovery.

      • Fred says:
        August 14, 2023 at 5:00 pm

        Al,

        Guilliani was driving the investigation into Hunter? That’s the guys defense? LOL.

        “inappropriate political influence/pressure”
        Which law in the code of federal law makes ‘influence/pressure’ illegal?

    • billy roche says:
      August 14, 2023 at 9:41 pm

      Never expect the GOPe to do anything remotely controversial. That might cost them one vote somewhere sometime. Here’s the truth; they don’t care. They will “play fight” and then say “well we tried”. The old Rep. Party lost four times to socialist FDR. In ’48 Dewey took control, ousted conservative/libertarian coalition and “went professional”. Most nowadays are too young to remember the “boys of ’48”. Dewey, Romney, Nixon, Bush, Eisenhower, Rockefeller, and Ford. They are, and their descendants are still, men w/o any political tiller. They left Goldwater, Reagan, and Trump out to dry. The GOPe is a source of money for them and with the latter three in control they’d lose the dough. Better, for them, to have socialist in control, no Fed. Constitution, and no individual liberties, than to lose control of THEIR party to crazy conservative, libertarian, populists. I’ll make it simple. The socialists wish to overturn America and the GOPe (Rinos) don’t care as long as they keep a place at the table.

  11. blue peacock says:
    August 14, 2023 at 3:21 pm

    The moment that police using ‘Hitler tactics’ raided the Marion County Record newsroom has been caught on camera – just a day before the paper’s co-owner subsequently died.

    Joan Meyer, 98, collapsed and died following the intense stress and grief she felt when her home was raided by the entirety of the Marion Police Department in Kansas – headed by chief Gideon Cody.

    The elderly woman, who owned the newspaper with her son Eric, 69, was subjected to the raid by five officers and two sheriff’s deputies on Friday – after they green-lighted it to seize information related to a story that hadn’t even been published.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12405251/Moment-cops-raided-Marion-County-Record-newsroom-story-never-published-98-year-old-owner-died-mid-sentence-half-day-later-blasting-officers-Hitler-tactics.html

    Police state tactics.

    The entirety of the national security state apparatus is like an unelected 4th branch of government and unaccountable!

    What is funny if it wasn’t so tragic, is that the majority of contemporary Americans support state authoritarianism from civil forfeiture to warantless surveillance and of course just killing you in made up “encounters”. The covidian authoritarianism across pretty much every Western “rule-of-law” country backed by majorities, proves beyond a reasonable doubt what Col. Lang expressed – we are not the people our forefathers were. We have voluntarily surrendered our sovereignty as a free people for nothing in return.

    • F&L says:
      August 14, 2023 at 7:35 pm

      Right on. Douglas Valentine, who knows the originators of the Vietnam War Phoenix program and interviewed them at great length, says that since 911, the US Security state has been running a Phoenix program on the domestic American peoples. He wrote several very good books about it and the war on drugs.

    • Sam says:
      August 14, 2023 at 9:01 pm

      The police chief was being investigated for sexual misconduct by the newspaper. He used his entire force to intimidate.

      That is indeed police state tactics.

    • billy roche says:
      August 14, 2023 at 9:50 pm

      Who’s going to do anything about it.

      • Barbara Ann says:
        August 17, 2023 at 10:42 am

        billy roche

        All of us can do plenty about it. Unplugging from the propaganda machine is a very good start. I haven’t consumed any mainstream news in several years now and I’ve never felt better informed on what really matters. You can find all the ‘news’ you need on how the world really works on a few good blogs.

        You can of course still vote, but you can also vote with your $$. Boycott companies that deplatform people whose views you want to listen to and avoid Big Tech wherever possible. If you don’t like woke ‘values’ being forced on people don’t buy Bud Light or watch Disney. Use cash wherever you can. Get your friends to think and act the same way.

        We have much more power then we think, if we act collectively.

    • billy roche says:
      August 18, 2023 at 12:08 pm

      Fascist Gestpo/KGB tactics are the same. The American FIB today uses them so why not the “podunk” police dept? Roger Stone was subjected to them, so was Paul Manafort, and so was the guy who made the video that Clinton said was responsible for BenGhazi. In each case an early morning raid complete w/storm troopers, dogs, automatic weapons, and a very handy (accidentally of course) news crew were employed to scare the citizenry by the time the 7PM news was cast. There s/b no looking the other way. The state deliberately chose to do these tactics in our country. They were not accidental events. Neither state officials nor the US Congress did anything about it. We are now subjects of a socialist state. Come to think of it, I wonder if the FIB watches this blog? Ultimately socialism and liberty can not coexist. Many refuse to accept that fact.

  12. Keith Harbaugh says:
    August 14, 2023 at 3:27 pm

    Regarding the Garland/Weiss/Biden “Special Counsel” appointment,
    let me give my highest recommendation to Andrew C. McCarthy’s evisceration of that appointment:
    https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/08/garlands-special-counsel-appointment-in-the-biden-probe-is-a-farce/

    U.S. Attorney David Weiss is clearly ineligible for the job,
    and he has been appointed to it
    to cover up rather than uncover the Bidens’ corruption.

    And so on.

    See also an earlier column from the estimable Margot Cleveland:
    https://thefederalist.com/2023/07/31/are-the-doj-and-hunter-biden-attempting-to-commit-fraud-in-federal-court/

    Wish Robert Willmann would wake up from wherever he is and write on this.
    (Says a Rice ’67 graduate.)

    • billy roche says:
      August 17, 2023 at 12:28 pm

      With due respect to Barbara Ann and Andrew McCarthy, so what? Anyone with a scintilla of common sense knows that the fix is in and Weiss is the bag man intended to carry the goods. No one can (or will) do anything about it. Can Garland be any clearer? He is pushing it right in America’s face. BTW, McCarthy was a loyal ex DOIJ employee years ago when it was clear the FIB/DOIJ/DIA were involved in a plot to take down a legitimately elected President. He has no credibility. I question his honesty. Consider, socialist are for the destruction of America (some still think they are a members of a Democratic Party which hasn’t existed for 40 years), the GOPe doesn’t care as long as they keep a seat at the table, the media are b/c Pravda (The Truth???), and academia is filled with socialist sympathizers. Fascism is loose and there’s no one to rein it in. Careful what you say. You may be visited some 4AM by a FIB swat team w/dogs and automatic weapons. CBS cameras will happen to be in the neighborhood to record and publish the event on 7PM “News”. The better to “advise” the public. Who will/can do anything about it? It has been done recently and what has Congress done about it; nothing. A few years ago Col. Lang opined that “push back” will come from state governors. Is there a governor who comes to mind?

      • Fred says:
        August 17, 2023 at 1:36 pm

        BIlly,

        Order up some more Oh Whoa Is ME and do the same thing you’ve done for the last few decades. Most of all get on more websites and spread the ‘nothing will change’ mantra like you are doing now.

  13. Lars says:
    August 14, 2023 at 3:36 pm

    What those who get frothy over Hunter Biden, fail to consider, is that a Delaware jury may not convict him of anything, unless there is plenty of evidence of serious wrong doing. I am sure the prosecutor and now a special one is aware of this.

    • Sam says:
      August 14, 2023 at 4:43 pm

      That’s a big assumption on your part Lars. Not every Delaware resident in the potential jury pool is a tool for the Biden family. Some may still have integrity and call balls & strikes correctly.

      Everyone knows that this case will never go to trial as the prosecution (DOJ) does not want it as they prefer a plea deal where they can obfuscate and provide Hunter with blanket immunity. Weiss already did that with the plea deal which the judge in that case showed a semblance of integrity and has asked Weiss why the surreptitious blanket immunity in a separate agreement to the plea agreement? Weiss’s response so far is – Judge, you should not look into the details as the US, represented by me, wants to protect Hunter by getting him to agree to a wrist slap while ensuring he can’t be prosecuted for the influence peddling where discovery may lead to Joe himself.

      The egregious part here is AG Garland appointing Weiss special counsel to investigate the influence peddling when he already showed his cards by providing blanket immunity in the unrelated case of tax avoidance. One need not be a rocket scientist to know this stinks to high heaven. This is banana republic justice system.

      • F&L says:
        August 14, 2023 at 7:45 pm

        It’s almost as absurd as referring to Stalin as a nice Georgian seminary student who due to a visitation of the Virgin Mary one evening while at prayer, received a message to enter politics so that Godless communism would never overthrow and conquer holy mother Russia.

        Kiev coup. Burisma.

        “I am Joe Biden, a man you can trust. And laptops are well known weapons of Ru disinfo. See all those people at Starbucks? Now arrest them!”

      • billy roche says:
        August 14, 2023 at 9:46 pm

        It is why I have referred to the FBI as the FIB, the DOJ as the DOIJ, and the CIA as the Domestic Intelligence Agency. We are become 1935 facist. Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler would be proud.

        • F&L says:
          August 17, 2023 at 6:21 pm

          billy roche,

          You probably noticed that MAFIA also ends in IA.

          Murder Any F****ng Informer Agency?

          Massacre All Finks Immediately, A****le?

          Manicure After Fileting Indicated Adversaries?

  14. Al says:
    August 14, 2023 at 4:40 pm

    Weiss is moving charges out of Delaware to DC and Calif.

  15. al says:
    August 14, 2023 at 7:18 pm

    Fred, you asked, “… “inappropriate political influence/pressure”
    Which law in the code of federal law makes ‘influence/pressure’ illegal?”.

    Let’s go to the Constitution and SCOTUS decisions.

    Here’s some tidbits to chew on for an answer:
    https://www.theregreview.org/2020/06/29/coglianese-politics-prosecutors-procedural-fairness/

    Particularly: “… the Supreme Court upheld presidential authority to exert control over executive branch officials. The opinion in that case, Myers v. United States, reads as a paean of presidential power. But even so, the Court still acknowledged that fairness means that “the President cannot in a particular case” seek to “influence or control” those executive officials who possess “duties of a quasi-judicial character.” This description applies to federal prosecutors…”

    “…The Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be denied liberty or property “without due process of law.” This Due Process Clause found its way into the Bill of Rights because the framers had fresh memories of British “abuses and usurpations” from before the American Revolution.

    Many of those royal abuses involved process. The founders complained in the Declaration of Independence that the king of England had, among other things, “obstructed the administration of justice,” “made judges dependent on his will alone,” put together a “mock trial” to acquit his troops of crimes, and restricted jury trials…”

    “… [Trump] contravenes the Fifth Amendment if he seeks to influence prosecutors or judges in particular cases, because then they can no longer hope to “govern impartially.”

    “… The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that the Due Process Clause imposes a duty of basic procedural fairness. As the Court explained in Hebert v. Louisiana in 1926, fairness encompasses those “fundamental principles of liberty and justice which lie at the base of all our civil and political institutions.”

    Subsequently, “… Since Herbert, the Court has held many times that fundamental fairness specifically requires that criminal cases be decided by neutral, impartial adjudicators—ones free from improper pressures and influence…’

    • Fred says:
      August 17, 2023 at 8:42 am

      Al,

      “Cary Coglianese is the Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where….”

      The professor has an opinion, from 2020, regarding the firing of an employee of the Executive Branch.

      Which is entirely irrelevant to the charges against the former president. Nice try though. Perhaps you should take the beam out of your eye and observe the conduct of the current prosecutors in the Executive Branch as well as the various states.

      • Al says:
        August 17, 2023 at 11:20 am

        Fred, not “opinions, rather SCOTUS decisions!

        “Scotty, beam Fred up to reality!”

        • Fred says:
          August 17, 2023 at 1:40 pm

          Al,

          yes, that SC decision that said the President as head of the Executive Branch may fire any employee he likes. Just like he did while President. The article, predating the election, is still irrelevant but the Walls Are Closing In, again, this time in the State of Georgia under Georgia RICO law rather than federal law. Got another 3 year old article from a professor at the University Biden had some of his papers stored at you would like to throw out here to waste a bit more time?

        • F&L says:
          August 17, 2023 at 3:46 pm

          Precisely.

          Pressure grows on Claence Thomas to resign:
          https://youtu.be/1ecerTqjwxE

          Roberts & his missus don’t sound too lily white and pure either from the sound of it.

          Don’t fret, either Scotty is too fed up to beam Fred up or Fred is already beaming.

          • billy roche says:
            August 18, 2023 at 8:44 pm

            A voice in a dream may have appeared to you recently. It said “pressure from socialist propaganda organs” grows on Clarence Thomas to resign”. Small details are important.

  16. rick says:
    August 17, 2023 at 10:02 am

    F&L:
    As for the “Phoenix Program in the US”; the first time I ever got to know Col. Lang was when he schooled me on “the successes Phoenix Program”, of which he was a part. I wish this line could have been spouted while he was here to respond, though truthfully I am not sure what that response would have been.

    • F&L says:
      August 17, 2023 at 11:35 am

      rick,

      ➡️the successes Phoenix Program”, of which he was a part.⬅️

      Did you mean to type “successors of the Ph P of which …” ?

      I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it’s true that he played a role in establishing the Department of Homeland Security, which it seems he did, which is a primary feature of what Douglas Valentine was talking and writing about. Col Lang was open about being “to the right of Genghis Khan,” to quote him. He presented the opinion that the shooting to death of 18 school children and two teachers in Uvalde Texas while, as it turned out, 367 armed police looked on for 90 minutes was due a lazy teacher who forgot to shut a door or check carefully to determine whether or not it had locked properly. Sounds a great deal like a Phoenix program advocate to me.

      The Phoenix program did things precisely like that. Immigrants are coming in over the border and you can’t stop them? Ok. The isolate some of their children who are attending elementary school less than 20 miles from that Texas – Mexico border. 367 armed police should easily accomplish that task. Then murder the children and a teacher or so too. Publish nonsense in papers which obey you (guess why) to the effect that it was a lone lunatic incel or something similar. Meanwhile make sure to kill 9 or ten black shoppers in Buffalo NY the weekend before, so the nation thinks there’s an inexplicable epidemic of racial mass shooting occurrences going on. Don’t overlook to get a lunatic black guy (in very short supply, right?) who drives his or a rented SUV into a crowd of holiday parade goers too, so everyone sees that the blacks are just as bad. All while vehemently promoting curiosly, the wide distribution and easy acquisition of military grade automatic rifles, so you can plausibly say that it’s just that “gun violence has gotten out of hand” due to a mythology of protection of 2nd amendment rights.

      It has Phoenix program written all over it. Look at who Dubya hired to run the DHS initially? It’s as obvious as anything can possibly be.

  17. leith says:
    August 17, 2023 at 12:27 pm

    “…a thriving commercial economy on the moon,”

    I hope I’m still alive if and when it ever comes about.

    https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2023/08/16/darpa-to-explore-technology-needed-for-moon-based-economy/

    • Fred says:
      August 17, 2023 at 1:44 pm

      Leith,

      Wonderful! But since they are doing nothing other than giving money to some unknown group(s) to ‘study’ what a bunch of capitalist, or communist (depends on which country is involved), businesses or governments might create, it looks like a great line item to cut out of DODs bloated budget.

      • leith says:
        August 17, 2023 at 4:42 pm

        Tell us Fred –

        Which commie businesses and/or governments are going to get $ from the US Defense Department for this study?

        IMHO that would never get past go. Unless maybe we fook up and re-elect the former guy who was bosom buddies with Kim Jong un and Xi Jinping.

      • Fred says:
        August 18, 2023 at 1:18 am

        Leith,

        I see you are triggered. Let me repeat and clarify:

        what a bunch of capitalist, or communist (depends on which country is involved), businesses or governments might create ?

        Got it now? As to who gets DARPA study funds, it wasn’t in the article and I’m not interested in spending any time on their website to find out. A decade from now we’ll be using Biden knows what for fuel for our domestic transportion systems due to all the regulatory changes put into plece by this administration but DARPA thinks there will be “a thriving commercial economy on the moon”. I find that ludicrous.

        I’m all for space exploration and commercial entities competing there. SpaceX is doing a bang-up job at it, too. DARPA however is wasting money that could be better spent elsewhere, or not spent at all. This reputed study is one example of it.

    • drifter says:
      August 17, 2023 at 10:06 pm

      No worries. Some of the younger members of your team will be alive when it happens I’m sure.

  18. English Outsider says:
    August 17, 2023 at 1:46 pm

    “Bring industry back home. Also the troops. Ensure an adequate defence. Drain the Swamp.”

    But it seems none like the message any more. Said before. He was America’s last chance saloon. If they really don’t want him in the States any more send him over here. My word. Wouldn’t he give those losers in Westminster a pasting!

    • F&L says:
      August 17, 2023 at 3:48 pm

      EO,

      Did you lose your permission to cite references or are you not allowed on the links these days?

      • English Outsider says:
        August 17, 2023 at 5:03 pm

        F&L!!!

        With your superb memory you surely have not forgotten the heady days of 2016?

        “Bring industry back home. Also the troops. Ensure an adequate defence. Drain the Swamp.”

        I wrote it down at the time. No point sending you a link. None but I can read my handwriting, and then only because I already know what it says.

        Now no more discussion. You know your duty at the next election, if they ever let the poor man stand. Vote Trump! Half a dozen times minimum, if what I read about your electoral practices is any guide.

        • F&L says:
          August 18, 2023 at 6:39 am

          EO,
          Sorry, not this forgetful chump. The orange man is not getting my vote. I will admit though, that the other choices are not appealing, and more than capable of doing something to make me wish otherwise. But vote for him? Only as a FU vote, but I can piss in the ocean too, it isn’t that far away. Have I ever done so, maybe when out there a few dozen meters and no one’s looking but I really have to go? Certainly not, I’m a great though little appreciated connoisseur of seafood. The local chaps who deliver my fish n chips did include an unexpected slice of a nice carrot cake with cinnamon though on Christmas, I think. Things could be worse and for many people they are. Due to circumstances of birth beyond my control I don’t suffer from Sicilian Alzheimer’s it must be something else, but I have been accused of never forgetting the grudge. Poor Don’s a victim, many of the people who pile on him night and day are hypocrites paid well to do it. His heart was in the right place on many things – if you take him at his word, that is. Which in no small way I have in the past, but not enough to vote for him. Look at the creeps he surrounded himself with.
          The protege, old Don was, of Roy Cohn. Is Roy a diminutive of Royal? Interesting question. I don’t know the answer.

          • English Outsider says:
            August 18, 2023 at 4:06 pm

            Well, the only chance I ever had to vote for something that might make a difference was the Brexit vote. And the Swamp got at that pretty thoroughly too. But you have to have a go, F&L It’s seldom enough the chance comes along.

          • F&L says:
            August 19, 2023 at 2:28 am

            EO,

            Ok, you convinced me of something, not sure what. If Donald can clear his legal hurdles, and if I live till election day November 2024, I will do one thing for sure, I promise you – not vote for Biden & Harris. I can’t vote for those warmongering bastards. Ever. You’ll need to do better to get me to pull a lever or check a box for that rat bastard though. Because “draining the swamp” and the other nice stuff ? All for it. But I simply don’t believe anything he says. He has 15 months to convince me otherwise.

            And Brexit? You can’t be serious (rhetorical). Are we, here, on SST now Turcopolier, going to play along with that fantasy? Brexit was NOT the result of a referendum that the UK electorate found itself choosing to vote for and resulting in the Exit result, though it was made to look that way. It was a typical UK or British Empire foreign policy manipulate with nearly ancient precedent. Britain always arranges things on the European continent so as to divide the whole from any prevailing strong power and weaken the overall power there. That’s what Brexit was and is and continues to be. They not only foresaw the Russia v Ukraine war – they’ve been working to make it happen ever since the USSR collapsed and Russia, the still breathing corpse was flat on its back, and they quintupled their efforts since Putin came to power and Russia’s potential political energy became something to foreseeably worry about. The UK strategy has been to unite the 9 countries from the Baltic republics and Poland with the others down to the western Black Sea and Adriatic into a power block, from which not only to oppose Russia, but eventually crush it (with the help of it’s huge ally America) after it caves in due to economic sanctions and attrition warfare. That plan, emergent if not already accomplished and in hand also divides the West of Europe from the East, in evidence now with German versus Polish squabbling over reparations etc and liberal versus conservative rifts involving Hungarian, Polish and Italian resistance to immigration. Destroying the middle east and Libya helped out nicely for the immigration component as does Global warming which makes those regions increasingly unlivable.

            Brexit was and is an Empire building move, and a war versus a very weak Russia too – see all the purchase of Ukrainian farmland etc, well in advance. It was carefully thought through. The referendum? A typical trivial political operation similar to Maidan or the stolen 2000 US Presidential election. The UK people are sitting ducks in the hands of the tabloid and Murdoch press and electric media. It’s a joke, sorry to say.
            The internal destruction of America is also a very visible component. Either an old man with an unqualified person of color (guaranteed to promote more division) or a freakish ultra-reactionary billionaire who is under numerous indictments. It’s been British handiwork since before George Washington.

    • billy roche says:
      August 17, 2023 at 6:32 pm

      Bring Industry Home. Drain the Swamp. Adequate Defense. Secure the Border. Bring Home the Troops. Make China/US Trade more equal. Improve NAFTA. Peace Treaties tween Jew n Arab. Drill baby Drill. Europe Pay Up for NATO. Respect American Brit relations. Record unemployment. Low inflation. And more in only four years despite an unending assault by the left. If anyone could do that we had better get rid of him!!! Get rid of who ever could do all that and replace him with Biden.

      • ked says:
        August 18, 2023 at 3:08 am

        Billy, every point you credit is refutable by facts sourced from non-partisan sources – if anyone even accepts the concept of non-partisan fact in political economy anymore. I think the process is toward fact-selection filtered by a priori ideological bias. we create internally consistent narratives that support our underlying beliefs, on faith.
        in exemplar, I got this far & gave up;
        – ” bring industry home ” nice campaign msging. tell it to the folks in WI awaiting the new plant to be built. what I see is more foreign auto plants expanding factories already here. & tons of covid $ going to cronies.
        – “swamp ” all I’ve observed (+ knowing his nature) is the urge to supplant entrenched denizens w/ his own crowd of grifters. at least Jarad & Ivanka got about $2 or 3B. however, he did put life-long civil servants in the cross-hairs of armed militias, if you go for that sort of thing.
        – “secure the border” outright lies about Mexico paying, ginned up contributors getting contract awards for crappy work. fentanyl coming in at US PoEs via US citizen mules, but better optics breaking up huddled mothers & children en masse after swimming to TX. blowing $s in perf art w/ human lives.
        – “bring home the troops” from Korea? Africa? heck, when the next admin finished the Afg skedaddle all they got was crap from all sides. at least there was consensus… & confirmation no one cares to distinguish strategic policy from ops when there’s a TV interview to be had.
        – “China Trade” any prez has as much direct influence on that as on Fed Reserve interest rates or Chinese population policy. doesn’t mean they can’t claim credit – getting credit (w/ credit line) is all the legacy anyone wants anyway.
        – “Peace Treaty in the ME” latest act of political theater for short term political points (& God knows how many $s). vaguely heard of uprisings in Gaza, terrorism in Israel & IDF reservists protesting their CIC. well, maybe the Saudis will write more checks for the sports of it all.
        & anyone could go on… making logical “FACTS!” backed counters for every categorical segment at issue. assertions that reinforce all comfort zones. no disrespect, but I find fiction to be more fact than everyone’s internally consistent narratives built upon selective factiness. predictable to the point of useless. but that’s just me, I’m sure.

        • billy roche says:
          August 18, 2023 at 11:42 am

          Lot’s of words. Enjoy Biden.

          • ked says:
            August 18, 2023 at 5:17 pm

            same for all who turn to the Donald for his many virtues. especially his score sheet.
            https://www.salon.com/2023/07/22/the-big-why-whats-behind-donald-trumps-apparent-self-sabotage/

          • billy roche says:
            August 18, 2023 at 8:50 pm

            I note your reference is from “Salon”. I keep salon in the bathroom.

          • ked says:
            August 19, 2023 at 10:53 am

            they’ve long published Truscott’s columns. he’s a good writer, West Pointer, grandson of Gen Lucian Truscott of WWII fame, a descendent of Thomas Jefferson.
            I read lotsa things, endeavor to differentiate each media platform from its content. Col Lang might’ve respected his efforts as a TN chicken farmer, perhaps even his equal opportunity critique of our political culture.
            having been aware of trump since the mid ’80s, having a friend who had business dealings w/ him, played golf w/ him… I have no doubt he’s completely amoral, a cheater & a sexual predator… a dangerous mental case. to me a tragedy what he’s done to the gop & even more the USA. past time to move on the next stage.

  19. jim says:
    August 17, 2023 at 3:18 pm

    Space Travel…The End of The Beginning..
    And On Earth…They build a 300 Billion Dollat Vacume..To Suck Carbon from
    the Clouds…Mockery…of Human Intelligence..or Divine Inspiration…Eh
    JT

  20. Keith Harbaugh says:
    August 18, 2023 at 7:14 am

    Which side of RICO is Rudy Giuliani on?
    Col. Lang posted Giuliani being on the good side here:
    https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2020/10/httpswwwyoutubecomwatchv9lusphjnpe0featureyoutube.html

  21. Keith Harbaugh says:
    August 20, 2023 at 8:18 pm

    A Congresswoman expresses concern over
    1) loose lips of some of her colleagues, and
    2) that Congresspeople are granted clearances without being briefed on their responsibilities.

    https://houlahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3163

    I used to work in a secure facility and here’s the ugly truth about how Congress handles classified documents.

    I was shocked when I first came to Congress by the high-level security clearance I was given without so much as a basic briefing or training.

    • TTG says:
      August 20, 2023 at 8:35 pm

      Keith Harbaugh,

      Congresspeople are not granted security clearances. They are given access by virtue of their being elected to the Legislature.

    • Fred says:
      August 20, 2023 at 9:10 pm

      KH,

      Oh my dear, a 3 term member of the House who, after hearing all about Hilary’s emails and Trump’s collusion doesn’t understand the how documents come to be classified, or not; and just what members of the Legislative branch should be able to see.

      TTG,

      Ever try Bowman Bourbon, distilled in Fredricksburg?

      • TTG says:
        August 20, 2023 at 9:45 pm

        Fred,
        (
        I never tried any of the Bowman Bourbons. The last time I drank I mean really drank) bourbon was the night before my first jump. I ended up low crawling on the barracks floor yelling “SAT CONG” I was so drunk/hung over the next morning, i don’t know how i made it through the morning run. I did fall asleep in the C-130 enroute to the DZ. Stayed away from bourbon since then.

        The Various Bowman varieties are fairly well rated. I’m sure my younger son and I would enjoy the distillery tour. He’s more into spirits than I am.

        for KH,

        Though imperfect, the system of Legislative access to classified information is necessary. The Executive branch cannot be left with sole access to that information or oversight of large portions of the Executive branch would be impossible.

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