Caption: Not the Same Ming as below>
The PRC vs the Ming Crime Family
(h/t Claudio) A Chinese court has sentenced 11 members of the notorious Ming family to death. They’re a criminal clan that ran large-scale scam centres in Myanmar/Burma, according to Chinese state media. Dozens of other family members received lengthy prison terms for their role in an empire built on gambling, drugs, and online fraud.
Intelligence sources indicate that several mid-level shot callers in the Ming family have recently migrated to Isla Margarita, Venezuela, over the past month. Their relocation appears to be transitory, facilitated by alternative channels and informal arrangements between Beijing and Caracas. According to the same sources, these individuals are currently under discreet monitoring by Chinese state security personnel operating through liaison structures in the region. The group is reportedly exploring potential relocation or operational alternatives in Chancay, Peru, Iquique, Chile, or the tri-border area (Argentina–Paraguay–Brazil)—zones historically associated with fluid trade routes and opaque financial networks.
According to the court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, 39 members of the Ming family were sentenced on Monday. Eleven received death sentences, five received death sentences with two-year suspensions, eleven were jailed for life, and the remainder received prison terms ranging from five to twenty-four years. The court found that since 2015, the Ming Family and associated groups had engaged in telecommunications fraud, illegal casinos, drug trafficking, and prostitution, generating more than 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion). The Ming organization was part of one of four clans that controlled the border town of Laukkaing in Myanmar’s Shan State, transforming it into a hub of criminal enterprise, enslaving over 100,000 workers in cyber-fraud compounds.
Following Myanmar’s 2023 crackdown, many Ming members were extradited to China. Patriarch Ming Xuechang reportedly took his own life as the family’s power collapsed. China’s judicial response now signals a broader determination to dismantle networks operating along its periphery.
Nevertheless, the Ming network’s remnants appear to be repositioning geographically and structurally, aligning themselves with new friends in Venezuela and Cuba. This discreet migration occurs under quiet Chinese state supervision (grease liberally applied to the mandarins’ hands).
Winter is Coming
Cutting for Sign
Bullet Points:
** Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has officially designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations. This blocks them from buying land in Texas and gives the Attorney General new authority to take legal action to shut down their operations.
** Oklahoma has a panhandle because that land was originally part of Texas, which sold it to the federal government in 1850 to avoid the complications of the Missouri Compromise regarding slavery. The strip of land north of 36.5°N remained an unorganized and lawless territory, famously known as “No Man’s Land,” until it was annexed to the Oklahoma Territory in 1890 and eventually became part of the state.
** Should illegal alien children be purged from the US public education system? If they are educated at public expense, shouldn’t they be legally in the USA?
** The US has sent troops into Mexico at least 10 times, most notably during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) and with the Veracruz occupation (1914) and the Punitive Expedition (1916–1917). While specific numbers can vary depending on the source and definition, these are among the most significant military actions initiated by the U.S. in Mexico. Does that provide a precedent for President Trump to send troops into Mexico to counter drug cartel sanctuaries?
** Okay, it does look like you.
** Israel has begun feeding desalinated seawater into the Sea of Galilee, marking the first known effort by any nation to pump treated seawater into a natural freshwater lake. The system, launched on October 23, channels desalinated water through the Tsalmon Stream and the Ein Ravid spring, reviving sections that had been dry for years. Officials say the project is intended to stabilise the Kinneret after repeated droughts and falling water levels. Engineers estimate the new flow can raise the lake by several centimetres each month. Israel, already a major desalination producer, views the initiative as a long-term safeguard for one of its most important water sources. Should the USA follow that example in the Desert Southwest?
** I know how to load a dishwasher properly. If you do it differently, we need to talk. More here — apparently, silence does not equal peace. Who knew?
** Guns or butter? Philosophy suggests that you can make one or the other. Russia is running up against this. (h/t Claudio)
National Debt
Eurointelligence: “If we had to pinpoint the biggest foreseeable financial and monetary shock that is coming our (Europe’s) way, it is US-dollar stablecoins. We just heard an estimate from Stephen Miran, a Trump-appointed Fed governor, that issuance volume through the end of the decade would be in the range of $1-3 trillion. The entire volume of Fed asset purchases during the COVID era was $3 trillion. The total amount of Treasury bills outstanding today is $7 trillion.
The planned issuance of stablecoins will constitute a significant and permanent expansion of US debt and lower US interest rates. We think that the recently passed Genius Act, which regulates the US domestic stablecoin industry, is one of the economically most consequential pieces of legislation in our time.
Formally, a US-dollar stablecoin is a crypto asset that promises to pay a value of $1. They are financial instruments, backed one-to-one by US government debt, that can be used as payments for transactions. The significant economic consequence is that they will allow the US government to borrow a lot more money. The reason why this will be a shock for the rest of the world is that the stablecoins will interfere in other people’s monetary systems.”
Territory
The New Mexico Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, to January 6, 1912. It was formed following the Mexican–American War and the subsequent Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, by which Mexico ceded large tracts of land to the U.S.
At its outset, the territory encompassed not only the area of the modern U.S. state of New Mexico, but also large portions of present-day Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Nevada. Its boundaries changed over time: for example, the Gadsden Purchase of June 24, 1853, added a southern strip of land.  Then, in 1861, the Colorado Territory was carved out. In 1863, the Arizona Territory (the western portion) was created, thereby shrinking the New Mexico Territory to roughly what is today the state of New Mexico. The capital of the territory was Santa Fe.
Governance was by a U.S.-appointed governor and secretary, and a bicameral territorial legislature; but ultimate authority rested in the U.S. Congress for final approval of laws. Major issues during the territorial era included slavery (particularly in the 1850s). The territory was established under the Compromise of 1850.
Culturally and demographically, the region was diverse, with Spanish/Mexican heritage, Native American tribes, and increasing numbers of Anglo-American settlers. Eventually, after more than six decades as a territory (the longest‐lasting organized territory in the contiguous U.S.), the New Mexico Territory was admitted as the 47th U.S. state on January 6, 1912.
Epstein
I assume that a lot of Democrats who were demanding last week that the Epstein files be released are soiling themselves this week. One newly-released document shows that between 1990 and 2018, Epstein gave about 89% of his political donations to Democrat and progressive causes, with individual recipients including Bill and Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer.
Identify the Armor
1
2
Identify the Aircraft
3
4
End
3 is Kawasaki C-1
Yes, the ELINT edition, EC-1
1 – Rssian Army BTR-82A
2 – Russian Army TOS-1A multiple rocket launcher and thermobaric weapon mounted on a T-72 tank
3 – Japanese Air Force Kawasaki EC-1 Platypus
4 – Rssian Navy Tupolev Tu-142MR
Excellent.
Ming Dynasty; looks like the Chicoms are redistributing the love from Myanmar to South America. Purging the top after the passing of the Godfather, and ensuring their control of the next generation with executions. Reflection; Like the Norks seem to think any foreign activity should specialize in…
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“all things criminal.” Nancy “P” once told on her yellow self, answering a question about H.R. in the Workers Paradise. “China, they have more freedom they we do.” What she was deflecting to was IMHO, as rogue leaders the CCP leadership is unbridled to scam and scheme without accountability vs 1A, FIA, and DOJ reprisals of fraud, grift, and various other corruptions beyond what my 1 cup of caffeine limit and 2 brain cell vocabulary can describe.
–
To tie this in with invading Mexico, justification IMHO should not be based solely on historic cases, such as attorneys use, referring to previous court rulings to make a case. The present leverage should be a defensive response to evidence that the CCP in alliance with the Narco’s has attacked 1st, an undeclared war on us. Is the volume of fentynal siezed, should it be infused into municipal water supplies, a valid concern? Are the camps in the Darian gap documented by Micheal Yon, land purchased near bases, fang fang types, and the Nefarious activities exposed and shut down in Texas enough to justify cleaning the messy house that bought and paid for Mexican authorities are not able to?
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In the same way that .gov broke treaties with sovereign Indian nations, any breach of trade and violations of foreign trade terms, IMHO is an act of war financially. To Quote Putin, “go to war? We are already in a war of zeros and ones.”
The Mexican situation reminds me of the situation in Iraq after the most recent war there, when we toppled the Ba’athist Saddam. You broke it, you bought it. It’s the law of unintended consequences.
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Saddam was a tyrant who killed his own people…yeah, well that’s not exactly unique, but G. W. Bush (and dead Dick) wanted a war. We can do the war, and we can bomb them, but keeping the peace is a lot more difficult. By doing so, we pulled out the one country that seriously put Iran in check. And the Shiites poured into Iraq. Today, that situation is even more complicated than before the war. Trust me on that.
.
On to Venezuela (and possibly Cuba). Is the USA ready to put soldiers on the streets for years? In the case of Venezuela and Cuba, years of communist rule have trashed both places. Infrastructure hangs by a thread. True, Venezuela has oil money and natural resources, but will we enforce payment? Don’t hold your breath (see Iraq). Cuba is decent real estate, but the place has fallen apart and needs to be bulldozed. Who will pay for it once we’ve broken it? How many years will it take to stabelize? They’re not sitting on a sea of oil. The USA war machine can break more or less anything. Fixing it afterward requires many decades of financial commitment.
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Back to Iraq. Fixing the deplorable condition of the country and bringing order to the place. CIA Estimate: 250,000 troops for ten years, decreasing after that. Bush, “We can’t do that.” Well then, you shouldn’t have taken the place apart. “But I wanted to be a war president.”
> “But I wanted to be a war president.”
Plus, I suspect, W had daddy issues that played a nontrivial role in his decision.
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Specifically regarding Iraq, but also very generally, we’re all about action, capability, and tactics, but strategy isn’t even in the top ten list of concerns, it seems. Why do we seem to be unable to see even five, much less 50 years into the future? From my admittedly amateur perspective, our “planning” is way too much How and not nearly enough Why.
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Gosh, it’s almost as if creating chaos, widening divisions, and inflaming ethnic and sectarian hatreds was the real goal behind so much of “our” foreign policy. Domestic policy too, come to think of it. “Chaos is a ladder,” says the Master of Coin (and whoremonger) character from Game of Thrones, whose name escapes me at the moment. Art imitates Life, or weird coincidence? Hmmm.
Iraq; Trust earned sir. To try and establish ” democracy” in the midst of the Shia, Kurd, and the Shit tights failed to create a functioning trinity. I really believed we would stay and develop their oil reserve$ to make the expen$e pay off. AND be or establish an indigenous bulwark to deter the Twelvers. ( h/t) for the gratis education).
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Thus another Niger airbase type bottomless pit of WTP tax waste, and a shame, an awful shame on the gears that made those wheels spin for nothing. All the rubber burned ( boots on the ground and brass being demoralized for all their life risking efforts plus sacrifices for their families. Dang shame.
There seems to be some thinking that when the Maduro crime syndicate fails, the legitimate government of María Corina Machado will take over, with US support.
But not the insurgency we faced in Iraq.
Venezuelans aren’t backed by Iran next door nor are they Muslims. They’re historically well educated, industrious and “mostly peaceful”. Americans are “mostly peaceful”. I think that they’ll welcome the departure of Maduro, the Russians, Chinese, Cubans and Iranian thugs who have backed him up. I may be wrong. The people face starvation in a nation overflowing with food. If you throw melon seeds on the ground, you get a watermelon. I can only hope that American thugs like Black Rock will leave them alone once they’ve tossed off the yoke but it may be too much to hope.
>American thugs like Black Rock
And don’t forget Paul Singer, the man with so much big-dick energy he screwed the entire nation of Peru. Among other poor countries. And yes, Singer is most definitely one of Them (Harvard JD, 1969). Bloody Harvard. Satan’s Vatican indeed.
—
>Venezuelans [are] historically well educated, industrious
Well, that describes the few Venezuelans that I know well. Remember the story of the Japanese guy who survived Hiroshima and made his way to Nagasaki only to get nuked again? (He survived that one too.) My friend C tells me she growing up she had a neighbor who escaped Castro’s Cuba and made his way to Venezuela. That man was regarded in their neighborhood as a bit of a crank and paranoiac in the early days of Chavez because he was predicting gloom and doom. Before too long people were apologizing for doubting him. That guy’s now in Miami. C says “I really hope it doesn’t happen here too. There is nowhere else to run.”
I feel the same way. I planted my flag on a hill in Arizona. There’s no new frontier.
I may get a lot of heat here:
usa in margarita island/venezuela, maybe guyana, maybe cuba, maybe peru or bolivia.
yeah. they are broke. backwards. corruption rampant. crumbling infrastructure nd on nd on.
but,
can those very terms/facts be used for usa?
nd what about maga? maga first?
sure, it’s complex, multi-dimensional nd all,
yet, I repeat-
what about the Real maga?
our vets (many of us here), could use a helping hand.
for sure every taxpayer could.
in the 60s, as a creation of early 50s, I wondered how so many protested the “space” thing insisting let’s take care of us on Earth first.
( dad was 20 year usa army. then 20+ with nasa. oldest brother a chemical engineer with nasa, working to help develop the shuttle’s variable throttle engines for instance. next brother an accountant at fort rucker. I am largely verypro usa military).
So I feel kinda like those 60s people protesting.
yet, I think these are 2 vastly different circumstances.
I don’t oppose the Caribbean venture, way above my pay grade!
The bit about the crumbling of these places makes me wanna burst.
I really voted for America First.
nd I fail to see it here…
thanks for suffering my rant…
btw- I really loved the B 58 nd beans segments!
I am in fact soaking a pound of pintos tonight to prepare Sunday.
with cast iron baked cornbread with jalapeno nd red pepper chunks in it.
mmm mmm mmm!
Juan
Cuba is Haiti with slightly less crime and thuggery – We should stay the hell out of there or it will be Puerto Rico 2.0.
Agreed. I’m also in favor of cutting Puerto Rico adrift. They have a very entitled attitude. Of course, the Chinese will move in. Let them. The PRC needs another drag on its economy.
Puerto Rico note: A friend of mine told me that he was headed to Puerto Rico on a family vacation. I asked, “Why?” He said his daughter got a great deal on a package for his whole family (5 kids and 15 grandkids). When he returned, I asked him how he liked it. He said, “You were right. Leave it at that.” Save the money, go to Tijuana. Same dangerous vibe, same dog-and-pony shows available in the red light districts, but better food in TJ. Tijuana has beaches too, and you’re closer to the US border for when you want to come home. (Yes, I’m aware that Puerto Rico is a US territory)
There are historical points of interest in PR that I would like
to see. Some of the Spanish forts are very old, some of the
oldest European buildings in the New World.
*
I wouldn’t go for the ambiance or culture, though.
– Kle.
You’d need to fight your way through the traffic and street gangs into the old fort. The place is a democrat stronghold.
Identify the Armor:
1. BTR-82A
2. TOS-1A MRL
Identify the Aircraft:
3. Kawasaki EC-1
4. Tupolev Tu-142MR Bear J
Excellent
“Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has officially designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations. This blocks them from buying land in Texas and gives the Attorney General new authority to take legal action to shut down their operations”.
This designation does nothing to stop any individual or group not aligned with the above groups from purchasing land in Texas! Abbott is running again to be the GUV. He’s a RINO through and through IMO. Election grandstanding and nothing more.
X2 Stringshot. He’s a RINO, but he knows which side of the bread the butter is on.
As a proud Texan-
I would add that gov. a butt is a ccp/rino.
imho.
Best I can tell,
Mr Paxton is the real deal.
nd if I may add-
I’d prefer Lone Star annihilite anything remotely connected to the pooh man country First.
then go after all of those others.
Still,
all above my pay grade…
Juan
Is the charming portrait an actual Ming? Or stock photo from somewhere. For some reason I’m thinking minor Bond villain/henchman. So many negative stereotypes in one image. (But stereotypes don’t come from nowhere, now, do they? An uncomfortable truth we can’t talk about. That said, the window shifts with remarkable speed. Five years ago you’d be canceled for talking about “Black Fatigue” and now it’s fair game even on controlled mainstream platforms such as YouTube.)
That Ming is from the movie “Flash Gordon”! I enjoy that movie every now and then, it has some great lines! It’s been a couple of years..
Who watched “Flash Gordon” for the lines. Ornella Muti was HOT acting the role of Princess Aura!
Not to mention the soundtrack by Queen.
No! Not the bore worms!!!!
Also Ming the Merciless is none other than the great Max von Sydow. Always liked him.
The late, great, Max von Sydow made EVERY movie he was in good.
I concur.
I really liked him in Three Days of the Condor.
Classic
I was confused, and misled by my phone (always shift blame — considering a late-life career change to Demonrat politician …) This morning I didn’t see the Ming/Max Von Sydow graphic on the small phone-screen for some reason. I was wondering about the Asian guy with the bags under his abnormally wide-set (prey animal) eyes.
Yeah, that WAS a great movie in its own strange way. And Now With 150% MORE Brian Blessed! Not sure whether I like Hawkman-Vultan Blessed or Duke Thomas Beaufort Blessed better, but isn’t it interesting that the one time BB is NOT shouting he’s the most threatening.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaVD3iBz7CU
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Y’all remember there was briefly a social-justice/representation/equity stink raised about casting a Swede (Von Sydow) instead of some Asian person to play Ming? What foolishness. Ming is NOT Asian. He’s some space alien.
My phone did itself in yesterday after an – apparently ubiquitous – ‘misleading’ by the newly installed Samsung Android UI8 software update. “No SIM card” error”…same ‘oh crap’ moment as the Windows ‘bluescreen of death’. Uh, okay…it’s like Prego…IT”S IN THERE! But nothing fixes this one. ‘Misled’ is a Merciless Ming level monumental massive misnomer.
[ProTip: Do not install this update if your phone or SIM card/eSIM is a few years old…altho there are some fixes all over the interweb that work for some folks. Me? Getting a new SIM card sent from PureTalk…next Tuesday…maybe a new phone too if that doesn’t wake up the sleeping useless wonder-brick…that all my ‘other stuff’ wants to send Text Messages for 2-Sep Verification (with no email option). Until then I’m in forced ‘kids table’ unplugged mode.]
Princess Ardalla was a space alien too, but – If I were Buck (I’m “a” buck, not THE Buck), I’d have trashed the rest and hooked up with her. That’s how I roll.
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There was an old (very old) porno called FLESH GORDON. I never saw it because I have always wanted to remain pure. I think that Mike_C told me about it.
I was more of a Colonel Wilma Deering guy (the 1979/first season version of Wilma; it was sad what they did second season).
Erin Gray made up for that annoying “bedebedebede” noise that little robot made ALL THE TIME. What kind of sick person programs a (time wasting!!!) speech impediment into a robot?
—
Flesh Gordon:
I’m well known for leading pure and innocent SEALs down the path of depravity.
Mea culpa :-(
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@Paul M: Oy! That’s painful. In a much milder version of phone pain, I probably have to get a new phone. (I’m still using an iPhone 6s) Earlier this week I was forced to update the Amtrak APP. The new version opens but hangs on the splash screen. Sigh. I HATE dealing with the migration and all. No sympathy from my boss (who I was riding the train with when this happened): “NOW will you finally let me give you a company phone?” Nope.
Cuba…if the US leadership does decide to clean out/up Cuba, I hope special consideration is given to rescue as many classic automobiles and those who keep ’em maintained in what appears to pristine condition. Not many of today’s younger US mechanics overcome the difficulty in diagnosing engine issues without a computer diagnosis, or for example, being able to rebuild a wind/weather seal without factory manufactured parts.
> Not many of today’s younger US mechanics overcome the difficulty in diagnosing engine issues without a computer diagnosis
Feels like Medicine is in the same boat. No one is good at diagnosing stuff based on physical exam and stethoscope any more. It’s all “get an echocardiogram” and “get a CT scan”. Honestly, that’s where you want an Indian-trained physician. Being relatively resource poor, they tend to be better trained in physical diagnosis.
I like the Indian doctors that actually talk to you, look at you, touch you and thump you. I never thought of comparing it to the current automotive situation. American doctors treat the computer read out or the latest fad, not the person.
On cars, I hope Toyota brings back the non-turbo trucks with the death of CAFE. If not, I will just buy a 10-15 year old truck if I have to replace the 2012 Tundra. Tom
Medical and Automotive Diagnostics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCO167mIoh0
I think a lot of the testing is (and has been) driven by a fear of liability. They want the test results to CYA for the potential malpractice law suit as much as anything.
Like anything else, when lawyers (and in this case malpractice insurance underwriters) it was all downhill from that point forward. Despite medical advancements they now demand perfection, failing to understand every doctor – regardless how brilliant – puts his or her pants on one leg at a time like everyone else.
They also have a LOT of classic cars in Ecuador. We should invade there too and sell the Bel Airs to pay for the war.
Flood the market and drive the price down?
Ming? So China and Venezuela are cutting a deal to move a crime family into bombing range just in time for a Happy New Year? Art of the Deal.
Why is Governor Abbott being so hard on Democrats?
U.S. troops into Mexico.
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“When Camargo was reached, we found a city of tents outside the Mexican hamlet. I was detailed to act as quartermaster and commissary to the regiment. The teams that had proven abundantly sufficient to transport all supplies from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande over the level prairies of Texas, were entirely inadequate to the needs of the reinforced army in a mountainous country. To obviate the deficiency, pack mules were hired, with Mexicans to pack and drive them. I had charge of the few wagons allotted to the 4th infantry and of the pack train to supplement them. There were not men enough in the army to manage that train without the help of Mexicans who had learned how. As it was the difficulty was great enough. The troops would take up their march at an early hour each day. After they had started, the tents and cooking utensils had to be made into packages, so that they could be lashed to the backs of the mules. Sheet-iron kettles, tent-poles, and the mess chests were inconvenient articles to transport in that way. It took several hours to get ready to start each morning, and by the time we were ready some of the mules first loaded would be tired of standing so long with their loads on their backs. Sometimes one would start to run, bowing his back and kicking up until he scattered his load; others would lie down and try to disarrange their loads by attempting to get on the top of them by rolling on them; others with tent-poles for part of their loads would manage to run a tent-pole on one side of a sapling while they would take the other. I am not aware of ever having used a profane explicative in my life; but I would have the charity to excuse those who may have done so, if they were in charge of a train of Mexican pack mules at the time.”
—
2Lt U.S. Grant
—
Camargo, Mexico
—
August, 1846
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Excerpt from Ulysses S. Grant—Memoirs and Selected Letters
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ISBN 978-0-94045058-5
Cool.
X2
Eitherr the cataract operations have worked wonders or thank you very for changing the font (depth of black)
Maybe a combination?
I didn’t change anything, Boron. You can see now.
Congratulations. Did you get the kind with accommodation [1]? I didn’t qualify for reasons I refuse to understand, so I went for 20/20 in my dominant eye and +1.5 diopters in the other eye (“monovision”). This way I’m not totally unable to function (unable to use the phone) if I lose my reading glasses. On the other hand, I need computer glasses to work, which means I’m still wearing glasses > 10h daily. And now I find that I prefer another +0.75 diopter to read my phone comfortably — so TWO pairs of “readers”. Sigh. But it had to be done. From -4.25 diopters to -7.5 in under a year was not sustainable. (Thanks, chemotherapy! Then again, probably beats being dead. Prolly. Maybe being dead is lovely…)
—
On the plus side: Can wear regular nonprescription sunglasses. This is awesome. Can run and bike without glasses. See also: Can wear ridiculous sports and/or “operator” shades off the shelf that don’t weigh a ton because they just block UV rather than having to also correct my mole-vision. Now if only I got my skinny-fat ass out of the chair and onto the roads. But cataract surgery doesn’t correct laziness. More’s the pity.
Also, everything looks “cooler” now. Basically I went from seeing everything with a slight “warm” tint to (presumably) actual colors. Think the difference between a 3000K vs 5000K lightbulb.
—
[1] For those not in the know:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accommodation_(vertebrate_eye)
—
Texas: Maybe for a change of pace the rest of the nation will follow suit and Texas will lead the way on proper lawfulness reform…instead of Califruitopia that forces the rest of us Plebes to deal with their type of self-loathing oppression.
***
Illegal Alien Children: “If they are educated at public expense, shouldn’t they be legally in the USA?” No. That’s like saying ‘since the bank robber went through all the trouble of getting past the guard and into the vault he should be entitled to the money inside. Being here illegally is still a criminal act. Path to citizenship might be a compromise, but not an across the board forgiveness.
***
‘Stablecoin”…until it isn’t. Vaporware money can be lost in a nano-second (see above comment on my phone ‘misleading’ itself into oblivion).
Re Oklahoma’s no man’s land, I’ve driven that 30 mile stretch on 287 for years. The road was absolutely terrible (guaranteed front end alignment needed) and never saw a trooper out there until 2024. Before then, apparently there weren’t any that were willing to live out there, besides you couldn’t speed and stay on the road… sigh Boise City is the only town out there with a population of around 1600…
US 287 is easier now the bypass around Boise City was built. I agree on the road condition. Oklahoma troopers? Several years ago I was stopped headed South. The Trooper let me go with, “Sir, it is eight miles to Texas. Do you think you can drive the speed limit for those eight miles?” Upon my assurance I could/would, he sent me on my way.
Two weeks later, returning to Colorado, we stopped in Boise City for a pee and coffee break. Exiting the car we saw the trooper pull alongside and said, through his open window, “Mr. White! I am so happy to see you driving 65 mph on our highway”. My response, “I didn’t see you”, brought a response, “We hides”.
If you have the time, the narrow and twisting two lane road from Boise City to Raton is paved and has some wonderful scenery.
The road is SO much better now!
Used to be bad enough that I wished it was washboard gravel – at least with that, you can find a speed that evens out the vibrations to be fairly smooth. 287 was, with no apologies to Nadler, “uncomfortable at any speed!”
I’ve only been North of here on 287. Quite a nice drive.
Epstein: Why should anyone be worried? An investigation or two, free publicity (bad publicity is better than no publicity), but no convictions. By the unlikely time anyone actually faced a trial, the Dems would be back in power anyway.
Territory: That little triangle of southern Nevada had been assumed part of the state but legally forgotten. It was not formally incorporated into the state until a 1982 election (and they let Las Vegas vote or it wouldn’t have been accepted). Northern Nevada is quite a different place than southern Nevada (Clark County).
I’m really excited to see the impact of filling Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee ) with desalinated water. There’s been a lot of subsidence due to falling aquifer levels, so it’ll be *really* interesting to see if filling the lakebed will act like the playas in the Llano Estacado, and refill the aquifers that normally fed it. If so, the plan to refill the lake may not work as well as they expect… Especially if the farmers start drawing off no-longer-dry wells!
Keep filling…
There’s a second pipe they haven’t started using yet. This is the future I was hoping for!