VM – Blogging from the road.
Bullet Points:
**I watched as the goal of mainstream journalism shifted from describing reality to guiding readers to the correct political conclusion.
** Do you put pineapple on pizza?
** The Russia Law – explained – NGO Laws: Registration Requirements: The Russian government has imposed stringent registration requirements for NGOs, particularly those receiving foreign funding. Restrictions on Activities: NGOs designated as “foreign agents” may face restrictions on their activities, including limitations on access to government funding and participation in public events. Suppression of Civil Society: Critics argue that these laws are designed to suppress civil society and limit the ability of NGOs to operate freely.
** Dangerfield (RIP) – on getting old.
**The United States is facing one significant challenge that threatens everything from its competitive edge in high-tech manufacturing to overcoming the persistent housing crisis: there are not nearly enough construction workers. Currently, the typical apprenticeship program is small and highly competitive, with about 40 percent of apprentices dropping out before completing their program. Apprenticeships alone, however, will not be sufficient. That’s because the United States would need to add more than 430,000 new construction workers this year to meet demand.
Filling such a large gap will require identifying and investing in other pathways to construction jobs. Without action, the impacts could be substantial: the cost of building anything will increase, and both residential and commercial construction will be put on the back burner, potentially prolonging the housing crisis and halting progress on building new manufacturing and semiconductor facilities. The United States must first rebuild its construction workforce to rebuild the country.
** (Mail) Only 20% support reparations for Oprah Winfrey and other descendants of slaves. Since everyone can self-identify as the descendant of slaves, we would all technically be eligible for reparations. So, if everyone wrote themselves a check, would this put the matter to rest once and for all?
** Kayaking with EdB.
** Appalachian word of the day.
The Islamic Republic of Germany?
Are we looking at the formation of a new theological state? Germany, the economic heart of Europe — the supposed gold standard of order, stability, and industrial might — is unravelling in full view. (more here) This isn’t hyperbole. It’s not nationalist hysteria. It’s a fact, carved into the skin of innocent commuters, children, and schoolteachers. What once stood as the engine of Europe is now a cautionary tale in slow-motion collapse.
A nation once known for precision, discipline, and security now radiates something closer to fatigue and fear. The cracks aren’t subtle anymore; they’re gaping, and they run through every level of German society.
I’ve seen it myself in German neighborhoods where the churches have become mosques and there are more Turkish flags than German flags flying over the cities. It’s easier to get kabab to eat than bratwurst. And it runs a lot deeper than that, as the most common baby name is Mohammed.
What’s going on at CIA?
On May 29, 2025, the Washington Post published an article purporting to be an objective assessment of the CIA’s attempts to revitalize its human intelligence operations. It acknowledged that the CIA was not producing anywhere close to the quantity or quality of intelligence it is supposed to, but then explained: This is not the fault of the current leadership. It is a product of changes in the operating environment.
The Post continued. CIA is working hard on fixing this, and the worst thing you could do right now would be to fire the people who got us into this mess. It probably doesn’t matter all that much anyway, because so much information can be gathered overtly that spies aren’t all that necessary.
In the world of intelligence, we have a technical term for such statements. They are called lies. Or more pointedly, it’s bullshit designed to head off any idea in the Trump administration of making significant changes to CIA leadership or structure.
The number of human sources being run worldwide is ludicrously small. The pace at which case officers in the field are moving is painfully slow. The organization barely has a heartbeat. They spent years obsessing about DEI considerations that are at best irrelevant to the business of espionage. Even case officers, those who recruit sources, have been promoted based on ideology and political correctness rather than operational merit. Many of the top officials in the CIA currently hold positions without having run operations, recruited sources, or spent significant time in the field.
We need to revamp recruiting completely. Find the people who can steal the Crown Jewels and have fun doing it. Get the Agency out of the Embassies (for the greater part) and into the black world of diversified cover.
Obedience Masks
Do you recall when they were the thing?
Passing the Torch
As a student of history, armchair psychologist, amateur gynecologist, and wannabe philosopher, I am deeply concerned about the future of the human race. By some estimates, when the Baby Boomers (including me) start dying in waves, as Father Time demands, there will be a transfer of wealth to the tune of approximately $ 70 trillion. How are the recipients of that largesse, or their children, going to deal with that?
In five years, AI is expected to narrow the field of available work further. When Gen X is gone, will people even remember what it was like to WANT to work as opposed to clamoring for a Basic Universal Income? I fear for my grandchildren, but I suppose grandparents throughout time have felt such things.
Identify the Aircraft
1
This is a post-war rebuild. 885 built
2
There were about 350 built. It looks like other later models,
so I’ll include a second graphic to aid you.
3
Only three were built, but it’s a legitimate entry here.
End
1 is Nord 1002 Pingouin II
Oprah came out of her mansion, saw her shadow, and now we have six more weeks of this reparations bool-sheet.
Voting has become a way of raiding the treasury by the masses, previously the exclusive domain of the elite.
X2
They use “other people’s money” or taxpayer money to buy votes. It’s formulaic at this point.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun
2. Messerschmitt Me 210
3. Messerschmitt Me 261
Excellent
“** Do you put pineapple on pizza?”
Do you not?
I put pineapple on my fajitas!
In fact, I put anything on anything I want.
‘merica.
Anything I want is the correct answer!
👍
Best to be your own man, naysayers be damed..because as long as you aren’t bother others then fine, yet others – who are bothering you by griping – are the problem.
😁
Pineapple and extra Canadian Bacon(ham) is my favorite pizza and I don’t care who knows that, I do not hang my head in shame.
I recently interviewed a former CIA officer.
He started out Analysis and moved into Ops.
I suggested that was the correct path for promotion.
He pointed out the Brennan was a career analyst.
Of course, he was also a communist.
The Directorate of Operations (DO), or the Clandestine Service, has always had far fewer employees than the Directorate of Intelligence (Analysis). The DI was very heavy in Senior Intelligence Service slots before Trump. There has been housecleaning. They need to cut deeper.
When I graduated college with an IT BS the CIA were recruiting at the university job fair. They had a list of majors that they were interested in. IT was one of them. I went to school on the GI Bill and was in the Air Guard holding a TS SS/BI security clearance. This was back in 1993. I was not what they wanted. They were looking for ethic minorities and came out and said that.
You could have self identified as a homosexual, negro, woman.
👍
I wish we could stop using the catch-all phrase: “ethnic minorities.;’ I can guarantee you that there was one “ethnic minoritiy” that the CIA avoided like the plague.
Does the CIA have feuds with State and with Treasury? Maybe it’s a “separation of powers” (okay, turf) thing. I wish I knew how much of that was sarcasm. But I don’t.
—
That said, I appreciate your spirit of staying in the ideological/linguistic fight, boron. “Ethnic minority” doesn’t apply to me either, as you know. And I no longer give a crap. We all know that “ethnic minority” is code. Just like “diversity of opinion” is a code. They (“they”) don’t want actual diversity, they want degenerates, leftist whack jobs, and ethnosupremacists from shithole cultures. (People from cultures that might Actually have some legit claim to supremacy are not welcome to speak.)
And a MAJOR feud with NSA/Ft. Meade…sigh… Yes, both organizations were playing the ‘ethnic minority’ cards hard and fast. Friends at both orgs ended up leaving without retirement due to being WASP males… Grrrr
it’s not so much of a “ideological/linguistic fight”; it’s more a matter of having to clean off the tons of Bravo Sierra trying to find the intrinsic sentence, even a single phrase, that gives me some idea of the what the individual is trying to say, as well as the worth of that individual.
and sometimes I just get tired of employing a 10-syllable euphemism when a couple of short one-syllable words (the ones we learned outside of class in Junior High School) are far more descriptive.
Historically, tensions have existed between the CIA and the State Department regarding the number of CIA case officers assigned to State’s slots in embassies – a matter of diplomatic cover and immunity.
Look at the eyes on that Appalachian chick. Wowser!
“mainstream journalism”
I’ve known a man over the past 84 years who rose extemely close to the top of national mainstream (written, not TV) journalism close on 50 years ago; he was so near-sighted he was unable to see much further than the skin of his forehead. his “G-d given” mission in life was to convince you (verbally batter you when necessary) of the correctness of his Weltanschauung based upon his skewed interpretation of Marx and how America had taken a wrong turn sometime in the 20th Century.
I learned from him that journalism, strictly speaking, is the the reportage by a not necessarily on-the-scene “eyewitness” of an incident(s), which has been viewed through the skewed lenses of a (fiction?) writer with an axe to grind and further stirred by an editor’s lopsided ladle. an excellent example of such reportage are the stories appearing in the mainstream press during ‘Nam written by liquored reporters all clustered in a bar in downtown Saigon each trying to outdo the other.
Perfectly written.
WTP can never believe anything those people say is true…or say at all. “With great power (of the press in this case) comes great responsibility.” Very few are honorable and/or moral and yet they want us to trust them. Never.
There is only one way that has ever proven to be effective against the muslim scourge. Europe is spent; they have purged the ability to resist their annihilation from their very DNA. There will be no more Charles Martel, Charlemagne, El Cid arising to rally them to do what must be done to ensure their own survival.
This problem is already manifesting in our own country, and the question remains if we can do what is necessary to avoid Europe’s fate.
We as a nation seem to be thrilled to take their money… What exactly does that buy?