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US Obama = Unconditional Surrender Obama
On the left/above, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta. Below them are Mussolini and Hitler, strutting their stuff. If the leaders of the allied nations who stood against Hitler gave him an ultimatum the way Barack Hussein Obama did last week to the Afghan Rebels, what do you think Hitler would have said, and how would he have acted? I do understand that I am calling for speculation on your part, dear readers.
Take a look at your elected leaders and ask yourself if they are fit to dip and clean an outhouse? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. They (at right) are the “leaders of the free world” – may God have mercy on our souls. I don’t know that we deserve mercy because we were stupid enough (as a nation) to elect them. Can you imagine them standing up to Hitler? Can you imagine Barack Hussein Obama in the shoes of Winston Churchill? Can you imagine Joe (Slow Joe) Biden actually making something work?
Think about it…
A Message for Sunday
This is your Sermonette
In San Francisco, the syringes pictured (right) represent the clean up efforts in a single day. The syringes are legal and were distributed by the City and County of San Francisco. Plastic drinking straws are illegal.
The demonstrations against the Ayatollah took place again, because there are good people there. They are not all bloodthirsty mullahs and their filthy minions.
Let me explain how I view much of what the federal government is – because to me it is defined by its actions: If you bring too much liquid with you the TSA confiscates it, and throws it away in case its a bomb…into the garbage can next to where they are standing…next to all of the other possible bombs…in the area of the airport where there is the greatest concentration of people…because it might be a bomb.
It’s like the moron Democrats in Richmond, Virginia, many of whom appeared so proudly in black face or klan hoods only a couple of years ago. For the past two hundred and forty-four years, Americans in the Old Dominion have kept firearms lawfully, under the terms of the US Constitution. 99.8% of those firearms were never used to commit a crime. And the legislature suddenly decides to ban them, makes preparations to do so and appropriates money to lock up citizens who don’t go along with the program. And they think that the citizens will go like cattle to the knacker’s shed. What could possibly go wrong?
In San Francisco, the syringes pictured (right) represent the clean up efforts in a single day. The syringes are legal and were distributed by the City and County of San Francisco. Plastic drinking straws are illegal.
Matthew, Chapter 13 –
24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,
25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.
27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’
28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’
29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.
I’m not predicting a reckoning, but there is a law of cause and effect.
Meanwhile in Iran
The demonstrations against the Ayatollah took place again, because there are good people there. They are not all bloodthirsty mullahs and their filthy minions.
President Trump tried to explain cause and effect to the Supreme Leader and it remains to be seen whether the old pervert listens or not.
Pelosi, Shifty and the Squad want plenty of notice before President Trump takes any actions. Do Americans stand with traitors or with the President? We shall see.
Maybe President Trump was kidding? Maybe he’s a feckless metrosexual fool like his predecessor? That’s a question that the Supreme Leader has to ask himself.
The difference between wheat and tares (weeds) is rather clear in our era isn’t it?
Criticize China – Go to Prison
The trends have been picked up by the US State Department and the news media (Fox News). And US Citizens are being rolled up on the street by the secret police and interrogated. The obvious conclusion is that there is a likely intention of snatching the more valuable, putting them into concentration camps and being used as hostages.
It’s not new here on the blog. We’ve discussed it before. It hit popular media now and that’s the only thing that is genuinely new.
Chinese Security personnel may detain and/or deport U.S. citizens for long periods of time for sending private electronic messages critical of the Communist Chinese government.
The Guardian (UK) added its warning. “The US has warned its citizens in China to exercise increased caution because of a heightened risk of arbitrary detention and exit bans that prevent foreign citizens leaving the country.
Citizens could face prolonged spells in jail, without US consular support, or access to details of any alleged crime, the state department said. The warning, sent in an email to US citizens in China, comes after Beijing passed a national security law for Hong Kong, with the legislation drafted to cover people “from outside [Hong Kong]”, including non-residents.
China has been accused of hostage diplomacy over the arrest of two Canadians, who were recently charged with espionage after more than 18 months in jail. Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, were detained in 2018, days after Canadian authorities arrested the chief financial officer of tech firm Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, on a US extradition warrant.
And that’s the way it is now.
FOX NEWS – A Chinese Researcher Goes Public
Sunday Sermonette
Pride
Some say that pride itself is a sin. It goes before destruction. Make of that what you will, but June is pride month. What does that mean to you individually? From a practical standpoint, you’re only allowed to be proud of politically correct things. That being the case, I don’t think that I have much to celebrate. The joke going around is that Pride is the Queen of Vices; and apparently Vice is the Pride of Queens.
It is a clever marketing ploy by progressives to tell gullible people to be proud rather than ashamed of their various and sundry sexual malfunctions, mental disorders, perversions, and abominations; and presumably one is to be ashamed only of decency, modesty, chastity, temperance and moderation. The cleverness consists not merely in gulling the victim into rejecting any criticism of his/her/its objectively disordered sexual aptitudes as hate-speech born of bigotry and ignorance, but also in robbing the victim of any motive to resist his own degradation.
Or it’s thinly disguised as a celebration of diversity, based on which sexual perversion appeals most to the individual.
Cambodia
There is a lot to Cambodia. A friend drifted by the other day. He served with Bird Air in Cambodia, a CIA subcontractor (now declassified) that flew into Laos, Viet Nam, and of course, Cambodia. We discussed Ankor Wat, the American involvement in Indochina and then the slaughter of the educated people once the US left the stage and Pol Pot’s government established communism as the state religion. Sitting at roadside cafes and watching the young men riding on Coca Cola trucks out of town to fight the communists…all that. History now. Cambodia is bouncing back.
Lessons abound where good people of conscience handed in their firearms in the hope that their government would treat them honorably. Cambodia went through that too. It cost 1 million lives. I wonder if they teach that in schools today? Of course they don’t. It’s not politically correct.
If German Jews had been armed, the round up and extermination wouldn’t have gone so smoothly, would it? Taking a few of the bastards with you ends up counting when people decide to strip you of all that you have – and all that you’re ever going to have and then tossing you into an oven.
You have to decide what is worth fighting for. And whether it is worth living free or not. You could ask any of a million Cambodians what they think… if they were around to ask.
D-Day and Allies
We remembered D-Day on June 6 this past week, not the end of the war in Europe, but the end of the beginning of that war. Back then, as opposed to now, Nazis were real and “toxic masculinity” was called upon to rid the world of unspeakable horror and evil. 75 years ago today the allies were pushing off the beaches and enlarging the beachhead. There was a lot of fighting and killing ahead, but the conclusion of the war was at least in sight.
Today, the corrupt, lying, filthy mainstream media speaks of American allies and includes Mexico in that number. Where were the Mexican troops on D-Day? Does anyone recall the Zimmerman Telegram during World War One that helped bring us into that war? For those who may have forgotten, the Zimmerman Telegram was a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico. Can any of you recall a situation when Mexican acted like an American ally? EVER? (build the wall, lock Her up, MAGA)
And, on the Lighter Side of the Sunday Sermonette…
Humpday Follies (Obama Legacy Edition)
The Obama Legacy – Yes, I know, there’s not much of one beside the re-armament of the American public. He will leave office with a heavily armed and equipped populace, that is roughly the equivalent of a seventy-five million person standing (irregular) army who brings their own kit to the fight. The combination of an armed populace and a large cadre of former combat veterans for the past twenty years of near constant war, is not a small thing to leave behind.
A lasting legacy is what he’s shooting for. That and putting Biden into office so he can have what will constructively amount to a third term in office while Ms. Hillary obliges him by denying, obfuscating and lying as her pre-Ohio caucus poll numbers tank. Obama will whip her again as she waddles off into the sunset wearing her pantsuit, holding Huma’s hand.
The recent re-naming of Mt. McKinley to Mt. Denali (possibly named for his favorite SUV?) is one of those legacy moves. There will be more. He’ll want a Barack Hussein Obama mosque – maybe the “national mosque”. You know that’s coming.
The love affair that Barack – and friends – has with Iran won’t be nearly as much of a legacy as the great divider hopes that it will be. I don’t even know if it will last long enough for him to put up the exhibit in his one-billion dollar presidential library in Chicago.
I believe that history will treat President Obama harshly. The book, Barack Obama, Son of Promise, Child of Hope, ghost written by Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, the author painted the president as a uniter. Nothing has been further from the truth as we see more racial division now than we have seen since the 1960’s. Dr. Ben Carson and others like him may be the curative influence that the nation needs irrespective of how the next election turns out, but Obama has been nothing but a train wreck as the Black Community is much worse off for his eight year tenure in the White House.
America has racked up 11 trillion dollars in debt for the Obama Years with absolutely NOTHING to show for it. It’s the socialist way, and we are in danger of running out of “other people’s money”. If there is any anchor (other than anchor babies) that will weigh down his legacy, it will be that one.
Rabid Socialist and Environmental Maven, George Soros recently decided to buy Coal. Peabody and Arch Coal had been trading for $90/share until the Obama Administration declared that it would shut down all coal-fired power generation plants.
(Fox News) Soros, who has demonized fossil fuels for years through his think tanks and political contributions, recently snapped up 1 million shares of Peabody and half a million shares of Arch Coal, giving him significant stakes in what’s left of the U.S. coal industry. His company purchased 553,200 shares of Arch Coal for $188,000 and made an investment of $2,254,000 into Peabody Energy for 1,029,400 shares.The trades would have cost Soros a lot more six years ago, when Peabody, which trades under the symbol BTU, was at about $90 a share, but shares have now fallen to around $1.
The 85-year-old former Nazi and hedge fund manager is the 19th wealthiest person in the U.S. with a net worth of $24.2 billion.
I think that Soros believes that the next US President will be a Republican and that the next leader of the free world will return coal’s status to one of function. (Coal gasification plants are very clean, but the environmental lobby hates them all the same) George Soros may be a repellant cur, but he is not in the business of losing money.
ESPN commentator and former baseball star, Curt Schilling was suspended by the network for a tweet: “It’s said that only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?”
ESPN didn’t say that Schilling lied. They simply didn’t like what he had to say.
It’s all about choice
In a difficult world where situations can call for an aggressive defense, you need to find something that works for you.
This is my official endorsement for the Heckler and Kock MP7A1. I carried the H & K G-36 Commando and my unit was the first in the United States to be so equipped. I thought that it was an exceptionally fine weapon until the MP7A1 was introduced. There are still situations where the G-36 has advantages, but for a personal defense weapon, it’s going to be a long time before somebody tops the MP7. It’s clearly superior to the much-loved MP5-K.
The MP7 essentially operates like a scaled-down rifle with the same short stroke piston style action as the G-36. It fires a specially designed, armor-piercing round with a muzzle velocity nearly as high as that of the 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge used by many modern rifles. This ammunition is unique among submachine guns in that the bullet is made almost entirely of a hardened steel penetrator instead of softer copper or lead designed to defeat body armor. The ammunition is virtually exclusive to the gun. VBR of Belgium produces a 4.6x30mm 2-part controlled fragmenting projectile that is claimed to increase the content of the permanent wound cavity and double the chance to hit a vital organ.
The weapon allows a conventional 20-round, 30-round, or 40-round box magazine to be fit within the pistol grip (the 20-round magazine being comparable in size to a 15-round 9mm magazine, while the 40-round magazine compares to a 30-round 9 mm magazine). The weapon features an ambidextrous fire-select lever and rear cocking grip. It has an extendable stock and a folding front grip; it can be fired either one-handed or two-handed.
It can also be fitted with a silencer for situations where you don’t want to announce your presence.
PEACE THROUGH SUPERIOR FIREPOWER
Politics and the Medicine Show.
They called them “drummers” in the Old West because often they’d set their wares on a drumhead after they had everyone’s attention from beating said drum.
Phineas Taylor (P. T.) Barnham had an interesting perspective on life and humanity. He was the self-proclaimed inventor of the American Traveling Circus, the Greatest Show on Earth. He coined the phrase, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” On a smaller scale, there were medicine shows (portrayed above).
In the days of the old west, people traveled from place to place selling medicine — usually a secret elixir or tonic that they guaranteed would put hair on your head if you were balding, removed stains from clothing, cured plague and would even mend a broken heart. If you weren’t interested in those solutions to your problems, you could engage in a game of Three-Card Monty or try and decide where the pea rested in the “old shell game”. The medicine itself usually contained small amounts of alcohol or laudanum (laudanum was opium mixed with alcohol). One famous recipe included the ubiquitous laudanum, sherry or wine, saffron, cinnamon and cloves. A few gulps made people feel terrific. The bottles sold for considerable money because of their magic curative properties.
Though I am NOT that old, I remember an organ grinder with a monkey who played on the Redondo Pier (Redondo Beach, California) when I was a kid. You gave the monkey a penny, he took it, doffed his little cap and kept the penny.
The Monkey Show provided a sense of entertainment. It was fun to be engaged by the monkey and the man grinding out tunes on his portable organ. You got something for your penny. No lies, no deceit. The Medicine Show was something different. It was a scheme, a scam, and was theft.
Today the most visible Medicine Show I know of can be witnessed on MSNBC (political propaganda masquerading as news – television channel) or simply by listening to an Obama speech. It makes some simple-minded souls feel good, but doesn’t do anything to make them feel better because it’s largely based on a false product that the administration is selling.
Modern political monkey show:
Not a metaphor.
China calls for talks on N Korea Nukes — really?
Today China is calling for multi-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear program.
My response: NO
China doesn’t need the US, Japan, Russia and South Korea to sit down in order to determine that their puppet state is out of control. They can tell North Korea to shut it down all on their own — and that’s precisely what China should do.
China doesn’t need six party talks to determine whether or not North Korea sank a South Korean ship or fired artillery on innocent civilians last week. A trained chimp can figure out that (a) there is a problem and (b) who is causing the problem.
People in North Korea are starving to death and winter is upon them. China supplies more than fifty percent of the foodstuffs to feed North Korea. A trained chimp can figure out that (a) China can turn the switch off on imports to North Korea and (b) North Korea will listen.
Maybe China doesn’t care? That’s the only conclusion I can draw from this refusal to act unilaterally to reign in their attack dog. The world’s reaction should then turn to CHINA, not to North Korea. It’s not as if a Chinese submarine attacked the South Korean destroyer, however if they do nothing — perhaps they approved of the sinking and the loss of 46 lives. Perhaps they approved of the artillery attack on a civilian city? What other conclusion can we draw if China doesn’t take ACTION against North Korea?
You feed the dog.
It’s on your leash.
If it bites somebody.
Isn’t it your fault?
I’ll say the same thing to President Hu Jintao that I regularly say to President Barack Obama. “It’s time to man-up.”
Dissent: The Highest Form of Racism
Welcome to the brave new world of “identity politics” with a focus on racial quotas and egalatarian obsessions which make race the central issue in any debate.
While running for office, Dear Leader silenced all of his critics by branding them RACISTS. Lo and behold, it worked. As a member of Rev. Wright’s Black Liberation Theology cult, he had twenty years to get the syntax down.
GLOSSARY:
White People: Racists
Black Conservatives: Traitors to their Race
Illegal Aliens: Democratic Party Line — Voters
“In the 60’s the liberal left and the Democratic Party became the champions of civil rights –a cause with which they were NOT historically associated, but events of the time conspired to make them the standard-bearers of racial equality–an unaddressed social issue in this country that plagued and highlighted some of the hypocrisy in its high-minded and lofty values from the very beginning. It was definitely time to make the American promise that so clearly burned in the minds of the Founding Fathers real for all Americans.
“Championing this cause was so successful for the Democrats as a political party, that they quite naturally took up the causes of other identified “victim” groups (women, the disabled; homosexuals, etc.); successfully leveraging their heroic stand on civil rights as proof of their concern for the oppressed and “the little guy”.“Along the way, the Democrats picked up a few holy mantras (“Roe v Wade” and the whole abortion rights movement ; “Make Love Not War” and the entire antiwar crowd; etc.) and, about this time, they became very seriously infected with the Marxist virus that had already spread throughout Europe, despite being the cause of human misery as well as millions of deaths around the world.
“The liberal left failed to notice that the American people rose to the challenge of equal rights and that society changed under the irrefutable logic of human freedom and equal opportunity for all. The promise of liberty was, after all, the founding principle of our nation.” (H/T Dr. Sanity)
Democrats and the liberal left were threatened by the succes of their attempt to change American society. Blacks; women; and even Gays were making incredible progress in assimilation into society — and could now move on to say and think what they pleased. They might even choose to become Republican; or disagree with some entitlement program; or challenge directly the ideology beneath the Democratic Party and the left !
It’s not so hard to understand that those who once championed the oppressed and encouraged them to be free and partake of all aspects of American society; now have become the most potent enablers of the victimhood cults that sprang up in each of these groups.
Those whose identity is tied-up inextricably with being the champions the oppressed, must be sure to maintain an oppressed class–constantly seeking new victims to heroically stand for; otherwise what or who will they champion?Most Americans who are not indoctrinated into the Marxist worldview and obsessed with victimhood can clearly see the real progress of Blacks and women–indeed all minority groups– in all aspects of society. They can appreciate individuals from those groups who forged into previously restricted areas and broke barrier after barrier, even if they are not Democrats or subscribers to leftist theories.
Not only did the liberal left exhibit almost complete blindness and fail to celebrate its greatest success , but they became more and more strident in their demands and denunciations of American society as a whole. This entire process coincided with their increasing irrelevance and loss of political power. In response, the
left is trying to change the playing field to insure that they remain relevant by switching from demands for “equal opportunity” to an insistance on “equal outcome”. Since it is impossible to achieve the latter–except in a totalitarian society, where everyone is made equally miserable; or in death itself–the left hopes to achieve new power and influence over a neverending victim class that they will have created through their policies. The paranoid style conveniently defends those policies and effortlessly maintains their defective worldview.
Any who oppose the “equality of outcome” logic are descibed as “racist”. Those who disagree with them are “trying to shut down free speech”. Those who point out the errors in their thinking are “evil”. American society–arguably the freest and most tolerant in the world–becomes the source of all oppression and evil. The Mainstream Media has been completely co-opted by this philosophy and the fear of being branded “racist”. Therefore they turn a blind eye to the coterie of Marxists, utopian socialists, Black Liberation Theologists and radicals who have occupied the White House. That Congress shivers in its timidity to oppose any sense that guaranteed equality of outcome is ABSURD, but very real. And at the same time, the nation shudders under the yoke of financial burdens that are compounded by the present administration which will reach into the generation yet unborn.
This is what we are up against.
Sovereignty
“Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.”
–F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night
The concept of a sovereign individual traces itself back through history to English Common Law where a man’s home is presumed to be his castle. Today it is the antithesis of the progressive movement toward socialized and homogenized life built around the politically correct trend of the moment.
Personal sovereignty would seem to include commitments to individual rights, including the right of self-defense, which would include the right to be armed. The Founders built these rights of the individual into the Bill of Rights and the ideas are hardly new. The problem with personal rights are that they are a thinking person’s domain. The lemmings who lap up every bit of propaganda and pronounce it as true seem to be more comfortable wrapped in the arms of the Nanny State. They would opt to trade their sovereignty for the false reassurance of a ‘caring government’.
Sovereign individuals often cling to the notion that government is the servant of all, rather than the master. It was an odd concept in 1776, and if you buy what the mainstream media sells, it’s just as odd today. Some would caveat the Constitution as outmoded and well past any point of being useful.
Recently, there has been a resurgence of these concepts, which have been best embodied by the Tea Part movement. Naturally, progressives feel slighted. Socialists do not believe in the concept of property in one’s own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to be the exclusive controller of his own body and life. They prefer to be parasitic and to feed on those who would exercise personal sovereignty.
ObamaCare seeks to supplant the right of people NOT to choose to have socialized medicine by taxing everyone for a service that they may or may not want at the moment of birth. There are a legion of problems with ObamaCare, but that is the greatest and most insidious bomb embedded within the 2000 page bill.
This is simply a Sunday Morning Rant… and a warning.
Blade Brothers (Series Review)
Todd Begg makes custom knives in Petaluma, California and now he’s working with his brothers, who’ve never made a knife — and he has a reality series which will serve to make his knives (which some may consider ‘over priced’ ) even more expensive. Todd wants to make knives look as if they were born, not built. beggknives.com
Because he’s making one-of-a-kind knives, his backlog has reached to six years. At up to a quarter of a million dollars per knife, it’s an interesting sole proprietorship.
If you pump the blades out and sacrifice craftsmanship for volume, you risk dropping the price and losing the high dollar buyers.
The Discovery Channel series features Todd Begg, his older brothers, John (fmr. soldier and oil field worker) and Mark (fmr. fashion model).
It’s a new series and the jury is out as to whether it will be self-sustaining in the way that Duck Dynasty or the Kardashians have.
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| Clandestine Bolo – from Todd Begg’s website (above) |
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| Clandestine Combat – from Todd Begg’s website |
A Personal Note: I have knocked around the custom (also called ‘bench made’ not to be confused with the manufacturer of the same name) knife business since I was about ten years old and have met some of the old knife making legends, such as Gil Hibben (met in 1965 when my grandfather built a rifle for him) and Jimmy Lile. Both Lile and Hibben priced themselves well beyond my purchase point. Not long ago, custom knife legend, Rick Hill (voice from the past), called me and we spoke about a very cool knife that he made for me prior to a deployment that I made when I was in the US Navy. I still have the knife in its original parachute-safe sheath and it’s one of my proudest blades – if not the sharpest. It was nice speaking with him and we collaborated on the selection of a knife that I ended up buying from another source for work in Mexico. It’s difficult to find the right working blade for the right purpose.
My knives may be worth something, but they’re all work tools, not museum pieces or movie props. Buying a knife that I’d never carry or use strikes me as somehow wrong, but that is what collectors do.
So I am not a collector, I’m a user. And I have discriminating tastes. I’m looking forward to see how Todd Begg’s journey through the reality television world comes out, so I will be watching.
Watch with me and post in comments below. Tell me what you think about the Blade Brothers.
Refuge – Beyond the Settlements
Fellow blogger, Raven, asked what criteria I used to find a place far from the home of elite progs. This is my effort to explain the variables that I plugged into the formula.
I need to point out that I am not a “prepper”, waiting anxiously for civilization to collapse, or for the sun to go nova. At the same time, there are only two kinds of people – prepared and unprepared. Even in my nice neighborhood in Southern California, I currently have stored potable water in 10 gallon stackable jugs, and a large swimming pool with filtration to make that water potable if needed. I have enough food to get me through a few weeks of privation and enough arms, ammo, and skill to stack up some of the hoard (think ‘Grave of the Hundred Head’ – Kipling) until I’m overwhelmed.
Preparation comes from the Boy Scout Motto and it comes from living a life where expecting the unexpected kept me from an unplanned six-foot drop and a mouth full of dirt. For me preparation also means keeping out of debt to the extent possible, and living a prudent life without excesses that might cause me to crash and burn. It’s worked so far. And I have toys, but not nearly as many as some of my peers who enjoy a much closer relationship with their banker(s).
Inner city people rarely are seen out in the wild and they never live there. Self sufficiency is required and the inner city types prefer to be cradled by the taxpayers from birth to death (with institutional terms in the prison systems interspersed where they’re still cared for at public expense). There are wilderness churches but I have yet to see a wilderness mosque or synagogue. That may have to do with the traditional practice of eating bacon with your waffles (in turn covered with butter and maple syrup) at breakfast.
Most people who live beyond the settlements are private people living on their own land, and they value their privacy. Disturbing people who live on a compound as a matter of choice requires impeccable manners and a reason for showing up. There is the inevitable problem of having savage, feral dogs tear you to pieces before the owner (taking their sweet time) calls their hybrid wolf-dogs off. People have been known to end up as wolf-dog manure, recycled as God intended. Inner city people avoid those situations instinctively.
Criteria
1. Distances
- 2 hour drive from a major airport. I may not need to consult forever, but for the time being I can fly to work, wherever that may be. Flagstaff (commuter airport) is closer than Sky Harbor (where Loretta Lynch met Bill Clinton) in Phoenix but either will work.
- 6 – 7 hour drive from children/grandchildren. Two of my four daughters live in Southern California and are unlikely to leave due to their husbands appropriate career choices. That equates to five grandsons.
- 40-50 miles from a city of any size. I can drive to the city when I need to and I don’t need the city when I don’t need it.
- Help. I wanted to be near enough to some sort of paramedic assistance that I might be reached in the event of an emergency. I’m not getting any younger and despite what I think in my heart of hearts, I’m not bullet-proof.
- Bandwidth. There was no cell service when I bought the White Wolf Mine property, but they installed a cell tower a few miles away adjacent to a ranger station last September. Imagine my surprise when the phone rang when I was out on the property – three bars. I was content to use sat phone contact, but I have three-four bars on Verizon.
- Weather. I wanted to be no more than a two hour drive from warm weather. Having lived in areas where the winters are cold, and the drive from there to warm is —- considerable, it needed to be fitted in. I’m not old now, but it will be an issue in the future. It’s nice to be able to thaw out if you need to, and maybe swim in an outdoor heated pool for a bit at a hotel if that’s called for.
2. Elevation and Location
- It had to be the mountains or the ocean. I like the desert, I really do, but that wasn’t what I wanted for myself.
- In California, the ocean means unwanted progs living near. Because of the 6 hour drive radius, I couldn’t get far enough north or to Oregon without making a visit to the grandkids a two-day drive with an overnight in a hotel on each end of the journey. I had some land picked out in the Applegate Valley in Southern Oregon not all that far from Grant’s Pass, but I’d never see the grandsons grow up. (note- my three granddaughters live in Arizona)
- The California taxation system and the general oppression of the liberal government made a move to either Arizona or Nevada a 20% reduction in cost of living – significant.
3. Other
- I had to be able to afford the land and a reasonable house. I couldn’t find what I wanted with a structure on it that I could live comfortably in, so I went for land in the ponderosas with a view and a meadow that was perfect for a home in the 3,500 square foot range (sufficient to have room enough for guests in addition to space for my own basics). Remote locations mean that if you are going to rely on the skills of others to build/help build a house, it will cost more because they have to drive there and back to wherever. Time and fuel cost.
- Sweet well water. The water needed to be of sufficient quantity and quality that it wouldn’t be problematic. North-Central Arizona gets snow but it also has a summer monsoon that reliably drops 8-9 inches of water every August.
- Near lakes and streams with abundant wildlife.
- Live in an area of light regulation. Some government footprint is a good idea, but there are limits. There is a County Sheriff but they don’t patrol the area near the WWM. I’m on my own. I can live with that. Walk softly and carry a big stick.
- I have electricity on the property, and can use that, propane or pine (not as good as hardwood, but it’s an inexhaustible supply) for power. Likely I will use a combination of the above with a propane generator to kick in if the electricity goes out.
Armed with the general criteria set forth above, I embarked on an 18 month journey to try and find someplace that fit what I was looking for.
Those of you who follow this blog, may recall that I expanded the search far and wide, but ended up coming back to the Coconino National Forrest area in Northern Arizona because it met all of them.
I have the luxury of no longer needing a “day job” to make ends meet, having made good decisions in my youth. That gave me much more flexibility.
There have been some surprises. Not many but a few:
- The price of an alternative septic system and the time that it takes one designed, excavated and installed.
- The large numbers of bobcats and mountain lions in the area – a good thing from my perspective, but there are a lot of them. Naturally, there is a lot of game for them to eat.
- The summer monsoon surprised me, but as with most mountain showers, you have a clear morning but afternoon thundershowers. Time to get the fishing in, and back to the place before you get soaked. The EXTENT of monsoon in Northern Arizona was surprising. Two inches of rain per week is significant.
- The lack of an insect problem that you’d normally find in lower altitudes in summer.
Note: California just passed another 12 cent-per-gallon gasoline tax increase raising it to $1.00 per gallon. No, it won’t be used to repair roads and bridges – it will go for ‘social justice’. This is the first of a sweeping round of tax increases. It confirms to me that I made the correct decision.
International News (Update)
While the focus of US news outlets continues to be “progressive” outrage at having lost the election in November, and the insult of people saying the politically incorrect words “Merry Christmas”, there are other things going on around the world. Here is a perspective on some of what happened over the weekend. Since readers of this blog seem to be interested in these sorts of things, I distill news here for your reading edification.
THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY’s NAVY
(That’s what the PRC calls its navy)
(That’s what the PRC calls its navy)
On 16 December, the aircraft carrier Liaoning and its escorts conducted their first live fire training. During the training, the assets fired at least ten missiles at targets.
State media reported that dozens of ships and aircraft participated and described the exercise as “massive.” It occurred in the Bohai Sea/Gulf in northeastern China. Rear Admiral Chen Yueqi described the exercise as a “milestone” for the Liaoning aircraft carrier battle group.
“It enabled us to find out how to organize a carrier battle group exercise and to test the training levels of our sailors and pilots,” the unit’s commander told state broadcaster CCTV.
Chinese media and western observers suggested the exercise was a demonstration aimed at the incoming US administration. Only the timing of the activity supports such a claim. The first exercise by the Liaoning as the core of a carrier battle took a long time to prepare. The timing might have been variable, but the real point was to test whether the Chinese ships and aircraft could operate as a battle group. It is a milestone for the Chinese navy, but achieving combat readiness as a battle group will take years. There is no substitute for practice, as the Russians have discovered with the Admiral Kuznetsov operations off Syria. The air wing lost at least three aircraft in two months from landing errors.
On 15 December, China’s defense ministry acknowledged to the state media that it installed legitimate and necessary military facilities on the seven islands/islets on which it has stationed soldiers. The only country to protest was Vietnam. China eventually will declare an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea, but apparently, it is not yet ready to do so.
The seizure of the US Navy’s drone survey vehicle in the South China Sea was an act of local hubris and is something that Beijing regretted privately. It accomplished little, publicly embarrassed China, and antagonized President Trump at a time when the Chinese want to appear “strong yet reasonable”.
Since President Trump has not yet taken office, the daily press briefing from the White House is still managed by the Obama people, filtered by the corrupt elite media. Thus President Trump feels the need to take to Twitter to express an opinion – and that he does. When he told China to “keep it” (the drone), it he expressed his feelings on the matter and they were to specifically embarrass the Chinese. The opening salvos to the Chinese regarding future negations are still being volleyed. The US Press should understand this, but they don’t seem to from their myopic reporting. They are reacting from their experiences during the eight long, miserable years of the Obama presidency and though things are changing, they are very slow to comprehend that. (see grief counseling)
THE PHILIPPINES
US relations with Philippines worsened on 16 December after the Millennium Challenge Account, a US aid agency, announced that it had suspended a $430 million aid program pending consideration of the Duterte government’s record on rule of law and human rights violations. During the day on 17 December, President Duterte told the media in Davao City that the US should “prepare for the repeal or abrogation” of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) after the Millennium Challenge Account suspended a grant of financial assistance to the Philippines.
The VFA serves as a guide for the conduct of US soldiers while visiting the Philippines and provides rules on joint military exercises between the Philippines and the US.
“We are, we are glad that we are freed from proving anything to the United States. We do not need the money. Bye-bye America and work on the protocols that would eventually move you out from the Philippines. You know, tit for tat. If you know this, if you can do this, so do we. It ain’t a one-way traffic,” he said in a press conference after his return from an official visit to Singapore.
On the 18th, the Philippines Foreign Affairs Department walked back Duterte’s bombast, but there is a definite road map in the country that the US dealt with during the Reagan Administration.
During the term of office of the late President Corazon Aquino, the Philippines tried to extort increased US assistance from the US in return for the use of Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Station. The Reagan administration decommissioned those bases in 1992, rather than pay extortion money. The message to Aquino was that the era of extortion was over.
Under President Aquino, the negotiating atmosphere was more genteel, but the issues were the same: the Philippines wanted the US to pay for military access, but wanted on-call US defense protection for free. Duterte judges that the Philippines no longer needs on-call defense protection because, as he said, there is no threat of war, owing to his skillful diplomacy.
Neither Russia or China want to assume the burden of carrying the Philippines. Regardless, Duterte seems determined to reduce Philippine both dependence on the US and US leverage over the Philippines.
Duterte’s attitudes are manifestations of a larger historic trend in which Asian countries are taking back from the US and the former colonial powers responsibility for Asian security. China’s expansive claims to sovereignty have brought this historic trend into the open and jolted the US Asian allies out of complacent reliance on the US.
P. I. Pivot to China
On 15 and 16 December, the Philippines and China held their first talks on the creation of a Joint Coast Guard Committee. A joint statement read, “Both sides explored possible programs of maritime cooperation, including combating drug trafficking and other maritime crimes, marine environmental protection, maritime search and rescue, and capacity-building in related areas.”
The establishment of the joint coast guard committee was one of the agreements signed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Duterte during the latter’s state visit to China in October.
One result of Duterte’s undertakings with the Chinese is that the Philippines did not protest China’s actions to militarize the islets in the Spratly Island group on which China stations soldiers. The Philippines also is not protesting China’s actions to expand Scarborough Shoal through seabed reclamation and to make improvements to it.
SYRIAN SOUP
The US has made a long series of economic and diplomatic blunders under the Obama Administration. The crisis in Syria and the death toll in Aleppo is only the most recent and emblematic of those mistakes.
Iran
On 17 December, the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Hossein Salami told the official Iranian news agency Islamic Republic News Agency that “It is now time for the Islamic conquests. After the liberation of Aleppo, Bahrain’s hopes will be realized and Yemen will be happy with the defeat of the enemies of Islam.”
The Iranians are full of themselves after the “liberation” of Aleppo. This is the second time a senior IRGC officer has threatened the Sunni Arab kingdoms. In June IRGC Quds Force commander Major General Qasem Suleimani threatened Bahrain over its “mistreatment” of a Shiite cleric.
The policy of Iran is to overthrow the Arab kings, most important of those is Saudi Arabia and the repatriation of Mecca to Iran. There is a domino effect planned by the Iranian mullahs, and creating a Shiite dominant government in Yemen was/is an important component of that process. Iran takes credit for the fall of Aleppo, but it may be too soon to take a victory lap on that one (though Iran disagrees with me).
Evacuation of Aleppo
The situation in Aleppo resembles a goat rodeo: Since 15 December the evacuation of fighters, their families and of civilians from Aleppo has stopped and started at least three times. One halt was because Iran claimed it was not consulted and its forces blocked the evacuation. The stoppage on the 18th was because a rebel group burned buses that were positioned for the evacuation.
On 18 December, the Russians, Iranians and the Syrian rebel opposition in Aleppo announced a fourth agreement on evacuation, according to the chief negotiator for the rebel opposition. A key feature of the latest agreement will be reciprocal evacuations of pro-government Shiites living in two villages besieged by the rebel opposition with evacuations of rebels and rebel sympathizers in Aleppo.
The test of the durability of an agreement is the ability of each side to control its fighters. The rebel groups have been fractious and have attacked each other regularly through the duration of their nearly five years of control in Aleppo. Some groups continue to fight on, even now.
RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY IN SYRIA
Russian leadership in steering the outcome of the Syrian crisis was displayed this weekend. The foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey will meet in Moscow on 20 December.
“A trilateral meeting is scheduled to take place in Moscow on 20 December. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone to his counterparts from Turkey and Iran. They welcomed the idea,” Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian deputy foreign minister and special presidential envoy for the Middle East and Africa, told TASS news agency. According to Bogdanov, the idea “has been discussed for a long time”. “We need to talk in a trilateral format primarily about the situation in Syria and around it,” Bogdanov said.
Talks with the Syrian opposition. He also said that the Syrian sides should be encouraged to “come to the negotiating table and agree on a stable ceasefire, to resolve humanitarian issues, to arrive at a political settlement.” “What we have to build on is UN Security Council Resolution 2254,” Bogdanov said.
Russia will continue to assist Syria in the “antiterrorist operation” in the city of Palmyra, Bogdanov said. On such issues, “it is important to coordinate in a broader format, including with the US-led coalition.”
The Russian leadership already said that what happened in Palmyra indicates a lack of proper coordination, Bogdanov said. “So, it is necessary to establish this coordination, then the results will be more effective. Everyone needs these results,” he said. This, in his opinion, is borne out by terrorist attacks in Jordan, Turkey and elsewhere.
“The Turkish leadership, we hope, has already realized that it is necessary to collaborate more closely, and then we will have the result that is important.
The Russians had a good weekend. They brought forward the trilateral talks on Syria by a week. They announced that they helped arrange the Syrian government’s contacts with the Syrian opposition and they committed Russian support for the recovery of Palmyra. They even invited the US-led coalition to coordinate with the Russians.
The Obama Administration has no intention of cooperating in an environment where the Russians are calling the shots. I leave the wisdom of US diplomacy to this blog’s readers to work out for themselves.
Texas Drought
As you know, Texas has been subject to the effects of global warming and the state is dry as Hillary’s nasty.
I’m dragging the sack for donations to help them. My “send a water bottle to Texas Campaign” is a way for you to help them avoid the impact of global warming and the resulting drought.
I hate to admit it, but Al Gore and Barack might be right. Even sending one water bottle will help and will be appreciate it as crops dry up, the rivers stagnate and the Lone Star State suffers.
In Search of the Red
Because of the many posts at the Daily Timewaster, I decided to explore the world of redhead women with freckles and blue or green eyes. Only two percent of the population on Earth has that combination. The recessive gene that causes red hair, MC1R, is a genetic mutation, but I do not suggest that ginger hair’d people are “mutants”.
- This blog post, is for you, CW.
- Scholars have debated the origins of red hair (and the gene that underpins it). According to some, the gene for red hair is inherent to the Celts, while others claim it to be a genetic trait specific to the Norsemen, being brought to the British Isles during the Viking Age. A third category of historians and scientists agree on a common Celto-Germanic genetic trait, rather than a separate origin for the gene. This latter group would seem to be ‘people pleasers’ rather than ‘nit pickers’.
Red hair is the result of a recessive genetic trait which has been caused by a series of mutations in the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), a gene which is located on chromosome 16. Being a recessive genetic trait means that both parents must cary the gene in order for their children to be born red haired. There are far many more carriers than people who are born with red hair.
- Did the Vikings bring the red hair gene to the British Isles?
Professor Donna Heddle explained that the perception according to which the invading Viking raiders of the British Isles were blond is nothing more but a mere misconception. According to the same theory, the Norsemen were likely red headed. This may be true, at least in part. Not that many Viking warriors were naturally blond, indeed. In fact, blond hair was very much sought after in Viking Age Scandinavia and many Norsemen dyed their hair blond.On this note Professor Donna Heddle stated for The Scotsman: ‘The perception that the Norse were blond is nothing more than a prevalent myth. Genetically speaking, the chances of them having blond hair weren’t that likely. The chances are that they would have had red hair. Interestingly, if you look at where red hair occurs in the world you can almost map it to Viking trading routes.’ (map above)
If we are to take a look at the areas in Ireland where the Norsemen settled, we can also see the highest concentration of red haired Irish people. The Viking warriors who settled coastal parts of both Scotland and Ireland were mainly of Norwegian descent (shortly followed by Danish Vikings as well).
Norway may well be the actual place of origin for the red hair as the gene was successfully linked to the paternal Y-DNA haplogroup R1b-L21, which includes one of its subclades defined as R1b-M222 — one that is very common for both northwestern Ireland and Scotland.
Distribution of Y-DNA (paternal lineage) R1b haplogroup in Europe. Image source: www.eupedia.com (above)
RED HAIR’D RAIDER
A famous Norwegian Viking by the name Eiríkr Þorvaldsson (Erik Thorvaldsson), born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, southern Norway in mid 10th century, subsequently became renowned as Erik the Red, because of the colour of his hair and beard. He is recounted in the Icelandic sagas as the first Norse settler in Greenland.
The consensus is that the Vikings own the red hair genetic mutation and distributed it far and wide in their travels and raids, where those genes were spread in true berserker fashion.
And if you wish to read more:
- The genetic causes, ethnic origins and history of red hair on www.eupedia.com
- What Vikings really looked like on www.sciencenordic.com
- Top 10 Misconceptions About The Vikings on www.listverse.com
- Facts and Myths About Red Hair on www.gingerparrot.co.uk
Can Computers Predict the Future?
Military planners have long used war games to plan for future conflicts. Beginning in the 1950s, defense analysts began to develop computer-based models to predict the outcomes of military battles that incorporated elements of game theory. Such models were often restricted to two opposing forces, and often had a strict win-lose resolution.
Today, defense analysts face situations that are more complex, not only in that conflicts may involve several opposing groups within a region, but also in that military actions are only part of an array of options available in trying to foster stable, peaceful conditions. For example, in the current conflict in Afghanistan, analysts try to estimate how particular actions by their forces—building schools, burning drug crops, or performing massive security sweeps—will affect interactions between the many diverse ethnic groups in the region.
Do you believe that this sort of game-related activity could predict voting behavior of the American public in the future?
Linkages
President Trump will inherit a mess. There are many issues in the mix, some of them can be laid at the feet at Barack’s and Hillary’s incompetence and others at their indifference. Still other matters were not handled badly by the current American regime, but just ended up all mushy. (yeah, whatever “mushy” means) Getting to the point of “making America great again” will be a long and rocky road with North Korea, Iran, China and Russia being challenges to navigate correctly.
There are linkages between those powers and while your attention is focused on the RNC and flowery speeches designed to impress the body politic – things are going on in the world that the American news media is ignoring. Let’s take a moment and explore some of them.
Missile Launches
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told the press in a statement that North Korea launched three ballistic missiles from North Hwanghae Province into the Sea of Japan between 5:45 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. local time on July 19. The missiles flew 500 to 600 kilometers.
The three missiles probably were Scuds which can hit every point in South Korea, including the newly announced site for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. That and defiance of the UN Security Council seem to be the political messages that the launches are meant to convey. The straight line distance from Seoul south to Jeju Island is 455 kilometers.
The ability of the North’s missile to strike anywhere in South Korea has never been in doubt. The ability to defeat THAAD once it is installed and operational will be the challenge.
Context and Precedence: The first North Korean Scud ballistic missile base was in Sariwon, the capital of North Hwanghae Province. While North Korea still had a credible air force, the Sariwon Scud regiment was the only ballistic missile base in North Korea. As the North’s fighters and fighter-bombers became obsolete in the 1990s, the ballistic missile force was developed as a lower-cost, effective replacement. Sariwon has been the headquarters location for a Scud brigade since 1990.
South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said on Monday, July 18th, that North Korea could conduct its fifth nuclear test whenever the leadership makes the decision.“North Korea seems to be fully prepared to carry out a nuclear test at any time. South Korea is closely monitoring every move at the North’s test site in close cooperation with the United States,” Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said at a regular press briefing.
A fifth nuclear test would constitute a provocation as well as a statement of defiance in execution of the North’s threat on 11 July to take a physical counter-action in retaliation for the THAAD basing decision.
Recent Timeline Review: Since the US imposed sanctions on Kim Jong Un on July 6, North Korea has attempted to launch a submarine-launched ballistic missile on July 9 and terminated the UN channel for contacts with the US on July 11. Since the US THAAD basing announcement, the North has launched three Scud missiles on July 19 and increased activity at its nuclear site.
Chinese reaction to the missile launches and to a nuclear test will provide important insights about the strategic environment in northeast Asia. Chinese leaders have been strongly and openly opposed to the THAAD system basing in South Korea. The issue is whether that based decision will induce Chinese leaders to soften their hostility to North Korea. A good indicator of strain in China’s relations with the US and with South Korea would be an invitation for Kim Jong Un to visit Beijing for the first time.
My comment to the Chinese leadership: If your ally and ward state (the Norks) didn’t keep shooting ballistic missiles, the ROKs might not have felt it necessary to deploy THAAD.
Linkage with the South China Sea Issue
On July 15, China’s State Council Information Office posted to the Web a picture of a Chinese H-6K nuclear-capable bomber flying over Scarborough Shoal. The picture was posted three days after the Permanent Court of Arbitration released its award. The caption said the aircraft was flying a combat patrol.
This is the first open source report of a Chinese bomber flight to Scarborough or any of the Spratly Islands. It also is the first time that a Chinese source has identified a flight a combat patrol.
The H-6K is an updated version of the Soviet TU-16 medium range bomber. It has a range of 3,700 miles and is considered a long range, strategic bomber or standoff weapons platform. Scarborough Shoal is 588 miles from Sansha, the provincial capital on Hainan Island.
Despite the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s award in favor of Philippine ownership of Scarborough Shoal, Chinese maritime police or naval forces continue to ban Philippine fishermen from the Shoal. More aggressive air patrols are likely.
Russia
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| S-300 Missile System |
Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the S-300 (surface-to-air missile) sales ban to Iran in April 2015. The Tasnim news agency reported on July 18 that Russia has begun delivery to Iran of the missiles for the S-300 air defense missile system.
Russia delivered the first parts of the S-300 system, including the missile tubes and radar equipment, to Iran in April 2016.
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| Russia’s support for Iran |
The window for delivering the missiles probably was agreed months ago, but the actual delivery date might have been somewhat variable. In any event, the timing is useful for showcasing Russian support for its clients and its high profile involvement in the Middle East. Putin talked with Turkey’s President Erdogan on the 17th and Russia is delivering on a contract to Iran on the 18th. Russia continues to act and look like an honest broker.
Turkey
The government suspended leave for 3 million civil servants. The arrests continue by the thousands. One report said those arrested include 103 flag-rank military officers which equates to a third of all flag-rank officers in the Turkish armed forces, according to the report.
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| Map of Turkey |
In a press interview with CNN, President Erdogan said that the failed military coup was a “clear crime of treason.” He refused to rule out reinstating the death penalty for the coup plotters. He repeated earlier statements that the Turkish people want death for the coup plotters. “The people now have the idea, after so many terrorist incidents, that these terrorists should be killed, that’s where they are, they don’t see any other outcome to it,” he said. “Why should I keep them and feed them in prisons, for years to come? That’s what the people say,” he said. “They want a swift end to it, because people lost relatives, lost neighbors, lost children … they’re suffering, so the people are very sensitive and we have to act very sensibly and sensitively.”
This is Erdogan’s opportunity to consolidate his evolving dictatorship by eliminating civilian as well as military opponents. That appear to be the direction in which his regime is moving. The numbers arrested or dismissed are nearly 20,000 and the purge continues.
If Erdogan executes his enemies, he would be acting well within fundamentalist Islamic practices, which prescribe execution for blasphemy and physical dismemberment for theft. The numbers of those arrested raise the possibility of mass executions, Islamic State-style.
A condition for membership in the European Union (EU) is elimination of the death penalty. Turkey did so in 2004 as part of the membership preparations. EU officials warned on the 18th that Turkey would never be allowed in the EU if it reinstated capital punishment.
The regime’s punishment for the plotters, especially capital punishment, will be an important indicator of the direction President Erdogan is leaning relative to the West or to Islamic fundamentalism.
Sunday Sermonette
At Minneapolis PD
Minneapolis PD, 1867-2020
46 officers put in their papers for early retirement. 14 police officers quit. Everyone else is looking to lateral to another police or sheriff’s department if anyone will take them. The common theme is, “you’re on your own”.
So maybe the city’s problems are solved. They can hire social workers to respond to 911 calls the way they have said that they want to.
What could possibly go wrong?
And to the progressive folk who live in the city, I hope you enjoy watching property values decline and insurance rates skyrocket.
CW, The Older Years
A shameless plug for CW at the Daily Timewaster
St. Lucia
I’ve stayed here at the Ladera Hotel on St. Lucia. The hotel is very nice, as are many resorts on the island. But the island itself has a lot of very poor people (ghetto island in many respects). Best stay on the resort property if you visit. Not that it’s difficult to hang out and not leave.
Nothing Has Changed Since Day One
This is the message of your Sunday Sermonette
Free States vs Not Free States
With the coming of riots, which followed murder hornets, and will be succeeded by flesh eating zombies, you can go back to Corona if you’d like. Stay thirsty.
Somebody Else riding a Ducati Diavel
You can do a wheelie in fourth gear without much effort.
A Sniper
Finnish Army Sniper Simo Hayha is an unsung hero in many places but not in Finland.
Hayha used an old personal rifle with iron sights for his sniping and inovated in many ways to perfect his concealment…one among them was to keep a mouthful of snow to prevent his breath from misting and giving away his position.
In a little over three months, Simo shot and killed 500-542 Russians from positions of concealment. Not to take anything away from Kyle, Hathcock, York or other American greats, but no conversation about snipers can ever be complete without the mention of Simo “White Death” Hayha.
Eleven days before the end of the Winter War, he was shot through the jaw and remained in a coma until the peace treaty between Russia and Finland was signed. He lived to be 96.
US Intelligence Failure in the Middle East
The recent (surprise) attacks on the US Embassy in Cairo, the US Consulate in Benghazi and the general outpouring of anger in the Islamic World against the United States is a failure in intelligence of epic proportions. The greatest vulnerability future Presidents will face will be the lack of human sources of intelligence. Terrorists armed with nuclear weapons will kill hundreds of thousands of Americans if we do not improve our human intelligence capability.
At present, the US relies on Israel for high-end intelligence on the inner workings of the Iranian government. Why is that? Is that in the best interests of America? Why don’t we have more significant capabilities in the heart of the nation that may hate us most?
The lack of human sources has been the greatest threat to the presidencies and the historical legacies of American Presidents, and to the American people.1. The Chinese invasion of North Korea in 1950 was a complete surprise and the subsequent handling of the war by President Truman led him to cancel his re-election campaign.2. The handling of the U-2 incident was President Eisenhower’s greatest regret as President.3. Lack of Cuban human sources contributed to the Bay of Pigs fiasco, which was President Kennedy’s greatest failure.4. The lack of human sources in Vietnam haunted President Johnson in the conduct of the Vietnam War.5. The Vietnam War was one of President Nixon’s greatest challenges as well. The outbreak of the 1973 Arab/Israeli war also took the Agency by surprise.6. Throughout the Cold War, the Agency’s top program, recruitment of Soviet human sources, was a shambles. Lack of intelligence on Soviet intentions nearly led to war on several occasions.7. President Carter’s humiliation and the destruction of his presidency were caused by the Iran hostage crisis and the subsequent failed rescue attempt, both of which featured a lack of human sources.8 President Reagan’s humiliation involved hostages and the ensuing Iran-Contra scandal, both featuring a lack of human sources.9. President Clinton’s legacy was tarnished by the lack of human sources, who could have transmitted information that might have prevented the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Lack of human sources led to a nuclear arms race in the Asian sub-continent.10. Lack of human sources on Iraqi WMD and on the Iraq war poisoned the George W. Bush presidency.
Middle Easterners still don’t know what freedom means because they are waiting for Bernard Lewis to explain to them. You can’t be ‘free’ and devoutly anything, and that goes double for Muslims. The riots and expressions of freedom in the so-called Arab Spring were not pushing for “freedom” as Americans understand it. And absent human sources and people who can manage those sources, there is very little that the U. S. can do to understand what’s going on. Which explains why President Obama, Secretary Clinton and everyone else in the American Intelligence Community was caught with their pants down when riots and murder directed at the US took place across the Arab World on September 11, 2012. It’s not unlike the intelligence failure that we all saw graphically on September 11, 2001.
AMERICA SAID, “Never Again” – but the bureaucracy didn’t really listen.
In the United States, the mainstream media drives the political machine. Much of the decision making that President Obama manages is pushed in one way or the other by reporters. He would seem to miss almost all of his briefings according to an article in the Washington Post. President Obama apparently chose to skip it (his intelligence briefing) altogether and attend a Las Vegas fundraiser for his re-election campaign by partying with Beyonce and Jay Z — One day after a terrorist attack. There must not have been much that was useful to President Obama in those briefings (?)
The Mainstream media have experts who can explain the Middle East to Americans such as New York Times Middle East Expert, David D. Kirkpatrick, who never studied the Middle East, never learned any of its language and his previous experience previous to being the NY Times in-house expert was in covering and criticizing conservative politicians in the US. That is what passes for ‘qualifications’ at the New York Times and by extension, many of the Mainstream Media talking heads.
So what the heck is going on? (I feel your confusion)
The U. S. Intelligence structure consists in layer upon layer upon layer of moribund management such that not much seems to get done. Management consultant Tom Peters discusses the problem of layers by pointing out that, in a chain of six layers, if each layer makes the correct decision 80 percent of the time, this will result in a correct decision by the six layers 26 percent of the time. (.8 to the 6 th power = 26 percent).
President Obama can’t fix this problem and likely doesn’t understand why he needs to if he doesn’t want to end up like so many of his predecessors. I suspect that if Governor Mitt Romney becomes President Romney that he won’t get it either. AND that lack of human sources overseas will lead to political grief for him as well.
There are fixes, but the bureaucracy that is the Intelligence Community would push back HARD because there are sinecures, retirements, bloated salaries (considering how very little some of intelligence bureaucrats work to earn them) and so forth that they’ll protect to the last drone-like breath.
And then there is the political correctness that mires us all in ‘words we can’t say’ that has no place in the intelligence business. The repair job requires politically incorrect people who will not be savaged by an American public, cheered on by the mainstream media that turns on them. See Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives, by Jose Rodriguez.
XXX