Ubiquarianism can be an element of faith. Is a sentient computer everywhere at once?
If you paint your slave android black, is it racist?
Bullet Points:
**VDH discusses the depoliticization of the Pentagon – the Swamp is not happy.
** Is Canada a cat’s paw for the PRC? Continuing, is Canada following an Orwellian nightmare scenario?
** What do you call homosexuals on fire? A LGBBQ.
** China is pushing for nuclear war. It is not possible to determine the precise number of atomic weapons China produces per week. However, it is known that China is actively expanding its nuclear arsenal and is developing new missile silo fields and ICBMs. China’s current estimated nuclear warhead count is around 600, with a small number deployed, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
** A future volcano in New Mexico. The Socorro uplift is a geological phenomenon in central New Mexico where the Earth’s surface has been rising above a large mid-crustal magma body. This uplift is primarily attributed to the expansion of the magma body beneath Socorro, which is considered a “Seismic Bright” magma body. The Socorro uplift has been detected through various methods like leveling and InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar). It’s the second-largest magma body detected on Earth. The volcano is unlikely to erupt to the surface for a long time. Due to the composition of the lava (likely from a shield volcano or stratovolcano), it will likely ooze through cracks in the Earth as part of the local fault system. Before there’s a volcano, there will be more earthquakes centered there
** The Littoral Combat Ship is a pet peeve of mine. The US Navy knew or should have known that these albatrosses were worthless when they were on the drawing board. I could count the ways, but it would likely only bore you. The problem with them (beyond their uselessness) is that their construction redirected assets away from genuine warships that the navy will need to fight the Chinese.
** VDH and neo-confederate states. The issue of states’ rights to receive funding from the federal government has resurfaced.
** (h/t Claudio) Red China Blues – Radio Free Asia – let them go bankrupt. It’s time for a Western boycott of all Communist Chinese goods and services.
** Eva discusses the immigrant problem in Europe. Of course, it also applies to the USA and Canada. Savage people from savage lands have been turned loose and protected by their respective governments. Is Europe up to the task of removing them, or has it lost the culture war?
** Jet Skiing with EdB.
** China has a track record of delivering defective equipment to friendly nations. The tires used by the Russian military in their invasion of Ukraine (which all went flat) were supplied by China. The Ming-class submarines they sold to their friends either sank or were on the verge of sinking when they were moored at docks and were all but abandoned. And so it goes.
** Never have sexual intercourse with anyone crazier than you are.
Levers of Diplomacy
Finding St. George Floyd-the-Second
The Dems ran to the cameras and bet big on their new Salvadoran thoroughbred. “Kilmar is a loving husband to an American citizen, and a father to two American kids, and probably a devout Catholic, as far as you know. And, sure, he has a couple of tattoos, but one of them is likely to be Christ on the cross (it’s very blurry in pictures, so we’re not entirely sure about that). And he had a judge’s order that he NOT be deported!”
“Ooh, look, his broken-hearted wife is stepping up to the microphone. Listen as she speaks in a wavering voice about the saintly man whom the Trumpian stormtroopers kidnapped off the street and then sent to Auschwitz II, trampling all of the constitutional rights that he has as a practically American citizen!
Oh, now she’s crying! Are you proud of yourselves, conservative bullies who ripped this loving family man away from his family? He has kids. American citizen kids! Won’t somebody think of the children?!”
And then the Mar-a-Lago Mata Hari (old timey spy reference for $100, Alex) began to release successive tranches of details about Kilmar…
And now, I will put on my conical, purple wizard hat and magically transport you into the conference room where the Democratic brain trust gathered to discuss strategy last week. I’ll keep their identities secret and refer to them only as Democrat Operatives (DO) 1-6.
DO 1: This is going great! The walls are closing in on Trump now! American voters are suckers for a clean-cut immigrant like Kilmar. By the way, get somebody at MSNBC to double-check his name. All of those Hispanics have a crazy long chain of names, and a lot of them have a “Jesus” somewhere in there.
DO 2: Ooh, that would be great! We could put the word out that all of our reporters should start calling him “Jesus” between now and Easter. The Catholics would eat that stuff up!
DO 1: Good idea. And somebody line up some soft-focus photo shoots and interviews with his American wife and kids.
DO 3: I don’t know, Hakeem. I’ve heard a story that he had some suspected gang affiliations in the past. Maybe we shouldn’t overplay our hand on this.
DO 1: Come on. “Suspected” means nothing—just more anti-Hispanic racism from the right-wing fascists. I mean, he hasn’t had any due process at all! I’m sure that if they had any evidence, they would have presented it before a court, and — (He sees DO 4 with his hand up.) What?
DO 4: Actually, he had an immigration court hearing, and the judge found evidence that he was associated with MS-13.
DO 1: SCHIFF!
DO 5: What?
DO 1: I’m not talking to you. It’s just an expression. Look, it was probably a crooked Trump judge, lying about Kilmar’s gang ties. We need to insist that the case be appealed to another judge, so—
DO 6: Actually, it was appealed to a different court.
DO 1 (pause): And?
DO 6: The appeals court agreed.
DO 1: SCHIFF!
DO 5: Are you using my name as a swear word?
DO 2: Get over it, Pencil-Neck. The adults are talking.
DO 5: Adults? Shouldn’t you be at the kids’ table, Hogg!
DO 1: Shut up. Let’s not get hung up on those alleged gang ties. The main point is that another judge wrote an order stating that he cannot be deported. So Trump broke the law.
DO 3: Actually, the 2019 order stated that he could be deported, but not to El Salvador.
DO 1 (rubbing his temples): Fine. But he was deported to El Salvador. We’ll emphasize that.
DO 6: Yes! He got that deportation hold in 2019. I’m sure he’s kept his nose clean for the last 6 years, because the Feds would have deported him to somewhere else if he’d gotten in trouble.
DO 3: Actually, he was stopped in 2022 for speeding and driving without a license.
DO 1: SCHIFF! Did they take him to jail and tow the car?
DO 3: No. The officer gave him a warning for the expired driver’s license.
DO 2: Wow. He must have been one of ours.
DO 1: Anyway, the main point is that he didn’t have anything suspicious in the car with him. Why don’t we say he was profiled for “Driving While Brown?” (He notices DO 3 making a face.) What now?
DO 3: He had eight other guys in the car with him, and they’d been driving for three days, from Texas to Maryland. And…they didn’t have any luggage.
DO 5: SCHIFF! (Everyone looks at him.) Now you’ve got me doing it!
DO 1: Okay, let’s not panic. Lots of poor people don’t have luggage. They were probably heading north to reunite with their families, or perhaps to meet some church sponsors who had vouched for them.
DO 3 (looking down): They all gave Kilmar’s address as their own. And DOJ just announced that he was picked up for questioning at Home Depot with other MS-13 members. And Trump just showed a picture of his hands, and he’s got…
DO 1: Don’t say tattoos!
DO 3 (hesitates): Tattoos.
DO 2 and 4: SCHIFF!
DO 1: Tell me that they’re at least one of his kid’s birthdays, or his wife’s or his mom’s names.
DO 3: They’re MS-13 tattoos.
DO 1,2,4 and 6: SCHIFF!
DO 2: Okay, forget all that. We’ve still got his wife. She’s crying her eyes out on TV. And since she says that he’s a good man and a good husband, and since we must believe all women, he must be a good man and a good husband. That’s the transitive property, I think.
DO 5: No, the transitive property is when a dude decides that he wants to be a woman, so he spins around and clicks the heels of his ruby slippers together, and says, I’m a woman, I’m a woman.
DO 2: No, that’s the trans property. I’m talking about the math thing, the transitive property. It’s from algebra, I think, and –
DO 5: Who are you trying to kid, Davy? You look like you’re still taking algebra!
DO 2: Pencil neck!
DO 5: Toddler!
DO 1: Everybody shut up! (He notices an aide come in and hand a piece of paper to DO 3, then step back out.) We’ve got the loyal, crying wife, and she’s vouching for him. Our women voters will eat that up, and… (Noticing DO 3 looking extra pale.) What is it, Liz?
DO 3: DOJ just released a domestic abuse claim the wife filed against Kilmar in 2021.
DO 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6: SCHIFF!
DO 1: Okay, anybody can have a bad day. They argued, and the situation became a bit heated. We’ve all been there. But they talked it through and worked it out, and it never happened agai—
DO 3: She filed again six months later.
DOs (all): SCHIFF!
DO 1 puts his head on the table in front of him.
DO 1 (after a long pause): So we’ve got a bad-driving, human-smuggling, wife-beating, gang-banging illegal alien. Is that about it? (Nobody will meet his eyes.) Okay, so we’ve got to say that it’s not about Kilmar, it’s about due process, or something.
DO 2: So we shouldn’t call him “Jesus” now?
DO 1: Shut up, Hogg. Nancy, get Van Hollen on the line. We’ve gotta stop him from flying down there and making us all look like idiots.
DO 3: He’s already there.
DO 1 (too defeated even to swear): Can we at least stop him from meeting with Kilmar? He’ll be giving Trump a photo-op to hang around our necks for the mid-terms.
DO 3: He’s already met with Kilmar.
DO 1 (mumbling): Of course he has.
DO 2: Wait, this might still work. Kilmar is going to look haggard and starved from being in that concentration camp prison. Maybe he’ll even have some bruises or broken bones!
DO 1 (perking up): Yeah! We can have Spielberg make an ad for us, interspersing shots of Kilmar with shots from Schindler’s List.
DO 2 (excited): And we can CGI Trump’s head onto that Nazi commander, shooting at Jews down in the camp below him! We can call the ad “CECOT’s List.”
DO 1 (seeing DO 3 looking at her phone, and shaking her head): What is it?
DO 3 (holding her phone out so everyone else can see it): Trump just released this video of Van Hollen and Kilmar. It looks like they’re meeting on a gay speed date at a high-end hotel.
DO 1 (moaning): Kilmar looks great! He looks like he’s gained 5 pounds.
Everybody in the room: SCHIFF!!!
***
People often Conflate Race, Culture, and Class
People “on the right” have been making this mistake: Illegal Immigration and replacement is not about “race”, it’s entirely about class.
The people pushing this crap don’t give a damn about skin color or religion (although they do hate Christianity), and they’re mostly using it as a smokescreen.
The real issue is “class”: They want to replace the extant (but disappearing) middle class, which is relatively wealthy, educated, and politically powerful, with a permanently indebted, ignorant, and powerless underclass.
As a result, they’re importing poor people to accomplish that, because they know that the extant middle class will not tolerate having its standard of living so massively and quickly lowered, nor will it accept the destruction of pathways toward upward social mobility on the accelerated timetable the “elites” are trying to run on.
Identify the Armor
1
Will the angle mess up your ID? 6,565 built
USN LCAC in the background.
2
3
Identify the Ship
4
5
End
Well Schiff! Now I’m going to be using that instead of what I had been using.
Don’t step in the Schiff, Jim.
Does El Salvador play Dearh Camp for Cutie in the death camp Senator van Holland saved poor, noble, virtuous Kilmar Garcia from? “Here to Forever” must be popular there. Good thing the guy wasn’t named Alfredo.
“Is Europe up to the task of removing them, or has it lost the culture war?” I sure can’t claim any inside information but I think it’s lost already. While Eva is brutally (and admirably) honest, you can see reports of what she describes in tons of places. Like Canada, Europeans have accepted the Animal Farm trades of paying 3/4 of their income for supposedly free health care and other services. You know the system: “you’ve got cancer and we’ll get you into chemo in 10 months – if you happen to live that long.” They’ve bought the lies of groups like WEF overlords relegating them to the lowest levels of society.
Canada has legalized suicide as well. “End your life care” might be a better name for it.
“…save the State money.”
Identify the Armor:
1. Leopard 1
2. TBD
3. M48A2GA2
Identify the Ship:
4. USS Independence (LCS-2)
5. USS Fort Worth (LCS-3)
2. The best I can come up with for the nonce is an prototype turret on a Leopard 2 hull.
The HITFACT® MkII is NATO qualified and in production. It represents the state-of-art in terms of firepower, connectivity and survivability. The latest model in the HITFACT family, more than 500 units already in service with armed forces worldwide, the MkII stands out for its fully digital optronic sensor suite, upgraded survivability and electric turret drives, which together deliver high levels of safety and performance.
The turret’s flexible design allows it to be integrated with either 105/52 mm rifled or 120/45 mm smoothbore low recoil force guns. This enables the use of any NATO standard ammunition, as well as the latest kinetic energy and multipurpose rounds. Depending on user requirements, the turret can be integrated with command and control, navigation and net-centric communications to boost situational awareness, while high ballistic protection and a counter-IED system improve survivability in challenging environments.
In this case it’s on a Leopard 2.
You nailed the rest, Surly. This was a tough one. Good effort on your part.
(1) Abrams
(2) Maybe the Armata? There have been as many versions of that thing as vehicles…
(3) Early M-48, I think.
(4) USS Independence, LCS-2.
(5) Freedom class LCS.
– Kle.
#1 Is a Leopard 1. It’s a difficult ID from that angle.
Okay… your Virtual BabBee Mirage was HILARIOUS!….really took it to another level…except that little problem inherent with this batch of Dems: It is completely probable. Just look at them going full twisted sister lunatic at townhalls and in the media…and now, apparently, even more Senators are taking junkets for their own personal margarita laced confab with this newest [selected] Good Humor Man “saint”.
–
‘Course now I’ll be shouting “Schiff!” like some Turrets tick…hopefully not in public.
Now you know what your betters talk about every day – and make MILLIONS in the process.
I can’t even think that way, total engineer brain coupled to being a “Boy Scout”.
***
Sidebar: Just heard about this 42 yo gal, a fitness type with scuba cert’s, who wanted to be the “first female” SEAL officer, just got booted due to her age, so is suing the Navy for age discrimination…and…”my grandfather was Norwegian army, my father was (didn’t hear), and my brother is in the FBI” (as if THAT is highly prized these days). Me yelling at the radio “They are men!”. She believes she is highly qualified for the SEAL’s because she’s fit and can run and swim, as if that’s all that is necessary. Wanna tell her to start the Babe SEAL’s, quit messing the boys teams. (Reminds me of that gal who broke the Citadel but couldn’t hack after admittance.)
Wait! Better response:
.
.
.
SCHIFF!
She’s full of Schiff.
“Illegal Immigration and replacement is not about “race”, it’s entirely about class”
With respect, no it is NOT entirely about class. I agree that “They” want a population of docile, or at least dimwitted, helots for purposes of economic and political control, BUT, they also hate you, white people. Hate you. Now some of “Them” are themselves white, but they still hate “bad whites” which is everyone not them. (And I’d bet they hate themselves at some level too. That’s REAL “self loathing” — as opposed to the most common, utter bullshit, use of “self loathing” which is often just someone calling things they are [1]. But I digress.) The purpose of “Their” propaganda (and I include popular entertainment — movies, TV, music — and advertising [2]) is not merely to create the low-IQ miscegenated mess that Kalergi [3] dreamt of, but because they Simply Hate White People. It ain’t complex. And there’s no point in me saying this, I’ll let “Them” speak for themselves.
—
Susan Sontag: The white race is the cancer of human history. It is the white race and it alone–its ideologies and inventions–which eradicates autonomous civilizations wherever it spreads, which has upset the ecological balance of the planet, which now threatens the very existence of life itself.
Tim (“mostly northern European”) Wise:
1) Old white people have pretty much always been the bad guys, the keepers of the hegemonic and reactionary flame […] Fine, keep it up. It doesn’t matter. Because you’re on the endangered list. And unlike, say, the bald eagle or some exotic species of muskrat, you are not worth saving.
2) The image of a white Jesus has been used to justify enslavement, conquest, colonialism, the genocide of indigenous peoples. There are literally millions of human beings whose lives have been snuffed out by people who conquered under the banner of a white god.
3) Even white folks born after the passage of civil rights laws inherit the legacy of that long history into which their forbears were born
4) In about forty years, half the country will be black or brown. And there is nothing you can do about it. And by then you will have gone all in as a white nationalist movement — hell you’ve all but done that now — thus guaranteeing that the folks of color, and even a decent size minority of us white folks will be able to crush you [unfortunately, this mostly northern European … person … is correct about our demographic future]
Noel Ignatiev: If you are a white male, you don’t deserve to live. You are a cancer, you’re a disease, white males have never contributed anything positive to the world! [To be fair to this … person … Ignatiev’s headspace was that “whiteness” was a mental construct bound up in privilege for in-group members, and repression of outsiders, and had nothing to do with biological race or skin color. And I will admit that he was not afraid to call out other groups for being ethnosupremacists, so there was that.]
[1] I don’t want to be ruled by East Asians in general, much less the PRC. For multiple reasons. There are many things I find alien and uncomfortable about “overseas Chinese” culture, especially about the Cantonese-speaking ones who are economically highly successful (as a class) in SE Asia, and who are generally loathed by the host populations for their nepotism, unconcealed disdain for the natives, and their general grasping nature. This general distaste does not make me “a self-loathing Chinese” because those people (to the best of my ability) do not reflect me.
—
[2] I don’t know this “Despot of Antrim” YouTuber (other than as a guest panelist on Critical Drinker), and haven’t watched this whole video yet, but the parts I have seen appear to be spot on. Make no mistake, advertising is not merely about selling product or services, it’s social engineering as well.
—
https://youtu.be/26mLdpZWwpY?si=zntgHiXHOuj818C9
—
[3] Kalergi: “The man of the future will be of mixed race. Today’s races and classes[a] will gradually disappear owing to the vanishing of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-Negroid race of the future…”
Of course I must say that merely naming Kalergi is to quote a “debunked far-right, antisemitic, white genocide conspiracy theory”. Wikipedia tells you so in the opening paragraph. And Politifact has debunked so-called “replacement theory”. Who are you going to believe? Your own lying eyes, or wise people who know the truth?
I was reminded that today is Earth Day. If you’re very passionate about the date, do a woman astro move and kiss the ground. Try to find a patch without discharge or Schiff on it. That’s about all the celebration that I plan to advocate for on VM today.
I cleaned my shop “environment” while putting some old paint cans outside…does that count?
Gaia rejoyces.
Thiught so considering it was started by Crazy Ira, who felt it was okay to compost his girlfriend in a trunk in the apartment closet with tree air fresheners. Not allowed to leave a lunatic environmentalist apparently.
The CIA did the murder and framed poor Ira Einhorn, Paul M! Everyone know dat. Please do not mock The Real Victim. Can’t a German/Unicorn person catch a break around here?
Sorry, I will repent…(repeating after myself): Mr. Einhorn was framed!…for killing his girlfriend. Ahh, let me try again…”The honorable Mr. Garcia is not a human trafficking, wife beating, MS-13 gang member here illegally… he is doting father who coaches his kids soccer team teaching “it’s not about winning but playing with good character that matters”, and – like a Hallmark movie – owns a quant bakery in town that makes the best cupcakes.”
There. Fixed.
(As for Mr. Einhorn… “Schiff!”)
I was in Torrance Calif in 1970 for the first earth day, in high school. The smog was bad. I left.
Back in 10 years and LA had mountains! I don’t recall seeing them between ’66 (when I got there) & 1970 when I left.
There is no question but what emission controls played a major role in improving air quality in the LA Basin. I don’t oppose emission controls. I don’t oppose electric cars either but until the grid can sustain them (and that means a robust grid powered by distributed small modular nuclear generators), there is no use getting too excited about them. Grid first, then we can worry about electric automobiles.
Canada. Their general election is in six days. I’m only an interested spectator. If the Liberals keep their majority the prairie provinces will soon hold separation referendums.
There are enough pissed off voters, along with the First Nations, to force the issue.
Will the Trudeauist.2 be smart enough to focus on keeping Canada Canadian, or will they continue on the path to Europe Lite?
Would the treaty obligations to the various Indian tribes in Canada be voided if the provinces separated from Canada?
I’m not knowledgeable with how First Nations work in Canada.
There are over 1 million indigenous Canadians, from 600+ tribes. Three groups are included in the Canadian Constitution.
——
Let us just say it is complicated.
On another note, today’s music selection is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-KjGrbuov4&t=8s
I didn’t know that the Finnish national song was a polka. Hakkaa päälle pohjan poika!
A year or so ago, I was with my wife visiting her father’s grave at
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. I saw the LCS-10, the USS Gabby Giffords heading out to sea.
She was once my Congresscritter. She represented my district, but never me.
Giffords, an incompetent political hack and wife of Sen. Scott (D-AZ) is famous for being shot in the head by one of her democrat constituents. Why does that qualify her for having a Little Crappy Ship named after her? It’s scheduled for decommissioning, and with that one more blight is removed from the Navy.
Senator Mark Kelly…..ugh.
When I think of him, I mutter Schiff