Naturally, the inclination is to celebrate the day in the way that is most comfortable to the present regime, with the Internationale. Oh wait, is there some conflict between celebrating America’s elites and the solidarity of workers everywhere? Once we’re a big global family, all that will be resolved. The government will pretend to pay you and you’ll pretend to work and you’ll come to love Big Brother.

 

Bullet Points:

** For I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe—that unless I believe I shall not understand. —St. Anselm

** The Tu-95 old car tire trick (h/t Claudio) – of course. Why didn’t I think of that?

** https://www.facebook.com/reel/1009181443774400

** Last week, news broke that the National Archives possesses about 5,400 emails and records linked to Pedo Joe Biden’s email aliases. The Archives, under the control of the White House, refuses to provide the content of those emails and records.

** Ford is recalling nearly 42,000 Super Duty F250 and F350 trucks because a left rear axle shaft may break, which can increase the risk of a crash. The Ford recall covers certain 2023 Super Duty F250 and F350 vehicles – a total of 41,555 – according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report.

** Some scientists have said that children who get autism from vaccination may been damaged because they have a reduced ability to get rid of the small amounts of toxic metals that are in some vaccines as adjuvants and additives…Based on previous studies, the authors suggest that this finding could be due to ASD patients’ reduced ability to excrete heavy metals. The study also indicated that heavy metal exposure during children’s growth could potentially epigenetically affect DNA methylation and cause oxidative stress and inflammatory response.

** Bezos v Musk – (h/t Claudio) The battle of the billionaires. File it under cutting off your nose to spite your face.

** It’s been my general observation over a lifetime that well-managed companies that treat employees fairly rarely have significant labor problems. On the other hand, poorly managed companies and government agencies have to deal with strong labor unions.  Your experience may differ.

 

Maps and Memes

Countries that don’t have extradition treaties with the USA

 

 

Identify the Aircraft

1

LT Max Immelmann

2

(h/t Al Kirk)

 

Identify the Tank

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

40 COMMENTS

    • Yes, a Fokker, and what you can see of the vertical stabilizer helps verify that. Additionally, Immilmann flew a Fokker, not a Pfalz. Outside. of those tells, it’s a challenge (to me) to differentiate between a Fokker E and a Pfalz E from that angle.

  3. Tires on Soviet aircraft wings…reminds me of when people put tires on a mobile home roof, maybe for the same reason.

    Gee, is the National Archives protecting the Biden Crime Syndicate while persecuting his political opponent? As Nixon said “When the President does it, that means it’s not illegal.”

  5. I was looking at the extridition map and had not realized that half the island of New Guinea was part of Indonesia. I’m going to file that in the “live & learn” depertament.
    https://goo.gl/maps/PdEHw1nxauiQAScy5

    The Chinese have a military deal with the Solomon Islands now don’t they? That big step puts them right next to Australia.

    • My company is close to the issue in the Soloman Islands. The Chinese are in an interesting position in the Solomons. They really would like to have a base there but no. They have pumped money into the area but the locals hate them. There was a referendum and 80% voted to have them removed.

      I could go further but will not. We retain an interest in the situation there.

          • Nobody likes the PRC. Even their own people inside have grave misgivings. This ten-dash map has Chinese living outside of the Solomons ticked off because of what they need to deal with from angry locals. “Oh so you own the ocean outside my door five hundred miles from mainland China do you?”

      • This was a comment from a couple of months ago on a “hate site” by a person with the sobriquet of “Saracen Slammer”.
        ————–
        Having travelled to Asia and asked the locals, most Asians have a negative view of Chinese people. This is often not related to any history or geopolitics but because they’re rude and disrespectful to the local culture.

        Indians are the least liked due to being cheap, lecherous, and disrespectful.

        [Stuff about African blacks skipped]

        Chinese are a mixed bag, with some acting just as poorly as Indians and some behaving themselves. North Korea bans Chinese tourists from visiting some spots that are open to Westerners to visit because the Chinese behave disrespectfully towards those monuments. In general though they have a bad reputation.
        […]
        They [Asians in general, not just Norks] like White American tourists the most. The average American tourist goes there, spends a good amount of money, tips, and tries to follow all the local culture’s rules, etc”
        ———-
        Now there are many people here who have way more experience in Asia than I do, but SS’s observations jibe with my own impressions. Here’s a random example: we were in Otaru, Japan (a Hokkaido town famous for its glass works, and therefore a bit of a tourist trap, albeit a charming one). I was there with my girlfriend (French-Irish, mostly) and our Japanese friend. We were in a bakery and they had just taken some muffins out of the oven. The clerks cut up a couple of muffins into little cubes and stuck toothpicks into them, as samples. The Japanese and us tourists already in the store queued up. Then about a dozen mainlander Chinese burst into the store. They had expensive haircuts and were well dressed in designer clothes, and had either (bourgeois) fashion-statement stuff or really good-quality knockoffs (Burberry, Tumi, Coach, you get the idea; these were NOT poor people). Anyway, this mob of Chinamen literally shoved through our queue and mobbed the counter, grabbing at the samples. Some of those appalling bastards were using BOTH hands to snatch at the muffin bits. I’ve seen a box full of hungry rats swarming a piece of cheese dropped into it, and it was oddly similar. My girlfriend and I looked at each other. Japanese friend couldn’t look at either of us. We exited the bakery. I sighed. “Pretty typical for Chinese, eh?” Japanese friend looked highly embarrassed. “Well, we don’t like to say it, but ….”

        Incidentally, these were Mandarin speakers and not Cantonese speakers. (When in some Asian country other than China, especially SE Asia, speaking Cantonese, vs Hakka, vs Teochew, vs Mandarin matters — all these have important implications about who you’re dealing with, probable behaviors, and how much they are hated by the host population.)

        Incidentally, in East and SE Asia I am almost always “coded American” and not as an ethnic Chinese. ESPECIALLY by Chinese people. This, by the way, is considered a horrible insult by “real” Chinese, although the Chinese don’t have the idiotic, narcissistic, and plain wrong term “self-loathing Chinese”. (So far as I can tell, “self-loathing” generally refers to a person of some group who notices and has the bad taste to notice out loud unfortunate stereotypical tendencies of that group.) The point of that is that I don’t consider myself to have a dog in the Chinese fight. Other people might think so, but I can’t help what other people think. Anyway, I believe I am fairly objective when it comes to how the Chinese are seen by others in Asia. The TL;DR is: not favorably in general.

        So take that background, and add in the geopolitical situation and it’s a mess for certain.

      • You’re an occifer, not a grunt. Labor Day “wasn’t made for you.”

        I’m working today as well. If I can get my act together, that is.

        • True, I didn’t work for a living. I still don’t. I might be one of those rich men north of Richmond if I didn’t live live in the Arizona wilderness

          • Not work-work but Round Two of clearing and weeding out all weekend on the MIL’s place outside Chicago in prep for sale….60 years of accumulated “stuff”….like a Scandinavian American Picker’s episode, only slightly more organized… “Don’t ask, just pitch it or put in the giveaway” was the motto. Painful for the sentimental, but oh well, gotta fish or cut bait at some point, an axiom for life.

            Arrived at the homestead a few hours ago, fried from the road (which STILL suck…despite paying through the nose in road taxes). For us it’s no chores and projects until tomorrow…Recliner Coma in an hour.

          • I’ve been through those ordeals. One in July with MRSLL’s aunt. I’m happy to hear that you’re home safely, and reclining.

          • West Suburbs, head on a swivel at the Convenience shop diesel pump at 10PM…no lollygagging (maybe the Colorado plate was enough). But generally not too bad, other than 5 miles to Home Depot takes 35 minutes.

            Observance: Most suburbs have become toxic to a healthy balanced life, people live a compartmentalized narrow existence, pay a fortune in taxes for crappy roads and congestion while on their phones taking snaps at anything not nailed down…and endlessly discussing the Cubs 2-1 loss in the bottom of the 9th as if it really mattered. They are effectively churning and existing day to day while allowing a slow death by the installment plan with every Big Pharma drug at the ready. But hey, the massive indoor fitness centers were busy…so was Portilla’s and the McDonald’s Drive-Thru.

          • @Paul M: The work you’re doing is much harder than anything I’ve done for quite some time. I had to go through my parents’ house and things after my father died, and that was difficult on many levels. Sigh.

          • Not an easy task, but necessary, especially when you arrive and what was supposed to be done in the past two months, wasn’t.

            Life is about helping others in our work…one always needs a plan for such things, no plan and the effort never starts or grinds to a halt midstream (especially when some don’t work the plan). A few marathon days fueled by a hearty Millie’s Pancake Cafe’ breakfast got the needle moved along, ready for the estate sales person. As the SIL I have little standing other than to advise (been there before) and offer my ability to get it done…I’m adding professional tree trimmer to my resume since the local family never thought to hire this task out.

            I’m just hoping the Fed doesn’t tank the housing market in the next few months and the non-English speaking lawn service guy understands my text to “trim the hedges” so the street view looks decent.

            Like pulling teeth.

  7. The tires on the Bear actually make sense, considering the ‘options’ available to the Russians, and those tires are by and large unserviceable to put on vehicles anyway…

  9. A number of years ago I was reading the local newspaper and saw an article about a Teamster’s president who had his legs blown off by a bomb placed in his vehicle.
    I was thinking how that job in Detroit or Chicsgo was dangerous and when I checked the byline it was Redding, CA.
    At that time (note I was reading a newspaper, so fifty years ago) Redding was a small city on I5.
    I was surprised, but I knew a building contractor who had his vehicles sabotaged during this time.
    Unions have a long history of violence.

    • There is a lot of money hanging in the balance. Looting a union pension fund for fun and profit has long been the prevue of organized crime. Various companies hire OC soldiers into no-show jobs. It’s one way that they get their claws into companies with union shops. The company hires PaulM, for example who handles security or quality control for $120K per year. PaulM pulls down $60K for not working and kicks back $60K to the company exec times ten companies for PaulM who is their organized crime rep.

      • Geez, 3 days in Chicagoland and I’m one of The Daly’s homies purely by osmosis and proximity. Heh

        But your scenario is not wrong, and developed decades ago. Now imagine how good the laundering payback grift game has gotten by now, might even be able to swing an election or two…even plug in a Super Secret Homosexual Kenyan Manchurian married to a Tranny as a Senator, then break all the Constitutional requirement rules and get him installed as the most divisive President ever…because he’s half black, fathered by a Communist and hung out with a Domestic Terrorist turned professor. (That about cover it?)

        • BTW, in your scenario, who does the actual security or QA work if I’m not doing it? My guess is cousin Vinny, hence the doubling down in “collections”…gotta pay Vinny or he gets testy.

          • In the scenario, the QA person would be a “regional” job or it would be a field safety inspector in a large trucking company or a corporate security job that spanned a region or a large state such that nobody in the rank and file would ever expect somebody to show up. There is a benefit to the company because if they need mob muscle, they know who to call on for that service.

            I could write a book about this. Usually, if there is a kickback scheme or if they’re bribing the police these days, they will use a check. I’ve mentioned this on the blog before. I ran into this in an investigation in Las Vegas. The mafia paid the police with checks in the $50K-$60K range in this case so that if the police went sideways, they would go down too. I was very surprised to see checks made payable to the Las Vegas Metro Intel guys.

            In reality, it works differently than it does in the movies – at least in my experience it does. I conducted and managed organized crime and political corruption activities with some Middle East terrorism laundering thrown in for 21 years in the Orange County and Los Angeles County areas. That included U/C work in Las Vegas and large organized crime and murder-for-hire cases there. (Nexus in Orange County but you follow the breadcrumbs where they lead.

          • @Paul – I grew up in Chicagoland, about 60 miles away. Close enought to visit all the cool stuff, but far enough away to barely be able to see the smoke from the Summertime festivities.

            @LL – Yep, that’s almost exactly how I remember things running.

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