The Boot

Captioned Art: It’s for Boron…who flees from it. I don’t know why you’d evacuate because a Hurricane is flying around. Is it because it’s British, and could fall from the sky at any moment? Sort of like a Boeing airliner or space capsule these days…

Bullet Points:

** If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever. -George Orwell

**  (another SS personnel investigation) Personnel investigations are sometimes founded and they’re sometimes exonerated. The investigation has to run its course. The management of the US Secret Service needs a fresh face, but to do it correctly, they need to be exempted from DEI, and they need to be removed from under the US Department of Homeland Security’s umbrella. The Secret Service investigates counterfeit US Currency and access device (credit card) fraud. Those roles need to continue. Special Agents burn out in protection details and need the opportunity to do other valuable tasks. I do not doubt that Pres. Trump will be able to find a worthy director to straighten things out when he’s elected. Dan Bongino’s name has been tossed about.

** The Biden regime promised transparency but ignored subpoenas, stonewalled document requests, and uncooperative department secretaries indicate the administration is shielding information rather than delivering on its promises. I know. The song remains the same.

** I’ve been traveling recently for work and listening to Bill O’Reilly’s Confronting the Presidents – No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden (audiobook). I’ve enjoyed it. Though I think that at times he sugar-coated more recent presidents, on par, it was worth the read. I learned a lot that I didn’t know.

** (Forbes) (h/t Claudio) A misery factor is attached to any Russian military service that goes back well before the Czars. Yes, it’s alive and well in modern Russia in their war in Ukraine, where the meat is being thrown forward. “Admiral Kuznetsov, the Russian navy’s only aircraft carrier, hasn’t deployed in eight years—and it’s increasingly unlikely it will ever deploy again. That helps explain why, in recent months, the Kremlin reportedly reassigned the aging ship’s sailors to the army—and sent them into battle in Ukraine.”

** Comcast settled a case accusing it of illegally favoring minority-owned small-business customers with grants and marketing advice. Amazon has been sued in Texas over a program offering an extra $10,000 to Black- or Latino-owned delivery-service contractors. Starbucks directors and executives are sued by a shareholder arguing they violated their duty to investors by supporting diversity policies.

** I was asked to mention HSC-8 Loosefoot 616 again on the blog. Buying a T-shirt or hat is a worthy purchase.

** (h/t Claudio) Saudi Imams are banned from praying for the Palestinians or mentioning them in their supplications in mosques across Saudi Arabia, but especially in Makkah (Mecca) and Madinah (Medina). The Palestinians are viewed as ‘human lice’ throughout most of the Arabic-speaking world.

** A Tale of Two Cities: Lawrence, Wisconsin, caved to pressure from the DOJ over paper-only ballots, while the town of Thornapple is fighting back. “It’s appalling that the Department of Justice is bullying and targeting a small town in rural Wisconsin over its decision to use hand-counted paper ballots,” one voter integrity advocate said.

There goes Arizona

(link) Arizona’s Supreme Court, on Friday, determined that the nearly 98,000 voters who had not proven their citizenship due to a glitch in the system could still vote in the November elections.

Arizona law requires voters to file documents proving their citizenship to vote in state and local elections but not federal ones. However, an error was discovered on Tuesday that revealed thousands of residents had applied for driver’s licenses without proving that they were citizens. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs admitted to the issue and said the error was being fixed.

The ruling sides with Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, who claimed it was too late to take action regarding the November election.

It’s not just Arizona – more here. The law must be changed to reflect citizens voting on voting day, casting an auditable paper ballot with a fingerprint and signature on the voter roll when they arrive to vote.

Another Disappointment for Vladimir

(h/t Claudio) Late last week, Russia’s military planned to launch a Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on a test flight from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Imagery captured over the weekend from commercial satellites suggests the rocket exploded before or during launch.

This is at least the second time an RS-28 Sarmat missile has failed in less than two years, dealing a blow to the country’s nuclear forces days after the head of the Russian legislature issued a veiled threat to use the missile against Europe if Western allies approved Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons against Russia.

Commercial satellite imagery collected by Maxar and Planet show before-and-after views of the Sarmat missile silo at Plesetsk, a military base about 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow. The view from one of Maxar’s imaging satellites Saturday revealed unmistakable damage at the launch site, with a large crater centered on the opening to the underground silo.

The crater is roughly 200 feet (62 meters) wide, according to George Barros, a Russia and geospatial intelligence analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. “Extensive damage in and around the launch pad can be seen, which suggests that the missile exploded shortly after ignition or launch,” Barros wrote on X.

Musk said, “Sometimes they just blow up. You have to plan for that.”

Gen. N. B. Forrest

Major Charles W. Anderson of Forrest’s Cavalry writes of his last meeting with Forrest in 1877 —

When the stage arrived, I found the General waiting for me. As I waited for ladies to alight, Gen. Forrest went to the opposite side of the coach, gave me a hearty handshake, and expressed his pleasure at my visit. There was a mildness in his manner, a softness of expression, and a gentleness in his words that appeared to me strange and unnatural. At first, I thought his bad health had brought about this change, but when I remembered that when sick or wounded, he was the most restless and impatient man I ever saw.

Soon, I told him that there was something about him that I couldn’t understand, that he didn’t appear to me to be the same man I used to know so well. He was silent for a moment, then seemed to divine my trouble, and halting suddenly, he took hold of the lapel of my coat and turned me squarely in front of him, raising his right hand with that long index finger (his emphasizer) extended, he said, “Major, I am not the man you were with so long and knew so well – I hope I am a better man. I’ve joined the Church and am trying to live a Christian life.”

Said I, “General, that’s it, and you are indebted to ‘Old Mistess’ (as we called Mrs. Forrest) and to no one else for this great change.”

“Yes, you are right.” he replied, “Mary had prayed for me night and day for many years, and I feel now that through her prayers, my life has been spared, and to them am I indebted for passing safely through so many dangers.”

From — Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Escort and Staff by Michael R. Bradley

End