Bullet Points:
** How would you like to trust your mortal clay to Russian engineering – 40-year-old Russian engineering?
** Picking corn with MikeW.
** Surfers don’t like to pick fights with crazy people who are willing to drown them for shits and giggles. Just saying.
** The last four years need a barium enema in DC and we need to figure out what to do with the effluent.
** What will happen to all those countries holding dollars when we switch to Dogecoin?
** The murder of Zvi Kogan, an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi living in Abu Dhabi, has shaken the UAE’s small Jewish community, which has maintained a low profile since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and subsequent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Kogan, who managed a kosher grocery store in Dubai, helped establish a Jewish community following the 2020 Abraham Accords. UAE authorities arrested three Uzbek nationals in connection with the murder but did not suggest a motive.
While trade and aviation links between the UAE and Israel remain intact, outward signs of Judaism — such as head coverings, facial hair on men, and Mezuzahs in doorways — have become less visible. Protecting Jewish residents and Israelis poses significant challenges in an Arab country, even in the UAE, which boasts one of the world’s lowest murder rates. High-profile cases like Kogan’s are usually resolved quickly, and the UAE and Israel have committed to strengthening ties.
** “The FBI referred Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade for prosecution for making false statements related to a hate crime hoax intended to boost his candidacy, but the Department of Justice refused to pursue it for racial and political reasons, an FBI official told The Daily Wire.”
For those of you who can’t read it, the spray-painted word is “NIGGER.” Mobolade told Juicy Smollett, “Hold my beer.”
** The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence estimates that China now has 232 times the United States’s shipbuilding capacity. The US Navy is far more diverse than the communist Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Navy, and they’re hoping that will make all the difference.
** Each iteration of Neomarxism, Marxism, or Gnosticism has a different binary pair of victimized, downtrodden, and oppressive Powers that be. For the feminist, the male oppresses the female. For the race hustler, white oppresses black. For queer theory, heteronormativity oppresses gay. For Marxism, the bourgeoisie oppressed the proletariat. For Nazism, Jew oppresses Aryan. For the Gnostics, the demiurge oppresses the enlightened.
In this generation, the justification for rebellion is Wokeness, which is to say, special awareness of otherwise invisible systems of oppression that exploit the downtrodden: dog whistles, glass ceilings, microaggressions, systemic racism. Wokeness is a magic that sees the invisible. Now that Wokeness is losing prestige, another binary pair of oppressor and victim will be found. Since the choice of oppressor and victim is arbitrary, and unrelated to reality, what names will be assigned to these roles cannot be predicted.
But it will happen.
** 
Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa
This Thanksgiving, Olena @ZelenskaUA and I express our heartfelt gratitude to all our American friends and families gathered around festive tables. I’d also like to thank the American taxpayers for the 10% I skim off the top. I know 10% might seem like a lot, but it is how business gets done in Ukraine. I have so many people to pay off, including people in America, and I also have to take care of Olena and myself. Thank you to all the dolts who voted for Obama’s third term from the bottom of our hearts.”
***
Go to Cornell to Learn Queer Marxism
I can imagine this will look good on your company application when they ask you what you learned at Cornell: “We will consider how queer critiques of reproductive futurism, racial capitalism, and homonationalism can transform the legacy of Marxist theory and practice,” the description says. “At the same time, we will examine Marxist notions of totality, reification, and value to re-envision the scope of queer politics.” You’re sure to be get the job!
The university’s Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program is offering Queer Marxism. The program’s mission is to “to address some of the most important issues the world faces today,” particularly “by offering students the opportunity to study a wide range of fields from the perspectives of feminist and LGBTQIA critical analysis, in global and local contexts and to promote social justice.”
I could frankly give a rat’s tail whether morons decide to waste daddy’s money learning this drek. No student loans should be available for this sort of program, which could only appeal to the mentally ill.
Stuff Going On
There are too many stories in the news for just one man to cover. And even though I have the strength of 10 men, there is – tragically – only one of me.
Rob “Meathead” Reiner checked himself into a “facility” to cope with his post-election, TDS-induced blues. (I am not making this up) He’s doing this instead of leaving the country as promised.
One of the assistants to Alvin Bragg – the slimy New York DA who divides his time between trying to jail Trump for crimes against humanity and making sure that as many dangerous illegals flood the streets of NYC as possible – was mugged by… wait for it… a many-times-deported illegal! (Also not making this up.)
The dimwits on the View were so unhinged that they had to read five legal corrections about slanderous comments they’d made – in just one week! (You can’t make that up.)
TDS-suffering actress Rachel Zegler has struggled to turn Disney’s big-budget “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” into “Woke Snow Brown and One Little Person plus Six Normal-Sized People.” Disney spent the last year re-shooting after disastrous preliminary screenings and Zegler’s equally disastrously off-putting woke comments, only to have Zegler unleash another post-election tirade to the effect of, “I hate our potential audience and hope none of them come to see this film!” (Disney wishes that one was made up.)
***
No Need to Worry
Not yet…Asteroid Apophis, named after the Egyptian god of chaos and destruction, is a near-Earth asteroid that has garnered significant attention due to its close approach to our home planet. Discovered in 2004, Apophis is classified as a potentially hazardous object. Due to swing close enough to the planet in 2029, the gravitational influence will be enough to cause tremors.
A recent study by Ronald-Louis Ballouz from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory suggests that the asteroid 99942 Apophis may experience tremors—similar to earthquakes—due to Earth’s gravitational pull during its close flyby on April 13, 2029. Simulations indicate significant surface changes.
When Roy Tucker, David Tholen, and Fabrizio Bernardi discovered Apophis on June 19, 2004, during the University of Hawaii Asteroid Survey (UHAS), initial calculations indicated that it could approach Earth with a risk of collision, especially during its pass in 2029. It didn’t help that it is named after the Egyptian god of darkness and chaos.
The original estimates for collision were as high as 2.7%, and Apophis achieved the highest rating ever on the ‘Torino scale’ – a method used to evaluate the threat that an asteroid poses to Earth.
However, new calculations and observations have led scientists to conclude that there will be no impact….for at least 100 years.
Leslie Eastman reported the above for LI. For those of you who don’t know her personally, she’s a wonderful person. She’s a friend of close friends of mine and a real gem. h/t Leslie.
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
Identify the Vehicle
3
4
5
6
7
End
Dogecoin; crypto monetary exchange can be taxed and traced. Cash is exchanged without this surcharge such as debit cards incur.
A point well made by Andrew Tate.
Credit cards are adding 3-5%.
RANT…
Oregon voters said NO to sales tax at least 4 times. That is until legislation presented a ” Robin Hood ” tax.
In 2016 voters defeated Measure 97. It called for a 2.5% tax on sales for corporations doing more than $25 million a year. The coalition was led by public employee unions. ( Save the children! Fund the schools! )
HB 3427 passed in 2019, legislature decided what’s best for all. Businesses with $1M gross receipts now pay our sales tax for us! FSS ( funds for students success) receives a percentage of the revenue. ( like the state lottery). The failing Public employees Retirement fund i.e. PERS payout to retired teachers and other state employees have secured their honey pot with the remainder of a continuous steady flow of revenue from sales, wholesale and retail. Nevada’s Legislature had also passed a gross receipts tax after voters had previously rejected a much bigger proposal.
Will Nations and Narcos that will not bow to the digital wallet, ( the 31st feature of your cellphone), Ally with BRICS?
There is a lot to unpack in your comments. I have recently worked on a consulting basis for the Federal Department of Homeland Security as part of a study undertaken by Rand Corp. to better understand the relationship between digital currency and digital tokens and international (primarily international) money laundering. To cut it to the quick, I have old friends who work for Rand who brought me in to explain how it works. Historically, I’m a recognized expert (whatever “expert” means) on money laundering as it occurs in the People’s Republic of China and Asia. I taught a course on that subject at the People’s Public Security University in Beijing circa 2000-2003. I didn’t live in China, I traveled to China to teach the course to the Chinese Police. Ok, back to 2024, BRICS and the US.
–
I predicted to Rand and therefore to HHS that if the US went to a digital wallet, people would find other currency or species to transact business with – Mexican Pesos being the most likely in the Southwest. Digital currency where it was required and barter or other modes of currency elsewhere. I explained to my betters in the USGOV that it would crash the dollar and they’d be LUCKY if people transacted 20% with their digital crap. Rand did a good job keeping their “experts” separated but I learned that all of them – maybe a dozen of us – said the same thing.
–
Fast forward to the recent election of President Trump. The digital wallet is dead for now. But it’s one of those things that will be out there for any despot greedy enough to try. It will work in hive cities, but when you look at the voting map, it won’t work throughout 85% of the country. Using the IRS as a blunt instrument will result in an actual insurrection with a lot of dead IRS agents. There are not enough stupid inner city people to sign up to leave their havens and act as cannon fodder for USGOV out in the non-blue areas of America.
–
BRICS is dead. I don’t blame the instigators for trying to do something with it, but it’s dead. The brain dead Pedo Joe/Ho are out of office and unless the Republicans screw the pooch YET AGAIN, the dems dream of tyranny is put off for more than a decade.
PS – Socialist US States like California, Oregon, and Washington can do what they want to do in terms of taxation when their people are shouting for it. The same is true of Massachusetts, Maryland, and Connecticut. The Constitution allows for it. I moved out of California six years ago and live in Arizona, where the cost of living is roughly 20% less – primarily due to taxation (state income/property/excise, etc.)
Interesting (you both)…not my wheelhouse but most people, like myself, have no idea most of this exists. This is beyond my Boy Scout knowledge base. Learned a thing this morning.
—
Time to eliminate property taxes…it’s nothing but legalized theft. I own my property, paid for from my earned money (well, what was left after the “other” confiscatory taxes)…local counties/states have no right to tax private land to fund their pet projects, that’s what fuel and sales taxes are intended to do. No different than Park passes for places We The People already own. [As I head off into the Snowy’s with my $10 Christmas tree cutting permit…but I’m okay with that one as it’s elective.]
The question of national income and national spending will rear its ugly head over and over during 47’s term. The question of state spending is a different issue entirely – truly is. Looking closely at which US States are donor states and which are recipients of federal largess is telling. This website is not definitive but it is useful: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/donor-states
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As $2T is chopped from federal spending, a lot of the trickle down to poorer US states will be telling – the more rural states on point. I’m not defending taxation but we’re still $37T in debt and it will take decades to rebalance that. Tariffs will help as will the sale of petrochemicals, but $37T is a LOT of money. Cutting medicare and social security is verboten to taxpayers, yet that’s where the bulk of the US budget goes. It’s a sticky wicket.
From the chart, where do you cut $2T without raising taxes?
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/59727
Thanks for the replies Larry. Wisdom and sharing your experience is appreciated. Still learning from you all. We’ve taken up residence in Texas to be near 4 of our grandchildren. Property tax for us as senior’s exempts us from the school portion which is substantial. The majority of our kids and grandkids live in Oregon, thus we live and work together on the coast for the summers.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Junkers Ju 188
2. Dornier Do 26
Identify the Vehicle:
3. Sd. Kfz. 221 armed with 2.8 cm sPzB 41 squeeze bore light anti-tank gun.
4. 15 cm sIG 33 (Sf.) auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen II
5. Sturm-Infanteriegeschütz 33B
6. 15cm sFH13/1 (Sf) auf Geschuetzwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f)
7. 15cm sIG 33 L/11(Sf) auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf.H (Sf)
Wow – and I thought it might be challenging. Guess not.
Re 4-7, after a certain point identifying German SPs is a matter of checking the suspension to determine the base chassis and then looking at the tube length and presence or absence of muzzle brake to determine whether it is SP artillery or anti-tank.
“The last four years need a barium enema”
Barium enema, That’s a euphemism for ropes and lampposts, right?
I got viscerally angry watching that clip.
The media is supposed to reflect public revulsion to that carp instead of suppressing it.
It’s encouraging that NFL players are now doing the happy dance instead of taking a knee.
Why did it take an election?
.
That trick that “Bill” uses is very effectual. But it takes the courage to back it up to make it work.
Visceral anger helps.
“Sure I only have one bullet left and there are six of you. Can we have a volunteer from the audience?”
A barium enema is a Soviet-Russian term for finding where the leaks are so you can plug them. A LOT of laundered taxpayer dollars made its way back to the democrat party (where Kamala blew it – hahaha), and that BS has to stop. Pres. Trump spent a fraction of what the dems spent and won overwhelmingly, so while money mattered, it didn’t matter that much – thank God.
Time For A Barium Enema Reset ™, I’d even donate a C-note to help…altho with the New Cleaning Crew heading to DC they won’t need it with all the cutting of uselessness, freeing up much needed funds to power wash and leaf blower the place.
I would investigate Act Blue and all those transactions that just don’t jive with reality.
ropes break and lampposts bend.
I’ll happily contribute hands, time, and money to the construction of that good 18th Century French panecea; I’ll even take up basket-weaving
I can see you as a male version of Madame Defarge, sitting vengefully, knitting a scarfs with the names of aristocrats who need to go under the guillotine.
It is a far far better thing that Boron has done….
I wonder if Apophis is not the Asteroid mentioned as “Wormwood” in the Bible Revelation 8:10-11: ,
Asking for Humanity.
We’re not that lucky.
Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse. Has it gone super nova yet? Maybe. Part of me hopes it has since that would be something to see. Since it’s over 600 light years away, radiation shouldn’t be a problem.
You’re not the only one. Many of us would like to see it before the six-foot drop and mouth full of dirt.
I find the asteroid thing humorous. In the 70’s eggs were bad for you, so was wine and coffee, heck, and dessert items…mainly because The Crazies (not “Bill”) wanted to push their idiotic food pyramid (scheme) to tell everyone they knew better (as far as I care, Grandma knew more than a bunch of bureaucrats. Heck, before 1990 Mickey-D’s used beef tallow for frying etc…switched to processed oils, Canola is a petroleum product, that can’t be good for you when it plasticizes under heat). And now we have asteroids and scientific prognosticators telling us we may…or not…kinda sorta…have an ELE on our hand, as if any of us could do anything about it if it actually happened. Iffn given a heads up, grab a lawn chair, a burger and beer, and watch the show…might as well enjoy it realtime.
–
We The People have bigger fish to fry than worrying about some asteroid clobbering (or coming close to) Earth, and my priority today is to find the “just right” tall and skinny Christmas tree while wandering God’s forest…seeking peace in every step I take (h/t John Denver).
My understanding is that canola is rapeseed oil?
*
– Kle.
1. I’m embarrassed for my alma mater- Cornell ’62 A.B. (Chem)
2. Apophis: doesn’t have to hit the planet to do a great deal of damage – how much of our atmosphere could it pull away in a “near miss”?
2. DRJIM might have exact calculations but I don’t think that it would pull away much if any with a near miss. It’s not the size of the Moon.
I don’t think it would “pull” away very much. Even a grazing pass, where it skipped through the upper atmosphere would drag much away. It might cause other things, like a localized hot spot where it bled off speed, and probably throw out a bunch of dust and chunks, but as long as it doesn’t slam into us, I think we’d be OK.
OOPS, I meant “would NOT drag much away.
.
.Need…More…COFFEE!
X2. It’s the impact and the ejecta that do lasting damage. If it grazed, it would doubtless make a mess of some of the Starlink sats and put debris into low Earth orbit.
I’m waiting to see what happens Jan 20th… THAT should be interesting in SO many ways… I think the left, while making all kinds of ‘pronouncements’ about what they are going to do about illegals, won’t be so vocal or out there come January when the rubber meets the road.
The concern about illegals I don’t hear mentioned are the number of military aged males. How many are 5th columnists, and how many will go quietly?
We won’t know until they’re rounded up. Some should be put to “the question” as they termed it in medieval Europe just so we know for sure.
“The Attack” by Kurt Schlichter suggests an answer. The vast majority of the illegals seem to be young males, what could they be up to? At least one of them made waves on the internet claiming that we would know “who he was” before too long – sounded pretty threaty to me.
There are a multitude of ways to reach a 2 trillion dollar reduction in spending. For example, start with the easy parts.
-Illegals with a court date are enrolled into Social Security giving them a basic income slightly greater than the average American who worked all their life. Additionally, they receive free medical care from hospital emergency rooms along with free housing benefits, SNAP and or other food assistance programs depending on the state they squat in. They also receive free cell phones and a host of other benefits not allowed to US citizens. The last time I checked in Idaho, an illegal pulls in about 80 grand a year. Remember Free means our taxes are paying for it.
-Welfare of all types. Remove the Federal and state taxes associated with welfare and let churches and civic organizations pick up the load. A bumpy start and then things would slow down.
-In the education field, local and state organizations receive billions upon billions of tax money to support the government schools. Cut it off.
-The military has a large budget. Much of it is worthwhile but there are still projects which should never receive Federal funding from the various services and agencies promoting research. The large lighter than air transport keeps cropping up every twenty years or so and quickly gathers the greenbacks into it’s air bag; but, we have never seen a reliable, large scale lighter than air transport take to the air for an extended amount of operational use. Also, on the really expensive projects, the military boss should be in charge the compete development time rather than changing every two or three years on the normal PCS schedule.
-Pay grades for Federal and military ranks might offer their choice fat for the fire. How many flag officers do we really need? How many of the high ranking GS ranks do we need. The positions could be downgraded without seriously degrading our government’s business. You get qualified folks who really want to work or you get blockheads who can’t work anywhere else. Either way it would be an improvement over what we have right now.
These are just quick examples and I didn’t even mention the shrimp on a tread mill study that was done several years ago along the Gulf Coast. There are plenty of ways to cut spending if you really want to.
X2 – all are worthwhile.
Alexis Pelosi, who’s married to the former speaker’s nephew, makes $181,648.00 annually as a “Senior Climate Advisor” at HUD.
Where, oh where, can we cut even one thin dime out of the Federal Budget without seriously impairing the health, safety, and security of everyday Americans? Where? Where can the cuts come from? The critical HUD budget is razor-thin already.
Get rid of HUD entirely, except perhaps for the one location where the Federal government actually has jurisdiction: Washington, DC. Same for the Department of Education. Let them transform DC into a shining model city, and then the states can take their successful ideas up on their own, if they so choose.
For the military, at a first pass, get rid of 50% of the generals and admirals, AND their staffs. Obviously, do this intelligently. Go through all the staffs and get rid of the drones and Obamanites, reassign some of the good ones to surviving flag officers staffs, others to more useful locations. Pare down most or all staffs. I’d say trim the numbers of colonels and naval captains by 25% right off the bat. Forced retirement with retirement pay and bennies is hardly cruel and unusual treatment, though some richly deserve that. The amount of paperwork is incredible, far too much of it generated by officers seeking to justify their phoney-baloney jobs. Some organizations are simply too rotten or useless to reform, such as NAVSEA, and need to be re-formed from the ground up. Keep the best personnel, especially the better of the more junior ones who haven’t been totally corrupted. I’d say the same thing about much of the FBI, BATFE, and CIA. All of their senior leadership needs to go. Parts of each may still be useful. I don’t know whether or not the counter-intelligence part of the FBI is completely compromised or not, but it ought to be a separate organization from domestic law enforcement.
Lord knows there are immense amounts of duplication in different departments. Last I heard, there were something like 88 different Federal job training programs, most of which show few or no positive results. Axe them. The whole Dept of Ed can go.
The problem is Congress, since a lot of this needs to go through them. The screaming of stuck pigs, amplified by the media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) will be ear-splitting and few Congresscritters seem able to withstand that. Certainly not the less-than-worthless RINOs. But maybe enough can be done to buy a few years before it all comes crashing down, and maybe the horse will learn to sing before it does.
Lets say Musk & What’s-his-swammy and Trump are successful in trimming two trillion out of the budget. What do you suppose that windfall will look like to the Donks and Political-Industrial Complex in 4 years, or 8 or 12 if Vance gets a term or two. No, no. That was not a question.
Since we’re currently spending nearly 2 trillion more than we’re bringing in, I would hope (probably vainly) that it would be too difficult to go back to deficit spending. I’m sure an emergency or two will be conjured up.
Still, it’s ill-advised to actually drink our tap water. Even when it’s not as bad as Detroit’s water, in very many places there are SO many chemicals in it many are frightened to bathe in it, let alone drink it. Sometimes there’s so much bleach in it that you can smell it, like it’s laundry day, when you turn on the tap.
That’s terrible, Nines. Where do you live?
Detroit Tap water is not a problem. I’ve been drinking it for years.
It tests well.
I’d rather it than well water.
Some say the recent Syrian thing is partly powered by Uzbeks and, of course, Turkey.
Ah, those lovable turkeys – so popular at this time of year.
but they’re making some great guns these days.
Just bought an Escort BullTac 12 gauge. Wow!
One of the in-laws bought a Turkish 12 gauge. Looks like a nicely made clone of an 850, but get this….new-in-the-box for only $100!
The price is right.
This is a popular post, I can see that, but I do like your photo of Marx. Good work!
The German troll still inspires the weak minded and the “disenfranchized victims” who can afford to go to Ivy League schools.