(City Journal) “The second election of Donald Trump, along with Republican victories in both houses of Congress, sets the stage in the United States for a confrontation between democracy, which depends on representative institutions to form a government, and the rule of unelected elites, which relies on claims of expertise to control the state.
Internal opposition to President Trump is organized within federal agencies. CNN reports that Pentagon officials are discussing disobeying official policy. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has declared that he would refuse if Trump asked for his resignation. Some would like to see a reprise of the orchestrated counteractions against Trump, from the Russia collusion hoax to the Hunter Biden laptop censorship to the political prosecutions that led to his arrest and felony convictions.
The coming political confrontation is unusual because the specific antagonist is hard to identify. Trump is not contending against Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, or even the Democratic minority in Congress. Instead, the president-elect’s post-electoral opposition comes from inside the executive branch, in defiance of Article II of the Constitution, which opens with the unqualified statement: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
In recent years, phrases like “the deep state” have arisen in American political discourse to describe this phenomenon, in which administrators, bureaucrats, and unelected officials seem to wield a kind of power that we still lack appropriate language to describe. Part of the motivation is self-interest—bureaucrats want to protect their positions—but another is ideological: the federal government is steeped in left-wing race and gender ideology, and its adherents see Trump as an existential threat.” (continued)
What is the character of American democracy? Do the people want self-government, and are they capable of it? Or are they to be administered and dictated to by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who claim a global and perhaps historical vision of “governance” but no special allegiance to the American people?
CDRSAL – It’s time to leave 2001 behind
It’s a good article, and you should read it. My addition is the rusted pride of the seven seas (below), but it’s worth noting that if you and I can see this, so can our enemies. When I served in the Navy, this would have led to a court martial. Today, the focus is on gender transitioning and African grievance studies.
Back to CDRSAL and his article – In Part:
Let’s remind ourselves who and where the September 11, 2001 attacks came from:
- The terrorists were 15 Saudis, two Emiratis, one Egyptian, and one Lebanese.
- It was bankrolled by Osama Bin Laden’s organization based out of Afghanistan (I add – and the Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia).
None of the military operations described in the pull quote are even tangentially related to the 9/11 attacks.
- Osama Bin Laden is dead.
- We were defeated by the Taliban (who had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11) after a 20-year war.
- In what may be considered the worst national security decision since the US Civil War, we fought an inconclusive war against the Baath Party in Iraq (a nation that had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11) and still have forces in Iraq…doing whatever we are doing there.
- Somalia, Libya … do I need to keep going?
It’s time to let this go. It makes it too easy to get involved in fights that are not ours, distracting us from the real game that is afoot in the Pacific.
Bullet Points:
** There is an old saw that, in America, every cause begins as a movement and eventually degenerates into a racket. This is certainly true of the past decade’s most fashionable cause: “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” What might have begun as a social movement has become a business—not just in the United States. According to McKinsey & Company, global spending on “DEI-related efforts” totaled $7.5 billion in 2020. If trends continue, that figure will exceed $15 billion by 2026.
** MAGA will ride into Washington, DC, on January 20. There is historical precedence for dealing with Swampers (or the moral equivalent thereof). The Romans used to ride into town and crucify the first rebel to stick his head up. All the rest of the villagers fell in line. So fire the first few that have a bad attitude. Eliminate positions so there is no recourse.
** I can fix stupid. But it’s going to hurt.
** Cigarettes are like squirrels. They’re perfectly harmless until you put one in your mouth and set it on fire.
** How was your day?
Don’t Forget Ashli!
Internal emails reveal that House Democrats, led by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, exerted pressure on the US Capitol Police (USCP) to provide extraordinary financial support and benefits to the murderer, Lt. Michael Byrd, after he fatally shot unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 Capitol protest. Despite Byrd’s significant disciplinary record, which included multiple referrals to the USCP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, efforts were made to secure him bonuses, housing assistance, and a promotion.
The emails, obtained by the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, document that Byrd received a $37,000 retention bonus—far exceeding the $3,000 awarded to other officers involved in the Jan. 6 response. Additionally, Pelosi’s office worked with Capitol Police leadership to explore ways to provide more benefits, including utilizing a memorial fund for wounded officers. Byrd reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of financial support, prompting USCP officials to help establish a GoFundMe campaign that raised over $164,000 with promotional assistance from Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California).
In his communications, Byrd voiced frustration with being “lumped in” with other officers injured on Jan. 6, despite already receiving significant funds. “We play the game as you request, and then once we comply, you guys change the rules on us,” Byrd wrote to USCP General Counsel Thomas DiBiase.
The subcommittee’s findings also highlighted how Byrd was treated compared to other officers. “Byrd gets $37,000, while frontline officers get $3,000. It’s not equally played,” Loudermilk stated. He questioned whether Byrd’s record, let alone a promotion, should have disqualified him from service.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk addressed his concerns about the Capitol Police’s decisions in a detailed letter to USCP Chief Thomas Manger. Given his disciplinary record, the letter raises questions about fairness, transparency, and Byrd’s eligibility for promotion.
Judicial Watch and other watchdog groups have voiced continued demands for transparency in the USCP’s actions and their collaboration with Democratic leaders in such cases.
Read the full article here.
Horseshoe Mountain
as seen from Mt. Pleasant, Sanpete County, UT
I shot a large bull elk a couple of years back. It was a horse hunt, and it was challenging to pack out. I like hunting on horseback, but it’s “cheating” in its way because the horse helps you out. The horse sees and hears things you don’t, so watching the horse’s head reveals hidden cues. Likewise, elk are not as spooked by a man on horseback as they are by a lone hunter (or hunters). We parked the horse trailer at a wide spot on the road in Twelve-Mile Canyon (east of Mayfield) and worked our way up from there.
For your reading pleasure – Illuminating Short Stories: by M.K. Flowers
Max Flowers visits this blog from time to time but doesn’t post much. He’s written a book of short stories that is available on Amazon.com.
One reviewer wrote, “It brings back fond memories of the days of the sci-fi magazines Astounding, Amazing, and Analogue.” The short stories are excellent and entertaining, some with a new twist, some with very surprising endings, and some just great sci-fi fantasy fun.
I’m trying to boost Max’s signal. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the stories. The book is free if you’re a member of Kindle Unlimited. If not, I’m sure you can part with US$2.99.
This is the thing. If people don’t appreciate your work and don’t patronize it, the author will stop writing.
Argentina’s Growing Traction
“Confidence in Argentina, and its economy, looks to be picking up steam so much so that Argentine energy companies are tapping U.S. debt markets, according to Bloomberg. (zerohedge)
Shale driller Vista Energy raised $600 million in its first foreign bond sale, while Pampa Energia is planning another market return this year amid growing output in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale. MSU Energy also secured $177 million to refinance debt. It’s hard to say that these efforts to access global lenders do anything but underscore Wall Street’s growing confidence in President Milei as he nears the end of his first year in office.”
Identify the Vehicle
1 & 2
Identify the Aircraft
3
Hint: The first operational American ordnance aircraft equipped with a glazed tail gun position. The tail gun was a .50 caliber MG fired from the prone position by a gunner using a telescopic sight.
4
5
Not a B-17 — Name the military and civilian variant
Parting Shot
End
3 is Douglas B23
4 is VFW-Fokker VFW 614.
Good! Keep going.
300 km day between job sites. Will leave for Surly and co.
Did manage to get past a gun shop I am not normally near and pick up some of the Sierra .30 projectiles I use for goats.
Gun shops are like magnets…
Gun shops & used book stores…
Yes, well I can spend a week in a used book store if it’s solid.
You can save hundreds at gun stores if you don’t go in.
Easy for you to say. You have Banner to restrain you.
Identify the Vehicle:
1. Front: Sd.Kfz. 252
2. Rear: T-34/76
Identify the Aircraft:
3. Douglas B-23 Dragon
4. VFW-Fokker 614
5. Boeing XB-15, latter the XC-105. The wing design was later used in the 314 flying boat.
Excellent
IDV-
1. Front: Sd.Kfz. 252
2. Rear: T-34/76
IDA-
3. Douglas B-23 Dragon
4. VFW-Fokker 614
5. Boeing XB-15, XC-105.
Ashli was no doubt an targeted assassination. From the Capitol police doing a hasty exfil, like someone told them to do it. To Lt. Michael Byrd stepping out and around the crowd to intentionally targeting Ashli…a white woman. There i said it.
i watched video live on nine cameras that day from inside the building. idk how or what sight, i just did a google search and it came up. on it byrd was down dstairs talking to the “crowd” which was a bunch of fellows with huge cameras, obviously antifa, laughing and joking. then they told him to back up the stairs like he was afraid. after a few stairwells they told him to pull out his weapon which he did, while holding the door open and chatting with them. they all went up several floors this way until he backed into the control room. they told him to point the weapon at them. that’s when they grabbed ashli babbitt shoving her to the front of the room, knocked out the window and tried to force her though. a shot rang out, she fell to the floor and all the antifags stood around filming her bleed out as a real man fought his way to her side to render aide. the antifa ghouls jostled for better camera angles, disgusting. pelosi had the video, reports are she ordered it deleted after the kangaroo hearings. i wish i’d saved the video/site but it was on my work computer and the boss walked in about that time. i tried to find it after the boss left but it wouldn’t come up. the videos from those cameras refute everything pelosi et al claim happened on j6. there were outside cameras too, i have to wonder if it was an antifa site set up for the event…..byrd has some nerve.
Give me Byrd and I’ll return with answers. Byrd will be fed live to pigs.
x2 to you both. Nuf said…yup.
What John Ringo’s main character in “A Deeper Blue” does to a terrorist leader to get him to spill the beans, well, involves lots of sharks, really good tourniquets, rope, hoist, and chumming the waters before playing human shark pinata.
–
The Jan 6th Committee members should also join in as ‘fresh meat’ due to their destruction of evidence and blatant anti-American activites.
Great blog this morning and thanks for sharing your skills at it.
As far as that rusty scow is concerned it appears someone went through the trouble of blacking out all the crew faces. Possibly to save them from embarrassment? I was in in the early 80s and never saw anything remotely close to that POS.
>blacking out all the crew faces. Possibly to save them from embarrassment?
—
No! It’s one of two things.
1) some racist white supremacist cousin-humping, toothless neo-Nazi blacked out the faces in a pathetic attempt to make it look like negroes are incapable of basic maintenance. It’s racism in the part of the image curator.
2) there’s a toxic culture in the Navy (and the Armed Forced generally) where the practice of “black face” is not only tolerated, but forced upon the enlisted by the systemically racist and too-white officer corps.
—
Please, I beg of you, learn to think like a paranoid nutbag eternal victim. EVERYTHING is racist, sexist (and of course The Worst Thing) if you only try. Me personally, I’m ready for a leadership position in the totally free and unbiased US (for values of “us”) press.
We do apply burn jel to our faces when at general quarters. When kinetic munitions hit the ship, our skin blisters and peels from our faces. Now, it’s not black, but your point is taken. It should be. The negro sailors wouldn’t need the jel…it would be racist for them to go in black face too. If you take my point.
Unlearn the lies? After a generation or so the lies are history…that’s the way it was…
~~~~
The photo of the rusty ship, at first glance I’d think that was an old photo of a Soviet era ship. But it’s not… it’s the New America. How did we ALLOW this to happen?
~~~~
The way it’s written it sure looks like Nancy Pelosi (The Speaker of the House!) paid Michael Byrd for publicly murdering Ashli Babbitt.
>Unlearn the lies? After a generation or so the lies are history
Exactly. I honestly don’t understand how the Men of the West allowed their institutions, their history, their very culture to be “interpreted” then remolded by those who hate them. Anyone not ideologically blinkered knows that the Press is dominated by those who hate us. (And by “us” I simply mean normal people.) Popular culture (Hollywood, comedy, music [q.v. Clive Davis]) is in the same boat. K-12 education, same same. And higher education. As one example, the shadow of Franz Boas still hangs over Anthropology.
–From Wiki (Font of Universal Truthiness and all that):
“Boas introduced the idea of cultural relativism, which holds that cultures cannot be objectively ranked as higher or lower, or better or more correct, but that all humans see the world through the lens of their own culture, and judge it according to their own culturally acquired norms.” [1]
And: “Boas was one of the most prominent opponents of the then-popular ideologies of scientific racism, the idea that race is a biological concept and that human behavior is best understood through the typology of biological characteristics.” [2]
—
So that was Boas, who was of course a German. German, got that? But that’s only one example. A very important one, but only one example. What is even more dangerous is the notion that some things cannot be questioned. How much can’t they be questioned? Under penalty of emprisonment and financial ruin. The irony is that the people who are most behind this sort of thing are exactly those who bitch about, for example, the Inquisition (or rub themselves under the covers while reading “The Handmaid’s Tale”). Although the movement is ostensibly secular, it functions like rule by religious whackjobs.
I could be blackguarding Boas personally, because he was probably countering some admittedly stupid stuff contemporaneous to his own ascent, but certainly he had a long and broad influence on the entire field of Anthropology in America. And he trained a lot of people, who either themselves or their trainees (Boas’ grandchildren if you will) extended his ideas to sheer absurdity.
—
Footnotes to above:
[1] Nonsense. Any culture that says it’s okay to mutilate your females, be it clitoridectomy among adherents of [redacted religion], or foot binding among the Chinese, that’s wrong, and bad. Screw that aspect of your culture. And probably screw your culture in general. A culture that says all those not in your group are subhumans that were put on earth only to serve you? Bad. A culture that says it’s okay to have sex with prepubescent children? Bad. This is not rocket surgery.
[2] MC comment: if one associates certain behaviors with visible melanin levels or lip dimensions, okay, sure, that’s probably silly (though maybe not, there may be linkages between physical phenotype and behavior — viz how foxes bred to be docile/domesticated ended up with floppy ears), but this rejection of “scientific racism” has been extended to denying ANY association between race and behavior. That is clearly observable as nonsense. Not all members of a group behave in a particular manner, but there are differences between group means in just about everything. Intelligence, height, strength, certainly. Probably impulsivity as well. And why is it “funny” to say “White men can’t jump” but if someone says something about intelligence and race then you have to destroy that person’s life?
We in America have a ” Constitutional Republic ” not a democracy ! We need to get the word out of our mouths as democracy is is not in Any of our founding documents .
X2
X3..and the [primary] ‘Enemy Within’ is the Democrat Party not the Democratic Party…nothing democratic about them.
Yes.
I like Cdr. Sal’s last comment about bullshit name-pandering.
*
I would buy the MK Flowers book, but it’s only on Kindle and Hell will freeze over.
I stuck the other one on my shopping list though, even though Fantasy is not my favorite.
*
– Kle.
Mr. Flowers’ books are on my list. I haven’t read them yet, but I did read a very short story he wrote which will be featured here on December 26, and all will become clear when you read it.
in re Kindle: X2
this way, if I don’t like a book, I can always burn it
the wife got a bit antsy the last time I tried to burn a Kindle
Some days are like this, Boron. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/sRbEPYGFhocVMqJM/
** I like this one; great visual definition of FAFO; OTOH, what is the definition of the true scientist?
** who/what is the money behind DEI? who are the groups making money? yes! I know, not everything’s about making money, there is always the “true believer” and occasionally it’s just the desire for power/leadership, but I still like to follow the money.
Funnier yet I know exactly where I was that particular Saturday morning watching that RoadRunner episode…which dates me a bit.but hey, the guy at Jersey Mike’s asked if I was “military, police, or a senior”. No shame…got my much forgotten discount. There are bright spots.
CDRSal’s blog is enlightening in a different mode than yours…really enjoying it after Mike_C’s hint the other day.
***
Guessing all those “conspiracy theories” us nutjobs on “The Right” have tried hard to find the truth…have become fact and not the fiction TPTB (aka. ‘Elected Criminal Element Thieves’) push-narrative-d to by their demented media pals.
***
Hunting Horseback- Stunning spot! But I contend it’s not cheating, only making it easier to see the country from a different perspective, even if moving a little noisier. Was a design engineer at RamLine (remember them?), first job after moving to Colorado, boss – who became a friend – had lived in Durango, working for Redfield…designed the Illuminator scope (yes, moons ago)…asked if I want to go hunting in the Fat Tops…needed a rifle (still have my Winchester 270 Featherweight) and boots, as we were going in horseback. Mom: “Please don’t get shot.” Me: “Mom, it’s big country and I don’t look anything like an elk and the horses are bigger than me.” Got to the trailhead late, slept under the gooseneck, woke up to a massive elk herd across the road in some ranchers hayfield…drove all the guys nuts. Got up to camp later, never saw a single elk. Heh..it’s like that. Another trip up there I was down in some dark timber, a hole (thinking how the hay I was gonna pack an animal out of there). Was on a huge downed tree behind another one, saw this massive bull munching away, the wind did a slight shift…and…ffft…gone. No sound, like a wisp, weaving his huge rack thru the trees. That’s when I realized the truth behind “ghost in the woods”.
– Thanks for the memory hole LL.
“I shot a large bull elk a couple of years back. It was a horse hunt, and it was challenging to pack out. I like hunting on horseback, but it’s “cheating” in its way because the horse helps you out”
My Dad guided hunter every fall for several years. Our horses and mule, lazy, would spot game the turn a look at us, then back like, “Damn, will you just shoot so we can get this over and get back to eating hay?” When I was old enough, I got the chore of packing the hunters in and the game out. That guiding money was what kept our family going through the winter.
I didn’t enjoy hunting. For me, it was a job of work. That said, I was good at the job but a shadow of my Dad’s ability.
I once shot an elephant in my pajamas…
How he got in your pajamas is a different issue entirely.
Heh.
Horseback hunting is the West’s equivalent of tree-stand hunting in the East. When the land is overall poor (as in not as great at growing things as land back East,) it tends to spread out the game, which means the game is much farther from one’s vehicle, so horseback allows one to travel distances there and back and carry all that food weight back.
–
Different tactics for different environments. What works in a wooded wonderland doesn’t work out in the vast plains doesn’t work in the craggy mountains. Shooting’s shooting, but the rest, the spotting, the stalking, the getting in/getting out are all vastly different.
–
My dad used to talk about hunting in SW Louisiana as a youth (often involving some sort of boat, and shooting from said boat,) and how different it was as an airstrip safety officer in New Mexico (sitting in a jeep and shooting deer at the secondary strip planes were doing touch-n-goes at. The meat was greatly appreciated in the officers’ mess.)
Used bookstores and gun shops are the bane of my wallet…sigh
The books appear cheap so you buy a dozen…I know. Bought the t-shirt.
If only I had the time to read the books I have. I would have to give up perusing the blogs.
Or retire.
Everyday is a Saturday, Ed…well for some of us…as my conscience screams, “okay, break time is over, get back at it you lazy bum.”
Try what I do. Be broke. Keeps one from buying books or guns.
Yep . Walked out of a bookstore in Kerrville, Texas several years ago with a cardboard box full of books. $384 dollars worth. Ate Crackers and peanut butter for a long time after that.
That ship looks like the San Pablo at the end of The Sand Pebbles.