Open Thread – 28 January 2023

Posted on January 28, 2023 by TTG

This is what I think of when I hear open thread. DIE. DIE. DIE.

TTG

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55 Responses to Open Thread – 28 January 2023

  1. Whitewall says:
    January 28, 2023 at 10:35 am

    And tap tap tap.

  2. Fred says:
    January 28, 2023 at 10:48 am

    I see project veritas revealed Pfizer’s illegal gain of function research into continuing to mutate Covid varients dropped on the internet but is being ignored by the dinosaur media and suppressed by the masters of the Algorythm. On a bright note the Epstein client list appears to still be a well kept secret in D.C. Kudos to Chris Wray and the FBI.

    • Sam says:
      January 28, 2023 at 12:33 pm

      Fred,

      On Epstein, his “girlfriend” or “hanger-on”, Ghislaine in an interview from prison said he was murdered. I’ve been intrigued by the role Trump’s labor secretary played when he was Miami AG in working out the sweetheart deal where he’s reportedly said that the higher ups at DOJ instructed him to do that deal as Epstein was supposedly “of intelligence”.

      The Project Veritas video showed up on my Twitter feed.

      BREAKING: @Pfizer Exploring “Mutating” COVID-19 Virus For New Vaccines

      “Don’t tell anyone this…There is a risk…have to be very controlled to make sure this virus you mutate doesn’t create something…the way that the virus started in Wuhan, to be honest.”

      https://twitter.com/project_veritas/status/1618405890612420609?s=21

      The covidian “emergency” and the resulting authoritarianism, IMO, was a crossing the rubicon.

      • Sam says:
        January 28, 2023 at 5:53 pm

        Dear intellectuals and institutions who crank out piles of material on how the world should be managed and what policy makers should and should not do: where the hell were you at the start of lockdowns? The answer to that proves your worth.

        https://twitter.com/jeffreyatucker/status/1619462685770543104?s=21

        IMO, this is an acid test question. Which side of the divide were you on in the early Spring of 2020? That’s an unmistakable marker if you have the character of a Jeffersonian constitutionalist or you are a willing subject and proponent of state tyranny.

        Let’s never forget…

        “We will continue to be your single source of truth…Unless you hear it from us it is not the truth.”

        https://twitter.com/jamesmelville/status/1615996177933275138?s=21

        • Fred says:
          January 29, 2023 at 11:41 am

          Sam,

          Mr. Tucker of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Which created all those ideas the resulted in Michigan Republicans losing to Granholm – twice, and Whitmer – twice. Good luck with the new libertarianism and the anarcho-capitalism. Maybe his new tax-exempt think tank will do better this time around.

          • Sam says:
            January 29, 2023 at 5:37 pm

            Fred,

            As Col. Lang has educated us, we should separate the message from the messenger and evaluate it on its own merits.

            Tucker’s point is an important one – where did individuals and institutions stand on the lockdown as it was imposed?

          • Al says:
            January 30, 2023 at 1:27 pm

            Fred, Michigan is basically a Democrat Party state. Statewide elections [US Sen, Gov] have favored the Dems huge over the past couple decades, with just a couple burbs [Repub Gov Snyder]. Finally, with the passing of a citizens’ redistricting reform initiative the Michigan legislature was brought into Dem control.

          • Fred says:
            January 30, 2023 at 3:30 pm

            Al,

            Congrats on the demfacts, which are a little off from real ones. Milliken and Engler predated Snyder. The later came in because of Granholm’s failures and the Republicans held the legislature but failed to impeach Whitmer prior to the last midterm election. Not that there were any fraud problems with any election. Not at all.
            https://ballotpedia.org/Party_control_of_Michigan_state_government

    • Bill Roche says:
      January 28, 2023 at 12:34 pm

      But the fbi works for the doj. Wouldn’t the doj want to know who was doin it w/adolescents? Maybe Wray is simply confused?? fbi/fib, doj/doij, is there any difference? No doubt the doj/fbi just need better direction from the white house. joey two fingers could help out here.

    • Keith Harbaugh says:
      January 29, 2023 at 8:06 am

      Tucker Carlson has provided some excellent, and shocking, commentary on what sure sounds to me like a giant coverup:

      https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-look-strange-circumstances-jeffrey-epsteins-death

      • different clue says:
        January 29, 2023 at 3:04 pm

        My feeling has long been this: that when Epstein’s “suicide” was unsuccessfuly carried out the first time, that when Barr waddled over to the Jail to talk with the staff about their incompetence; he was really there to inform them that they would be given one more chance to suicide Epstein and this time they had better make sure he actually died.

  3. Sam says:
    January 28, 2023 at 12:26 pm

    Couple thoughts on Ukraine from our angle + OSINT:
    1.) Amazing I have never seen a Ukrainian fuel truck or fueling point on the battlefield. For how much stuff is out there, even during the fall offensive, this is wild.
    2.) Still have never seen a Phoenix Ghost kamikaze drone…

    https://twitter.com/aviation_intel/status/1618418960441176065?s=21

    An interesting thread on Ukrainian army opsec.

  4. Sam says:
    January 28, 2023 at 12:43 pm

    Vladimir Putin is set on ‘big war’ with Nato to bring back the Iron Curtain says top Russian political scientist as Ukraine warns Russia will launch new pre-emptive strike by February 24

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11686959/Vladimir-Putin-set-Iron-Curtain-big-war-Nato-Ukraine-warns-strike-February-24.html

    The start of the invasion last year was widely forecast by the US government. I recall when Biden was talking about the imminence, most said it was alarmism. He turned out to be correct.

    • blue peacock says:
      January 29, 2023 at 10:52 am

      Sam,

      This next kinetic phase of the war will be quite instructive on the relative capabilities for the two armies. IMO, if the Russian army fail to breakthrough Ukrainian army defensive lines or if the Ukrainian army counter-offensive punches through in the South and cuts water supplies to Crimea, Putin will come under increased pressure. So far the West has not supplied long range missiles or fighter aircraft or sophisticated drones for the Ukrainian military to retaliate against attacks on their civilian infrastructure. And the Ukrainian army has not attacked civilian infrastructure deep in Russian territory, likely as they don’t have the weapons capability to hit Moscow.

      Russia’s top brass are ‘horrified’ at Vladimir Putin’s demand for an urgent new military offensive on multiple fronts in Ukraine, it has been claimed.

      They fear more ‘slaughter’ as new analysis suggests the Kremlin has now lost a staggering total of more than 175,000 troops in the war.

      Putin’s demand for his war supremo General Valery Gerasimov to unleash ‘an assault in several directions at once’ has evoked deep divisions in his high command, political analyst Valery Solovey has alleged.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11689207/Russias-commanders-terrified-Putins-demands-new-offensive-fear-mass-slaughter.html

  5. scott s. says:
    January 28, 2023 at 3:37 pm

    I know the army is buying 50 or so LRIP medium tanks. I don’t see what the plan is. Are the Abrams considered more-or-less excess inventory at this point (except for a couple armored brigades/cavalry regiment)?

    • TTG says:
      January 28, 2023 at 4:07 pm

      scott s,

      This medium tank or mobile protected firepower (MPF) is not designed to replace the Abrams. It’s an infantry support vehicle designed to support infantry brigades like in the 82nd Airborne or 10th Mountain.

  6. Master Slacker says:
    January 28, 2023 at 4:19 pm

    And now the fighter jets
    Link
    “producers of the candidate aircraft (F-16, F/A-18, Eurofighter Typhoon, Rafale, Gripen) shift from caution about transfers to enthusiastic competition for a chance to display their wares in combat.”

    This war is advantageous advertising

    • JK/AR says:
      January 29, 2023 at 1:50 pm

      Well heck, why not send ’em a bunch of F-35s?

      Seems to me though the Israelis “apparently” use ’em to good effect there really hasn’t been a clear-cut acid test showing we really got our money’s worth.

      And while we’re at that, why not send the Ukrainians the Gerald Ford too?

  7. TV says:
    January 28, 2023 at 4:56 pm

    Or…..Diversity Inclusion Equity.

  8. Leith says:
    January 28, 2023 at 6:32 pm

    Just re-read Solzhennitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. The author makes favorable comments about the Western Ukrainians he worked with in a forced labor camp. Those are the same Western Ukrainians that a3re now being called Nazis and Banderites by some commenters here and by Putin’s propaganda brigades throughout the internet. He was also complimentary of the many Balts that were in the camp with him. Solzhenitsyn’s mother was of Ukrainian descent, but she was a Russian citizen born and raised in the Caucasus. Her forebears came from eastern Ukraine – Poltava & Donetsk regions per his biographer.

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17125.One_Day_in_the_Life_of_Ivan_Denisovich

    I need to find and re-read a copy of his non-fiction book The Gulag Archipelago to see what else he has to say of the many Soviet minority political prisoners sent to forced labor in the “Land of the Zeks”. I understand Solzhenitsyn’s work is or was mandatory in Russian schools. Although I seriously doubt that his poem about his witnessing of rapes and murders of German women and children committed by Red Army troops in what is now Kaliningrad would ever be made required reading.

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51456304-journey-into-the-land-of-the-zeks-and-back

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_Nights

    • Mark Logan says:
      January 28, 2023 at 8:01 pm

      Leith,

      Solzhenitsyn as a writer stuns me. In Day In The Life he has a paragraph in which he describes an old officer who was a fellow inmate. Simply by describing the way the guy held his frikin’ spoon imparted the man’s character to his readers, and deeply. A complete captured character in the absolute minimum of words.

      Hedrick Smith got several private interviews with him and described him in his book The Russians. For whatever reason the Russians trusted Hedrick and granted him surprising access. The picture Hedrick paints is very much the same, the Russians tolerated him for so long because they loved him, but first and foremost Solzhenitsyn was a Russian patriot. He felt the worst thing they could do to him was deport him, a fate he considered worse than death. They tolerated him for a very long time before they felt forced to do it.

      Just watched the brief series on Netflix about the Einsatzgruppen, a French production made in 2009. It’s a deeper look into the holocaust that spread across the eastern front first, including all the help they got from other eastern Euros. They found several of those guys still alive and willing to talk about it. I wonder if the Russians felt not nearly as guilty about their behavior at that time as we might expect them to have been.

    • borko says:
      January 29, 2023 at 5:30 am

      Leith

      You might find his short book (120 pages) , “Rebuilding Russia” interesting.
      His perspective on Ukraine and Russia helps explain a lot of what is happening today. At least from a semi-Russian point of view.

      https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/EB/S/Solzhenitsyn%20-%20Rebuilding%20Russia.pdf

    • Leith says:
      January 29, 2023 at 10:55 am

      Mark Logan – The man could write like a Mozart or a Michelangelo.

      Borko – Solzhenitsyn was a brilliant author. As a visionary he was naive and way out of his element. Didn’t he predict that Russia would become democratic if only she would embrace the church? That ain’t gonna happen with Kirill in charge of the church, “Putin’s personal Patriarch”. I wonder how he got along with his neighbors during his 18 years in the Green Mountains? Is that where he became a champion of local self-government only to abandon it when he returned to Moscow? Too bad he and Bernie never got together. I realize they were diametrically opposed on socialism. But he and Sanders had much in common hating unrestrained capitalism. And yet, in the end, he was seduced by the Russian oligarchs and their thief-in-chief Putin.

      • Mark Logan says:
        January 29, 2023 at 7:15 pm

        Leith,

        Solzhenitsyn’s view might be better described as acknowledging the Russian people, left without Marxism, had to have something to rally around and that old traditions were the place to look. The one institution which survived was the Russian Orthodox church so he advocated using that. I did not see anything which indicates it was about a path to democracy, just a path to uniting the people to form a nation.

        • Leith says:
          January 29, 2023 at 8:41 pm

          Mark –

          Certainly Solzhenitsyn was not proposing our idea of democracy. He hated US elections. But he did state that local people thru their local governments should not be dominated by central government. “In all cases local opinion must be identified and implemented. Therefore, all issues can be truly resolved only by the local population ….” So again I have to wonder if he ever observed a town hall meeting during his time in Cavendish?

          • Mark Logan says:
            January 29, 2023 at 11:47 pm

            Leith,

            Ha! If he did I would bet he didn’t stay long. At any rate it’s impossible for me to imagine Alex being happy with what’s happening in Ukraine right now.

            When Hedrick met him for the last time in the early 70s Alex was so utterly convinced the USSR was doomed the thing only area of the topic he was interested in puzzling over was what would become of the Russian people afterwards. It deeply frightened him. At the time a lot of people questioned his sanity because if this, including his wife. Imperfect as he was the man was not bereft of vision.

  9. robt willmann says:
    January 28, 2023 at 8:01 pm

    Sam,

    Back in July 2019, I did an article on the sweetheart plea bargain deal that Jeffrey Epstein received. There is no doubt that the Department of Justice in Washington DC — sometimes called “Main Justice” — was involved in and directed the Epstein non-prosecution agreement for the federal government. Alex Acosta, who at that time had become the Secretary of Labor in the Trump administration, was stuck between a rock and a hard place. The Justice Department in Washington did not want its slimy behavior in the Epstein matter revealed to the public and become a news story. Acosta decided to take the heat for others, but confirmed the involvement of Main Justice in his farewell appearance with Trump outside the White House when he resigned as the Labor Secretary.

    Although the non-prosecution agreement was largely concealed during the long lawsuit under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, it was filed in full in a different case after Epstein tried to avoid paying attorney fees required by the agreement. It is available in the article.

    https://turcopolier.com/alex-acosta-let-the-cat-out-of-the-bag-the-justice-department-knew-all-about-the-jeffrey-epstein-plea-deal/

    • Sam says:
      January 29, 2023 at 11:37 am

      Robt,

      I do recall that post. The Epstein case clearly demonstrates the degree of impunity that the “protected classes” enjoy.

      If ever there is an unbiased get at the whole truth investigation it will be a doozy.

    • different clue says:
      January 29, 2023 at 3:08 pm

      Why did Epstein ever come back to the US? Did he confuse himself with the rich and the powerful, the great and the good whom he serviced?

      Did he forget that he was just their overly knowledgeable servant and procurer?

    • Sam says:
      February 2, 2023 at 3:35 pm

      Isn’t it a wacky coincidence that Bill Barr’s law firm was the same law firm that cut Epstein that sweet deal with Acosta? What are the odds?

      https://twitter.com/rudyhavenstein/status/1198337438911025153?s=21

      Everything about the Epstein plea deal and the role of FBI and DOJ in the non-investigations and non-prosecutions of all the “johns” is sketchy. In all the machinations what is lost is the rape of vulnerable adolescent girls with no proper family structures whose lives were destroyed. Appalling!

  10. Keith Harbaugh says:
    January 29, 2023 at 7:59 am

    Pat Buchanan (age 84) has retired from writing his syndicated column.
    His colleague Scott McConnell has written a moving and perceptive appraisal of his career:

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/pats-pen/

  11. Sam says:
    January 29, 2023 at 11:33 am

    As you read the #TwitterFiles, remember that from the beginning Fauci worked to malign fellow scientists to obscure his culpability in funding the Wuhan lab.

    https://twitter.com/randpaul/status/1619103113557995521?s=21

    I will be surprised if the Republican majority in the House will attempt a serious investigation into the origins and the decision making that led to the authoritarian response mimicking CCP. What is interesting is how quickly CCP reversed course when protests began to spread. Literally overnight!

  12. Sam says:
    January 29, 2023 at 12:34 pm

    The Ukraine-Russia war has just fused with conflicts in the Caucasus and Middle East. Iran supplies arms to Russia. Azerbaijan (which reportedly played host to the Israeli forces that struck Iran) is a foe of Iran, which supports Armenia in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict.

    https://twitter.com/timurkuran/status/1619502719907270656?s=21

    Interesting.,,,

    Whatever happened to all the young folks protests in Iran?

  13. Sam says:
    January 29, 2023 at 12:49 pm

    “The lady doth protest too much, me thinks.”

    Watch Pfizer’s weak, legalistic, non-denial denial in response to whom we can only assume is @Project_Veritas, get absolutely shredded — this time by Dr. John Campbell. It’s well worth your time.

    https://twitter.com/kylenabecker/status/1619541153824780289?s=21

    I don’t know the molecular biology of all this. But…we need a transparent investigation into the origins, the clinical trial of the “vax” that did not prevent infection or transmission, the decision making into the lockdown, mandates and the authoritarian edicts of various local public health authorities, the trillion dollar spend during the covidian “emergency”, as well as the suppression of dissenting scientists and medical professionals views and data by agents of the government and media entities.

  14. Rob Waddell says:
    January 29, 2023 at 5:02 pm

    Dear TTG and readers..

    Die, Die, Die indeed, and I expect to get the full crucifixion with this one.

    Is that a M8 1.25 or UNC 5/16 18? Of course I am questioning why the USA out of nearly every country in the word uses Imperial measurements, the two others being Liberia and Myanmar. To be fair, the UK still uses miles and miles per hour for road units and beer is sold in ‘pints’.

    Actually, it affects my engineering work here in my country New Zealand, one of the other 191 metrified countries. CAD software that we use from an USA corporation that I won’t name, Autodesk, defaults to Imperial or ‘English’ units. A user can setup defaults to Metric but that is still an addon and imports and cut and pastes from other sw defaults to imperial. It’s a pain in the arse actually, not to mention additional time required, conversion errors and so on.

    Enough of my minor gripe, there must be bigger issues with USA’s use of Imperial standards for example your ease of use, children’s education, engineering errors, worldwide compatibility. Don’t get me wrong, I would be happy to use a base 12 or 16 system but we only have 10 fingers boys and girls.

    Can readers give me any hints why the USA has persisted with Imperial units. I have added a check list but feel free to add your own.

    Too difficult to changeover as the population will not accept ‘foreign standards’
    We are happy with Imperial standards and will continue with their use
    We will changeover gradually when the right conditions exist
    Imperial units are better and more easily used than metric
    We just missed the boat on that one
    We are the big guys so the rest of the world can get lost (or convert back to imperial)
    All of the above.

    Happy metrification
    RobW

    • Leith says:
      January 29, 2023 at 6:12 pm

      RobW –

      None of the above. The answer is Lobbyists and the US Congress. A shame really. US exports would benefit from the change.

      And what mechanic, pro or shadetree, wants to maintain two different sets of wrenches? Plus there is a righteous frustration trying to match thread types on various projects around the home and garage.

      Thanks for letting an old man rant.

    • TTG says:
      January 29, 2023 at 6:32 pm

      Rob Waddell,

      I can think of two reasons why we obstinately stick to the imperial measurement system. One is that we are just too damned full of ourselves to switch to a metric system invented by those brie licking, Perrier sucking French. The second is that, as a one time industrial powerhouse, we have a lot invested in our manufacturing infrastructure built with the imperial system. Switching would be expensive, time consuming and, when combined with the first excuse I mentioned, not something we are willing to do. Let’s face it. We’re a bunch of assholes.

      I remember my father’s exquisitely crafted wooden tool maker’s toolbox. Everything was in imperial measurements. And he worked on Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines. All those lawnmower engines I once tinkered with were also imperial. It was not until my father bought a 1968 VW bus, that we started acquiring and using metric tools. I’ve always bought VWs so I have more metric than imperial tools. BTW, my tap and die set is both metric and imperial.

      • Bill Roche says:
        January 29, 2023 at 9:25 pm

        Curious to know. Did NASA use metric or Imperial measurement to “Fly Americans” to the moon?

        • TTG says:
          January 29, 2023 at 10:07 pm

          Bill Roche,

          We flew to the Moon using imperial measurement. That was still the heyday of US industrial might. NASA started using the metric system in the 1990s and ended up using both. That resulted in the “loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter robotic probe in 1999; a contractor provided thruster firing data in English units while NASA was calculating in metric.” The current effort to return to the Moon is fully metric. I don’t know what SpaceX uses, but I guess it would be metric.

          • Bill Roche says:
            February 5, 2023 at 5:55 pm

            Wow got to the moon using slide rules, imperial measurements, and an occasional Tx Inst. Calculator. I’ll bet if the rest of the world got off the silly metric system they c/h gotten there b/f us. Nooo. Their socialist economies d/n generate enough tax money to conquer the distance. Thank goodness for the generation of wealth. A. Smith.

  15. Leith says:
    January 29, 2023 at 5:48 pm

    Prigozhin and Girkin (aka Strelkov) are engaging in a war of words. Lots trashtalk and some Wagner mercs are threatening Girkin personally. Gotta wonder how this is going to end up? But no matter whether it blows up or blows over it is a sign of dysfunction that may spill over into the Armed Forces as a whole and into Russian society.

    https://twitter.com/MarkGaleotti/status/1619468388887302145

  16. Leith says:
    January 30, 2023 at 11:54 am

    Wiz –

    A pox on both their houses I say. May they end up destroying each other.

    BTW Prigozhin is a bit of a narcissist himself. He’s also been a critic of every one involved in the war other than himself. All the while he has been touting any minute and inconsequential Wagner mercenary victory in order to gain more contracts from 3rd world dictators (or wannabees). Strelkov at least has the backing of many in the FSB. So he might be more dangerous. And he may last much longer than Prig, unless the Wagneriki get in a lucky assassination shot.

  17. JamesT says:
    January 30, 2023 at 1:38 pm

    Trump is saying he would negotiate an immediate end to the Ukraine war if he were president. I still dream of a Trump/Tulsi ticket in 2024.

    • TTG says:
      January 30, 2023 at 1:42 pm

      JamesT,

      Of course he will. It’s just a matter of abandoning Ukraine to Russia. How about the more likely Trump/Large Marge ticket? Is that as dreamy?

      • JamesT says:
        January 30, 2023 at 2:18 pm

        TTG,

        Fortunately the US is still a democracy and so the American people still get to choose between guns and butter. The additional variable is that Trump may well be in jail during the election campaign so a charismatic and articulate running mate would be helpful. Trump/Tulsi 2024!

        • Leith says:
          January 30, 2023 at 3:11 pm

          James T –

          Not gonna happen. Tulsi called Trump “Saudi Arabia’s bitch”. That was a good analogy I thought. But Donald ain’t never going to forgive her.

      • Fred says:
        January 30, 2023 at 3:22 pm

        TTG,

        Is that like abandoning the Afghans to the Taliban or the Iraqis to the government the neocons created?

  18. KjHeart says:
    February 6, 2023 at 2:36 pm

    a LONG and interesting article in the Merkur; one subject covered is Nord Stream pipeline (sabotage IMO).

    “Russia speaks of “hypocrisy” in the investigation into Nord Stream-2. And: For the first time, Ukraine receives confiscated oligarch assets.”

    https://www.merkur.de/politik/aktuell-panzer-ukraine-krieg-news-putin-deutschland-russland-drohung-usa-zr-92063540.html#id-pageApi-sprecherin

    sorting through the translation program is worth the effort there is a lot of other information covered.

    “Ukraine-News: Nord Stream 2 explosions: Investigators share current status
    Update from February 4, 7:21 a.m .: From the investigators’ point of view, the investigations into the blasting of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea have not yet provided any evidence of Russia’s authorship. “It is currently not verifiable,” said Attorney General Peter Frank of the world on Sunday. The investigations are ongoing.

    With the support of two research ships, the federal prosecutor’s office had water and soil samples and the remains of the pipelines removed and comprehensively documented the crime scene, said Frank. “We are currently evaluating all of this forensically. Sweden and Denmark are conducting their own investigations, but we are in contact.”

    A total of four explosions in the Baltic Sea in September caused several leaks in the pipelines that once transported Russian gas to Germany. The pipelines were not operating at the time of the explosions but contained gas. According to Sweden, sabotage is behind the incident. Accordingly, explosive residues were detected.”

    kj

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