Contemplating Contemplation

Mel Gibson contemplates on Rogan.

Bullet Points:

** Sharia Barbie – because the girls in England and Minnesota need to have something to play with.

** Revolutions are certainly not all equal (and I’ll ignore the communists for the moment). The American Revolution, which separated us from Britain, was led by educated and wealthy (white) men who risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. They eventually created a republic that placed restrictions on its central government. They were practical. The French sought to destroy the monarchy, the Catholic church, and their entire social system. Unbathed radicals led the French Revolution. Never trust the unbathed. They guillotined the king, the queen, and 17,000 citizens during the Reign of Terror. But that was just the start of the bloodshed once the king was gone. The War in the Vendée (1793–1796) was a major counter-revolutionary civil war in western France. It pitted rural, devoutly Catholic peasants and royalist nobles against the revolutionary Republican government in Paris, which crushed the rebels like ants. The slaughter topped 200,000 people, roughly 25% of the population of western France. “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” is the motto of France.

** Kraft Foods is rolling out new TSA-friendly ranch dressing packets now that World Cup fans have become addicted. Take them on the airplane and – lick them – I  guess.

** The legacy of Sleepy Joe (also known as Pedo Joe) Biden.

** On April 6 of this year, Ukrainian drones successfully struck Russia’s Admiral Makarov. (right) The attack occurred in the port of Novorossiysk, targeting the strategically significant warship known for carrying Kalibr cruise missiles. The Admiral Grigorovich-class (Project 11356) frigate serves in the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet but remains under repair, now flanked by more defensive systems. The drone vs counter-drone tech war is worth following as things evolve quickly. This article is worth reading (h/t Claudio).

** Long-time followers of the Virtual Mirage Blog understand that not everyone swallowed the lies about the COVID-19 pandemic, its origin in gain-of-function research, and the release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (Red Chinese bio-weapons laboratory). The COVID pandemic caused tremendous hardship and pain for millions of our fellow Americans, and countless people around the world. Now, after years of lies, censorship, and cover-ups, the American people deserve transparency, truth, and accountability. The tactics that were used to hide the truth are straight from the Deep State playbook. Politicized, self-serving leaders, like Dr. Fauci, covered up their own wrongdoing and abuses of power, manipulated intelligence, lied to Congress, and undermined a duly elected President by restricting his access to the vital facts he needed to keep the country safe. DNI Gabbard dropped the now-declassified information needed for a reckoning. Will that reckoning unfold? Skeptics doubt it. I say, wait and see, but I tend to be a skeptic.

In a new piece at American Thinker, John Green asks and answers his own question: “So what changed after President Trump declared his predecessor’s [autopen] pardons null and void? Nothing. None of the monsters released by Biden has been re-arrested. None of the Biden cronies who escaped justice has shown contrition, nor begged for forgiveness. It’s as if Trump’s order means nothing, because the matter hasn’t been adjudicated — yet.” But that time needs to come, sooner rather than later. “Eventually,” Green writes, “the Supreme Court will need to decide if someone who created a humanitarian crisis is above the law, simply because a clerk deep in the bowels of the White House pushed the right button on a machine with a pen.”

** The Archbishop of Canterbury is an embarrassment. I realize that there are Anglicans who follow this blog, and I don’t wish to offend you. I truly don’t. Couldn’t you have picked somebody better than Sarah Mullally to be your leader and spiritual guide? She was installed in March of this year and advocates for all of the Palestinians from Gaza to be relocated to Old Blighty. Not even the Muslim nations of the world want them – but bankrupt Old Blighty will put them on welfare for the rest of their lives? Rethink Sarah. I don’t care if she’s the 106th and current Archbishop. (see Sharia Barbie – above left)

** Investor’s Business Daily discusses defense munitions stocks and the larger picture. It’s behind a paywall (here), or you can read CDRSAL’s summary. CDRSAL is always worth reading.

** Sovereign funds in the Gulf, which control around $5 trillion, have enough liquidity available that when everyone else steps back, sovereigns step in. Often, the economic doom-and-gloom crowd forgets this factor in the game. The Iran War had no impact on these funds. Getting closer to Gulf sovereign wealth has been a major initiative for Wall Street firms over the past five years. Many have opened offices in Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, or Riyadh (sometimes all of them) in order to win favor with deep-pocketed firms controlled by Gulf royalty, which are prepared to pour billions of dollars into global deals. That trend won’t slow down because the Gulf money needs to find a profitable home outside of oil energy in the Middle East.  I believe that OPEC is finished (including OPEC+ and all permutations) primarily because the US is now the world’s largest oil producer, and the reopening of fields in California and along the Pacific Coast will be an even bigger game-changer. That volume coming from the US and Venezuela (that ignores OPEC quotas now) will break the oil cartel. OPEC members are quietly increasing production beyond OPEC guidelines.

But what about “the coming worldwide economic collapse, LL?” I hear what you’re asking, but I don’t see it coming. And the fact that some people want it to come – for a myriad of reasons – doesn’t mean that it will. The $5 trillion in Gulf sovereign wealth money has to go somewhere, and it’s not going to China, Russia, or Europe. Europe is making moves to deport illegal aliens. They have seen the handwriting on the wall. Can Europe forestall economic decline? Not in the near term, but they can in the long term if they make the right moves (ignore DEI, the green movement, the woke movements, and the other hills they said they’d die on). Will European women start having children and raising families? It will take a reversal of current trends, and economic incentives will help make it a reality.

** America sought independence from England but kept the British court system and protection of individual civil liberties. I know that is hard to believe these days, but not long ago, the Mother Country stood up for a 14-year-old girl using an axe to threaten a pedo trying to groom her 12-year-old sister. Now, instead of arresting the pedo, the Brits call the girl a liar.

** Question of the Day: Do you say/ask a blessing on the food before you eat? (more here on technique)

PAULM Asked

What sort of exhibits are in the new Obama Building – Klingon Prison or whatever you call it? VM works hard to answer your questions. In this case, we went to the Bee – the most trusted source in news. There is also a basketball court because Barack and his husband enjoy a man-on-man game of horse now and again.

PAULM asks, “What do you get for your $30?”

BARACK replies, “A valid Hawaii birth certificate you can use in court to validate your citizenship.”

VM opines, “And if Big Mike is present, some of the tourists might convince him to play some hoops with them man-on-man the way Barack does. How’s THAT for a thirty dollar value?”

Green Card Aliens and the US Supreme Court

A decision came down on Tuesday in an immigration case concerning the government’s authority over green card holders accused of crimes. The 6-3 decision centers on an immigration officer’s 2012 decision to put lawful permanent resident Muk Choi Lau on immigration parole when he returned from a short trip to China because he had been accused of a counterfeiting crime.

Lau argued that the officer overstepped their authority, and that the decision wrongly granted the Department of Homeland Security, under then-President Barack Obama, an easier path to removal after he pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit clothing in New Jersey. The high court disagreed. “Border officers did not have the burden to establish by clear and convincing evidence that Lau had committed a crime involving moral turpitude,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the opinion. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, writing that the decision to put Lau on immigration parole effectively sentenced him to “immigration limbo” before he’d been convicted of any crime. “I worry that the Court has now handed the Government a massive blank check,” she wrote in the dissent joined by her two liberal colleagues.

The liberal group Alliance for Justice echoed that concern, saying the ruling could provide an expanded path for revoking green cards.

But Advancing American Freedom, a group founded by former Republican Vice President Mike Pence, called it an important case to allow the removal of people who “abuse the privilege of being granted lawful permanent resident status.”

The decision comes as the high court considers a series of immigration-related issues against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown, though this case started before Trump took office. His administration argued that suspicion of a crime is sufficient to place a lawful permanent resident, also known as a green card holder, on immigration parole. Federal attorneys urged the court to take an expansive view of executive authority over immigration. The court is also considering cases over Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship, potentially revive a restrictive asylum policy and end temporary legal protections for migrants fleeing war and natural disasters in their homelands.

A large group of spies employed by the People’s Republic of China is beginning to panic. They are all present in the USA on green cards. It’s high time to revoke their status and send them back to the Workers’ Paradise… for good.

Identify the Aircraft

1

2

42 built

3

21 built – 3 remain operational

Parting Shot

How often was Aviation Leak & Space Tech accurate?

End