Opinion

The stock markets are down in bear market territory, and all voices are wondering if we are heading for a recession. Meanwhile, Pedo Joe totters up onto a stage and blames Big Oil and Ultra MAGAs for the nation’s woes. Then he has no idea where he is and his handlers point him off stage.

Recessions, depressions, panics, crashes, you-name-its, are the fault of governments failing to get the economy right after going on an inflation bender — to fight a war or to fight Covid 19 – wherein the government’s response was much worse than Chinese Engineered SARS epidemic.  Yeah, in this case, it has been deliberate.

Moving on, where does the Brandon regime get its functionaries? I know that you ask where this band of sexual deviates, freaks, and misfits come from…maybe it’s a place like this?

 

Time (a mid-week sermonette)

Because of the proliferation of Einstein’s theories of relativity we have a very different fundamental understanding of time than people previously had.

Generally, we do not even realize the immense difference in how we collectively understand time compared to even 100 years ago. The idea that time can flow at different rates, or that time is relative to the observer, has so permeated our society that major Hollywood movies can use the idea as a crucial plot point and we do not even consider how strange a concept it is for time to flow differently or fail to grasp the relative nature of time. Even the concept of time travel is a relatively modern concept that we do not realize entirely depends on certain crucial ontological concepts of time that have only entered our collective consciousness in the past 100 years.

Quite often we are faced with paradoxes or questions we cannot find an answer for. Frequently the paradox only exists because of the subconscious, unintentional choices we have made in understanding the world. Many times I see people of faith asking some form of the question, “How does XYZ work if ABC?” or, “How can XYZ be true when ABC is true?” For them, these are paradoxical questions for which there is no solution. But quite often the paradox only exists because of unstated assumptions they have made without even realizing it. Many such questions, such as the relationship between science and religion, are entirely dependent on subconscious assumptions we have made regarding the nature of science, scripture, authority, and revelation (not to mention epistemology, language, metaphysics, and God himself).

Sometimes the answer to someone’s question simply requires the right information with an acceptable explanation. But other times the paradox lies entirely in unstated assumptions the person has made. These are the most difficult to address because recognizing our own unstated assumptions about reality, and identifying them as the source of our confusion, is perhaps one of the most difficult human tasks in existence. It is easier to change someone’s behavior than it is to make them realize that the intractable paradoxes that seemingly have no resolution are the result of unintentional assumptions they have made about the nature of reality itself. And the most difficult of these already difficult conflicts are the ones that are most closely bound to someone’s identity.

 

APP – Sirius Project

 

The Navy’s Problems Impact the USMC

(Defense News) The Navy would like to decommission nine amphibious dock landing ships, all of which need significant repairs. Some have more than a decade of planned service life left, but the Navy says it would rather spend its money on other capabilities than attempt to repair them.

The Navy isn’t the primary user of these amphibious platforms. The Marine Corps relies on these ships to carry its Marine expeditionary units, which are considered the nation’s crisis response force. The Corps’ ability to keep forces spread across the globe and quickly react is at risk. Only 45% of the amphibious ship fleet is ready today, compared to the Navy’s 80% readiness goal. And that fleet could shrink dramatically if the Navy gets its way.

The service may ask to decommission four amphibious dock landing ships — known as LSDs — in fiscal 2024, even though two congressional committees denied a similar request this year for four different LSDs. The Navy also plans to end construction of the Flight II San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, meant to replace the LSDs, after buying three of them.

The US Navy is on a decommissioning binge these days, sending the Tico cruisers to the mothball fleet. Will a leaner Navy with fewer ships (leading to longer deployments for the remaining ships) mean better readiness? The USMC has its doubts and so do I.

“An expected service life assumes a certain amount of regular maintenance, and when that maintenance does not happen, [that service life] is going to be negatively affected.”

 

“The Sundance Kid”, Harry Longabaugh and wife, Etta Place, shortly before leaving for South America in 1901.

**

BANDMEETING’s Request

Bandmeeting wrote and asked for a recommendation for a decent steak in Bogata. Since this is a full-service blog, I directed him to Andres DC in the Zone Rosa. I expect a report back and he’s leaving soon.

I recommended the Lomo al Trapo and suggested that he order the mojito.

Bandmeeting provided the graphics below:

It’s not enough of a dive bar to qualify for members of China Post 1 to meet at, but it’s perfect for bloggers with a few Colombian Pesos (COP) in their pockets. Bogata is actually a nice city with a fun nightlife. ¡Qué chimba!

Hint: In Colombia, don’t refer to people as hombre or mujer. They colombianized the word man with their intonation so it’s used to refer to a guy and, on the other hand, an old woman which is vieja is used to refer to girls or women. No, I’m not pranking here. You need to sound like a parcero right off the bat.

Warning: Colombian Spanish uses common words differently with many slightly different meanings.

Vamos a rumbear este sábado

In Mexico City, my recommendation would have been Puerta Madera.

 

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61 COMMENTS

  1. Many supposed contradictions in the Bible are corrected when you realize God is not subject to time.
    Like the 7 days of creation where plants come before the sun (but not light). When you thing of it as seven layers instead of 7 units of time there is no paradox. Time and space were created for us.
    God is beyond them.

      • Right out of the box…now I’ll be thinking on this all day as it has been one paradox I have tried to get my head around most of my life, concluding as you have. 24 hour days may not be what we infer but ‘the result’ once Creation was in place.

        Ed B, a new twist I have not heard. Interesting.

        • I could delve into the “quantum foam” that makes up the universe if you’d like. Once you get down to Planck length (quantum level) science gets very strange and in its own odd way, intuitive, based on observation. DRJIM worked at Fermilab for a while, maybe he has more insight. According to Planck’s quantum theory, Different atoms and molecules can emit or absorb energy in discrete quantities only. The smallest amount of energy that can be emitted or absorbed in the form of electromagnetic radiation is known as “quantum”.

          • Yes, quanta are litlle “packets” of energy, with distinct, discrete levels.

            When things get down that small, our “Newtonian World View” no longer applies.

        • +1 on the initial phase of the universe, but time is an interesting concept to occupy the mind. I am still trying to get my head completely around “what is fire” so thinking about time should keep me pretty well occupied and pretty well out of trouble, for various definitions of trouble. LL, I will consider quantum foam to be beyond me for right now if you don’t mind.

          • If there is a point here, it’s that the universe is complicated and while some concepts such as E=MC2 can be grasped easily at a theoretical level and used at a practical level, getting your head around it in the cosmic sense is not easy. Not even for Einstein.

            Quantum science and particle physics is even more mind-bending, and because it’s not directly observable like an apple falling, it’s very counterintuitive. An especially counter-intuitive feature of quantum mechanics is that a single event can exist in a state of superposition — happening both here and there, or both today and tomorrow.

            I’m not delving, just explaining that when we try to understand God, and the universe, applying our own experiences do not necessarily equate to spacetime, to multiple dimensions, etc.

    • When you look at each day as an era, then it matches the Bible perfectly.

      The Big Bang (or whatever created the universe and the ensuing expansion of gasses and particles, Day 1.

      Formation of early stars and destruction of said stars and the creation of heavier and heavier elements.

      Creation of a ‘stable’ universe and formation of galaxies and star systems and eventually our system.

      Beginnings of life and all the wonderful diversity that followed.

      Man first walks. Then thinks. Then starts pondering.

      It’s all there. Each era gets shorter and shorter in time, logarithmically.

      And people who fail to acknowledge this, on both sides, are just plain stupid or ignorant or, worse, serving the Devil (personification of entropy.)

      Which makes God enthalpic. Creating order out of chaos. And there we go equating physics to philosophy. Which, fundamentally, are the same thing (just one uses math and the other feelings.)

  2. My son was fixated with time travel as the current comic book movies use and abuse the concept for fun and profit…
    I told him that time travel is quite possible, but there are rules:
    First and foremost is the fact that time travel into the past has/is/will have been proven impossible (except of course those wonderful trip down memory lane)
    Physical laws of this Universe is that you can NOT create energy or matter. Any Time travel into the past would require creation of the past and violate this boundary.
    But take heart young son, Time travel is possible for humans!
    You don’t need to spend all that effort on very expensive rockets to accelerate to fractions of light speed…
    We are all equipped with our own Time Travel force that propels us every day, (Whether we want to go or not) into the future at a blistering one second per second speed…
    I got a groan for that one…
    I did add that our time travel can be altered drastically by our environment though to an outside observer the time rate has not changed at all…
    (Sitting in a Dentist chair while having a root canal is an obvious method to slow the perceived time rate) I got a bigger groan from this one.

  4. The bar in Bogota? I noticed the cell phone use… people are people where ever you go and that device (along with the IT companies that made/exploit social media) has changed how people think.
    Dare I say we have a “brave new world”?

    • Bogota is a modern city and it’s a nice city. I’ll post up some of Randall’s (BANDMEETING) impressions later. It’s quite liveable. Colombian people are friendly for the most part and its violent reputation from 40 years ago doesn’t translate into the present. It’s no different than any large city in the hemisphere – has its own culture, it’s own vibe.

      • My first trip to Bogota was around 1980. I don’t remember the name of the hotel where I stayed but was told that it was destroyed by an explosion a week after I left. There was a very good restaurant over looking the city that was outstanding – the food and the view.

        • Between FARC and the narcos, there were a few bombs in that time frame. The per diem shot through the roof because of hazard pay. It stayed high after things calmed down and everyone wanted to go there to spike their 3 highest years for the purpose of retirement computation because per diem is factored in.

          It’s a wicked game sometimes

  5. I grew up in a cattle ranching family, that ate every beef cut and some of what’s considered offal (we drew the line at mtn. oysters, sweet bread, udder, and several other glands).
    Was in Buenos Aires with a Cuban co-worker and knowing the reputation of Argentine beef, for dinner we ordered a platter that had almost every cut of beef I knew and some I didn’t. I ate each offering on the platter, but when I got to the udder, one very small bite reminded me of eating foam insulation.
    If you’re ever in that situation and udder is served, my recommendation is to graciously avoid it and eat a familiar cut.
    Cletus

    • Way, way back in the day I helped brand cattle at the ranch of a friends father in law. After spending a whole day getting kicked and butted and what have you, steak and Rocky Mountain Oysters tasted pretty darn good.

  6. The Dem’s took a hi-revving vibrant economy, energy independence, and strong military, and wrecked all of them in short order. It’s like they automatically do the EXACT opposite of normal thinking. The Bum in Chief is further depleting the SPR saying it’s “the answer’. Run this out the line and it looks to me as if this is to cripple America’s ability to weather a global energy cabal.

    And the self-serving “visit’ to Florida after going FIRST to PR, explaining how he understands their pain because once he had to contend with a grease fire. This bum injecting himself into their tragedy as their savior. Pretty sure DeSantis doesn’t actually need anything from “him”…2 mill back in power after less than a week is only one example…FEMA and FJB would still be setting up their command center tents with private food services.

    What else does a person need to know going into Nov. 8th?

    Denzel movie ‘Deja’ Vu’ was a good twist on the space and time subject.

    A couple of neat places, how can one not be happy when sitting there enjoying a mojito?

    • Exactly. Get a corner table, tell the tall, pretty waitress to keep the mojitos coming as you people watch, and at the same time, devour a medium rare steak. There’s an upstairs restaurant in the Mexico City airport where I did the same thing, but the food isn’t as good.

    • Three days after – residents of one island had already put up a replacement bridge for the one taken out by the hurricane. With govt help it probably would have taken three months of paperwork before construction would get started.

  7. Total Sidebar: For the past 3-4 months I have heard constant PSA’s by some Grisham novel style law firm on bad water at Camp Lejeune for those based there between 1953-1987. Is this for real or another sleazy ambulance chaser?

    • I have no idea. Most US military bases are toxic superfund sites. I see the same lawyer on tv, banging on his tambourine.

      The dump at Baghram AFB in Afghanistan was another place where the US military threw every toxic thing, then burned it, and the fumes impacted the health of many servicemen and women who served there. When you’re in the military, you’re sort of a slave in that you go where they want and stay where they want you to. You’re indentured. So if here or there is not healthy, you can be ordered to remain there and you do.

        • Well, the real origin was China, as always with any long-term lingering plague.
          It got here from railcars used to transport illegal Chinese immigrants, who were dying by the railcar load, and said railcars then transporting recruits to that army base in Kansas. Which then spread to Europe and the Trenches from US soldiers, and also into the civilian population. What made it ‘Spanish’ is that Spain wasn’t involved and no civilians were being bombed, gassed, or otherwise killed by war things, yet huge numbers (statistically) of civilians were croaking off from some weird lung-flu thingy.

          Seriously. Find any, ANY, long-term, slow-build, killing pandemic and there’s very little chance it didn’t originate in Western China.

  8. Andres D.C. was great. Crazy busy. So busy they have a host station on the ground level as a first line and another once inside. I would recommend that those following ask for the wonderful Carolina for their waitress.

    If you don’t speak the language at all you can’t stumble on the nuanced pitfalls of it.

    I recommend the HAB Hotel Bogota. Great place for the money. Good restaurant too.

  9. Here I came for the grits and got a dose of quantum physics, an inside peek the Navy is stupider then our chief executive and the best places to enjoy ones “time” in Bogota and some cultural rules when there… You are truly a full service blog, where as I may have to emulate.

    • There is also a Thursday blog post up. Because it’s Thursday and only for that reason.

      The world is insane enough without adding Thursdays and Bandmeeting’s steak to the mix.

        • The hump is clearly the reason for the day.

          It’s THOR’s Day and if the legend is any measure, Thor loved nothing better than a good hump and a battle with ice giants.

          • Thor’s glances strayed onto a maid with hair as gold as grain.
            A lisp so shy, a downcast eye, and not a trace of brain.
            Her swept her charms into his arms and thence to an upstairs bower.
            And did not cease, nor give her ease, for six days and an hour.
            […]
            “Before I go, you should know: I’m Thor! he bade adieu.
            “You’re thore?” said she, “Conthider me! I’m thorer, thir, than you!”

            (from the poem by John Boardman)

            PS: apparently there is some dude called “Thong Thor” who works as a physician assistant in Wisconsin.
            Heh.

    • Bogota is way cool, my daughter and family were at the embassy their. We enjoyed ten days visiting . My grandaughter is the only person on the planet who can get me on a plane. Daughter said Of all her postings , Bogata was the city she could live in someday.

      • Americans in general have a negative view of Bogota and expect to be murdered on the street. But it’s a long way from San Francisco, New Orleans, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, etc.

        • Well, at one time Bogota was a very bad place for gringos to be.

          People don’t realize how much better Columbia is now than it was in the 80’s.

  10. One of the few things Hollywood got right is that Etta Place was actually a rather attractive woman. Her origins, as well as her ultimate fate, seem to be still a mystery. Some suggest that her name was actually Ethel Bishop and that rather than a schoolteacher, she was a prostitute in San Antonio, though I understand she did teach piano. While she did accompany Butch and Sundance to Argentina she did return and her fate is unknown.
    Photo of the three at the ranch in Argentina.
    https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/upload/c_crop,d_placeholder_euli9k,h_1440,w_2560,x_0,y_0/dpr_1.5/c_limit,w_792/fl_lossy,q_auto/190830-Symmes-Butch-Sundance-Kid-embed-6_cgc3hx

    The fates of Butch and Sundance is still cloaked mystery though best evidence seems to be that they did die in a shootout in Bolivia though not as spectacular as the one in the film.
    Rumors of a return of one or both are likely unfounded, though one who has been trotted out was William T. Phillips who died in Spokane in 1937. While Phillips did have something of a physical resemblance to Cassidy, according to his widow, he knew Butch but wasn’t Butch.
    William T. Phillips.
    https://thumb.spokesman.com/_G9QDErUpt45WuC3OVfcHFR8arc=/2500×0/media.spokesman.com/photos/2012/07/22/fea_22phillips-2b.jpg
    Robert Leroy Parker AKA Butch Cassidy.
    https://www.biography.com/.image/t_share/MTE5NDg0MDU0OTE2NDAwNjU1/butch-cassidy-9240908-1-402.jpg

    • There’s nothing that says she couldn’t have been a school teacher and at another time, a San Antonio prostitute. A woman, particularly a pretty one, which she was, with a head on her shoulders could disappear and reappear in the Old West with another name and legend without people connecting the dots. Women were in great demand in the Old West.

  11. “The Sundance Kid”, Harry Longabaugh and wife, Etta Place, shortly before leaving for South America in 1901.
    A great grandfather operated a toll bridge at Sunbeam, CO and a lodge. He was suspected of aiding outlaws including Butch Cassidy. A daughter, a great aunt, knew some of those outlaws. She told some of us in 2001 she saw Butch Cassidy in Vernal, UT in the 1920’s. Legends vs truth?

    Cousins still use metal detectors to search Irish Canyon where Cassidy and gang supposedly buried loot from a train robbery. Since none of them have ever displayed sudden affluence, the loot is still there, if it ever existed.

  12. By all of the established metrics, we’ve been in a recession for over two months. That’s the one thing politicians can’t lie their way out of….people vote on the economy, every time, all the time. 30 days and counting. All the signs point to a red tsunami, but as the saying goes….don’t get cocky.

  13. Here’s my take, and then I’ll go back and read the comments….

    Most people tend to get stuck in a Newtonian viewpoint of existence, where things are absolute. They’re most comfortable “If….Then” of Normal Every Day Life, and the nature of time as an absolute is firmly embedded in them.

    Start zooming around at .95c, and/or get near supermassive objects, and you’ll find things ain’t necessarily so.

    But these things are well outside of NEDL, and demand a different way of thinking, more along the lines of “WHAT If…..WHAT Then”, and many people have trouble even considering that their absolutes are variables.

    Oh, dear….Our beloved Navy is rotting from the head down. So sad to see. As I mentioned to WSF, “Maintenance Deferred Is Maintenance Denied”. WHY they were allowed to turn into poorly maintained rust buckets is another matter entirely.

    I generally made it a point to keep out of the local bars on my “Remote Assignments”.

  14. Paul M October 6, 2022 At 5:13 am
    Total Sidebar: For the past 3-4 months I have heard constant PSA’s by some Grisham novel style law firm on bad water at Camp Lejeune for those based there between 1953-1987. Is this for real or another sleazy ambulance chaser?

    Real deal.
    Killed my Marine brother about three months ago.
    He spent 18 months at Camp Lejeune in the early 70s.
    Multiple cancers and other issues. It took about four years to slowly kill him.
    The last four months were particularly bad.
    He went from 6′-3″ 190 pounds to a 93 pound skeleton.
    He was in a lot of pain the last four months.
    It was not a good death.
    The VA was not adequately helpful with pain management until the last two months and then he was in Hospice care.
    About four months before his death he got a doctor who knew about the water contamination at Camp Lejeune and things changed.
    His son-in-law and daughter, who were his caregivers, recieved a phone call from his VA doctor last week asking to speak to my brother…
    When informed that he had died the doctor told them that paperwork for the lawsuit had been filled out by my brother when he was hospitalized and that the doctor was submitting the paperwork that was required of him.
    I hope there is some financial compensation for them
    They spent many thousands of dollars out of pocket and countless hours with doctors and title companies, and setting up through the night, changing diapers,…it was ugly and he often became unpleasant. All they ever expected was a “…well done thou good and faithful servant.” in accordance to the commandment to “Honor thy mother and thy father…”.

  15. Oh boy, so sorry to hear that. Maybe why I am hearing so many ‘ads’ about it. I have a visceral reaction to lawsuit commercials, but as you say, it’s legit.

    Lost my father 28 years ago at age 57 from lung cancer, started smoking during his “required” stint while in the Marines. But it was more than just that, business stress was the extra ingredient to allow it to take hold from a lousy cold. I know what you went though, and it is the ugliest way to go. Dad would say, “Rather get hit in the a– by a bus, you don’t see it coming and it’s over quick.” Tough until the ‘too soon’ end…and we boys are still honoring his teachings and admonitions and discipline.

    • Initially, the VA diagnosed him with rheumatoid arthritis, but none of the meds helped.
      He was in a lot of pain and losing weight.
      When he relocated to his daughter’s home near Cheyenne and his new VA doctor found out he had been stationed at Camp Lejeune the doc said, “There aren’t too many of you guys still alive.”
      My brother had to be talked down from ending it a couple of times due to the pain.
      I was very surprised that the VA doc called several months after my brother’s last VA contact to talk to him re.
      filing the paperwork for a claim.
      I think the doc deserves an “atta boy” for his quick diagnosis and follow-up.

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