Keyboard Commando

Bullet Points:

** Is it a good idea for private equity companies to own law firms?

** Are you becoming more virtuous with age, or are you just too tired to sin to your heart’s desire?

** Porta-Potty Drug Dens – Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson unveiled the city’s new Bayside Enhanced Shelter in the Interbay neighborhood: 75 individual units, each measuring 70 square feet, at a cost of $16,000 per unit — $1.2 million total. The mayor described it as a humane alternative to street encampments and a significant step forward on homelessness. But there is no requirement for sobriety. (right)

** An exploration of feminism – in 2026. Blue hair and nose jewelry are telling. More discussions of women’s mental health. Liberal women are the highest risk group. There is no surprise there.

** I heard a British person call Oreos, “chocolate sandwich biscuits” – the Revolutionary War had to happen.

** Klaven on Culture.

** Fly the friendly skies – and I thought it was ‘only in the colonies.’

** So THAT is why Jules always says, “There we are then,” – she’s calling people twats. Ok, there we are then.

** VM should start a lottery. It’s a great idea. Maybe I should just move to the VM casino! (Las Vegas wasn’t built on the backs of winners)

In Praise of the 245 Gonzales Sap

I carried one on duty when in the business. Made by Robert Gonzales – originally for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

At the CLAW last Night

MMA Fighter Josh Hokit outed Big Mike Obama by saying, “Michelle Obama is a man!” after he won his fight. The Obama camp immediately laid down a challenge, man to man – Big Mike vs Josh Hokit in a grudge match in the octagon! The crowd at the White House went crazy!!

1 Corinthians 13:13

Many years ago, I investigated criminal fraud as part of my job at the Orange County (CA) District Attorney’s Office. I also supervised the major fraud, consumer protection, and other units at that agency. I enjoyed some success, good press, and so forth. Since then and up to the present day, I have assisted victims at times as a licensed private investigator. I do not do much private investigation these days, and what I do is primarily money-laundering-related, consulting with various attorneys I’ve known for decades. The majority of my work focuses on various tech issues and diplomatic work for governments in the Middle East, as I’ve mentioned on this blog. About a week ago, people contacted me, asking for my assistance on a fraud-related problem. As always, I listened.

They gave a sum to a charitable, religious-oriented organization and were not happy with the percentage that went to delivering aid to people in need. Public charities  501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations are free to set their own program-to-overhead ratios under the existing tax code in the USA. Charitable foundations are expected to donate 5% of their net worth toward charitable causes annually. Religions are not required to donate any of the tithes or offerings you make toward charity or charitable causes.

Separate and apart from the fraud investigation (above), I was undercover in the Hessians Motorcycle Club/Gang for nearly two years, and their clubhouse was in a church basement. The pastor appeared on television (CH-40) in those days begging for donations. Occasionally, he would take $100, buy McDonald’s hamburgers back when they were cheap, and hand them out to the homeless while cameras rolled. That was the only effort he made toward helping others. 99% of the money he took in, he kept. There was also a Jesus Biker ministry co-located on the main floor, and they were a feeder group for the Hessians, a criminal organization. The pastor remained in the religion business for some time until he went to prison for selling drugs. He repented, did his time, rinse-repeat.

I am not opposed to charitable giving, but as to the people who wanted to claw their money back – you can’t legally do that. When it’s gone, it’s gone. When you donate it to the church (any church), it’s gone.

In Arizona

The Wickenburg Massacre was a notorious and bloodiest ambush on a westbound commercial stagecoach that occurred on November 5, 1871, roughly six miles outside of Wickenburg, Arizona Territory. The attack resulted in the deaths of six people, heavily altered American military policy in the Southwest, and sparked an enduring historical whodunit mystery that lingers to this day.

The Ambush occurred on November 5; an Arizona Stage Line coach, operated by driver John “Dutch John” Lance, set off from Wickenburg toward California, carrying seven passengers. At approximately 8:00 a.m., as the stagecoach descended into a dry desert wash, it was ambushed from three sides. The fatalities included: John “Dutch John” Lance, the stagecoach driver; Frederick Wadsworth Loring, a promising 23-year-old Harvard graduate and Boston journalist writing for Appleton’s Journal; Peter Hamel & William Salmon, topographers working for the U.S. government’s Wheeler Expedition; Charles Adams, a flour mill employee from Prescott; and Fred Shoholm, a traveling jewelry merchant from Philadelphia. Two passengers survived the initial onslaught despite being shot three times each: William Kruger, an Army Quartermaster clerk, and Mollie Sheppard, a well-known brothel madam from Prescott. The pair managed to fire back, flee into the desert brush, and eventually reach safety. Sheppard later died in California due to complications and infections from her wounds.

The initial blame fell heavily on a band of Yavapai warriors (often misidentified at the time as “Apache-Mohave”) from the nearby Date Creek Reservation. General George Crook used the outrage generated by the Eastern press over Loring’s death to launch aggressive military campaigns. This directly led to the forced “removal and concentration” policy, relocating the southwestern native population to remote reservations like San Carlos.

Despite the official Army conclusions, the event remains one of the West’s greatest unsolved mysteries due to peculiar evidence. The attackers left behind the horses, ammunition, and valuable jewelry.  Supported by reports of moccasin tracks and the fact that Peter Hamel was scalped. It may have been a retaliatory strike following the brutal Camp Grant Massacre of Apaches earlier that year. Usually, the Apache would take the horses and often ate them. So was it the Apache?

The physical site of the tragedy can still be visited just off Route 60 outside of Wickenburg. The trail features several memorial plaques, marked gravesites, and informational signs maintained by local historic preservation groups

The Red Chinese Bubble

(h/t Claudio) “Indian scholars say China has no friends? So, does India want to be China’s friend?” This is the question posed by Gao Zhikai, a contemporary Chinese scholar (whom I call an ideologist), at a recent symposium. His intention was to put India on the spot and put it into an awkward situation. But in reality, he ended up putting Beijing on the spot and made itself awkward instead.

The context of this question is that Xi Jinping has decided to treat Japan and the Philippines as enemies and to classify Singapore as a country that does not heed China’s words. As for India, it has long been the object of China’s ridicule. Mongolia, for keeping its distance from China, has also displeased the Chinese. The Taiwanese government is even more disliked by Beijing. As for Vietnam, it has been constructing artificial islands and competing with China for greater maritime control in the South China Sea. North Korea is a kind of smiling but potential enemy for Beijing. Obviously, the USA is the enemy because China has been at war (by other means) with the USA for more than half a century.

Yet China’s official propaganda claims: We have the best electric vehicles; we have high-speed rail that poor Asian nations lack; we have money! Therefore, we have friends all over the world.

Herein lies the problem. The Red Chinese leadership and, to some extent, the population that lives within the propaganda bubble, have a very skewed view of the world and of their place in it. You could argue that, in many places, including the US, the difference lies in the fact that Westerners pride themselves on individuality, while the Chinese pride themselves on groupthink. Even Red Chinese students who attend universities abroad, particularly in the USA, tend to hang with other communist Chinese, eat the food, and live their culture within that same bubble.

Identify the Aircraft

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