*********
Tankers
After vanishing from view, two US-seized Venezuela oil tankers reappear near Puerto Rico.
Bullet Points:
** Now hundreds of alleged non-existing “non-emergency medical transportation” companies run by Somalis are being paid $ millions by the government in Minnesota to transport non-existing patients. Looking forward to the feds investigating this. (Obviously, Minnesota authorities cannot be trusted to investigate this.) You won’t see it on any MSM outlets, because of their bias, just like they have stonewalled the Minnesota-Somali Covid aid fraud (estimated at $2 billion loss and rising with dozens of Somalis convicted of running fraudulent non-functioning programs) or the recently discovered Somali Minneapolis fraud scheme involving numerous supposed child daycare centers paid for by taxpayer funds that don’t seem to have any kids in them at all. Almost all the losses were of federal funds sent to Minnesota for social welfare programs. Expect to see federal prosecutions in these matters now that (and as long as) the Dems don’t control the DOJ in Washington. Minnesota authorities sat on their hands in the COVID aid scandal, even though facts have come to light that the state government had been made aware of the fraud at the time and did nothing about it.
**Don Troiani, Historical Artist. Here is a detail from “First Minnesota”. Here, the men of the gallant 1st Minnesota are just before making their sacrificial charge at Gettysburg to save the crumbling Union lines. They had 215 casualties out of 262 men involved. General Hancock is in the background. The print on this sold out, so if interested, check the secondary market.
** “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” -Mark Twain
** Are women’s sports anything more than a back-up plan for mediocre male athletes?
** After more than two decades of American military presence in western Iraq, US forces have officially completed their withdrawal from Al Asad Air Base. Iraqi forces now have full control of the sprawling installation in Anbar Province. The handover follows an agreement reached in September 2024 between Washington and Baghdad to wind down the US-led coalition that had served as a bulwark against ISIS. While the original timeline called for a complete pullout by September 2025, a contingent of roughly 250-350 advisers remained through January due to security concerns following the fall of the Assad regime in neighboring Syria.
** Filet-o-Fish review? I agree.
** (CDRSAL) While some of the—mostly—Western European allies are more interested in drama or reliving their anti-American tendencies from their youth, Poland is a serious nation and a serious leader in Central Europe. They are not playing around.
** If you win the lottery…We’ll know about it.
** Is Russia more than a gas station eleven time zones long, with nuclear weapons?
** Is it impossible?
** People, people, people, especially you folks on the left! Please, for the love of any God you believe in, take a step back. Reflect on Becca Good, in the aftermath of Renee’s shooting, screaming at the ICE officers, “Why do you have real bullets?” Well, Becca, it’s because they’re real cops, doing real cop shit. If you didn’t like that, you are straight-up gonna hate Active-Duty Soldiers!
** Thousands of Canadians in Alberta lined up to sign a petition to declare their independence from Canada. This comes after their Prime Minister aligned them with China and the “New World Order.”
** Tracked story about Kurdistan. This is something to pay attention to.
** Is country living for you?
** An on-stage interview with Newsom at the World Economic Forum was abruptly canceled just hours after he was seen smiling as President Trump called him out in a speech to world leaders that Newsom later called “remarkably boring” and “remarkably insignificant.” He’s unhappy because President Trump de-nutted him on the world stage. FAFO. I don’t know that he wasn’t a eunuch going into this, but he certainly is now. Sec. Bessent: “Very, very ironic that Governor Newsom, who strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken, may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris.”
** The Stork is headed for the US Naval Observatory (Washington Navy Yard). The vice president and second lady announced in a joint statement that they are expecting their fourth child.
“We’re very excited to share the news that Usha is pregnant with our fourth child, a boy. Usha and the baby are doing well, and we are all looking forward to welcoming him in late July.
“During this exciting and hectic time, we are particularly grateful for the military doctors who take excellent care of our family and for the staff members who do so much to ensure that we can serve the country while enjoying a wonderful life with our children.”
***
The Golden Dome
This is one of the reasons both Alaska and GREENLAND are vital to North American missile defense. Think of each as a twin bastion, warding our northern defenses.
An attack over the Arctic Circle is how Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles would be launched. To hit Washington, in particular, most have to pass over Greenland… Where Trump wants to put on the leg of his “Golden Dome” missile defense system (Alaska, the other northern bastion, will be home to the other half).
Mig 2000?
The MiG-2000 was a myth created by General Dynamics in the 1980s to encourage the United States to focus on developing the next-generation fighter (ATF). Beltway Bandits – are bandits and have never avoided disinformation if it lands them another few billion for R & D.
In Gaza
Israel’s Security Cabinet rejected a US request to open the Rafah Crossing amid mounting pressure from Washington over Gaza’s future leadership.
• Israel says Turkey and Qatar were not part of the original understanding
• Rafah remains a key lever tied to hostage returns
• Benjamin Netanyahu: Hamas will be disarmed, and Gaza demilitarized, one way or another
Sheriffs in America
County sheriffs are elected primarily to ensure direct accountability to the public, to act as a check against other county officials, and to maintain autonomy in law enforcement, rooted in the historical English tradition in which the “shire-reeve” was answerable to the people, not just the crown. This system ensures the sheriff, as the county’s chief law enforcement officer, answers directly to voters, not county boards, about priorities and policy, providing a layer of independence for enforcing laws and managing the jail, courts, and unincorporated areas. They tend to reflect the voters in their respective counties, which may not allign to state politics.
Washington State Democrats Move to Decertify and Remove Elected Sheriffs
A massive confrontation unfolded in Olympia on Thursday, January 15, 2026, as Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank and several other sheriffs delivered blistering testimony against Senate Bill 5974. The controversial legislation, heard before the Senate Law and Justice Committee, would grant an unelected state commission the power to “decertify” and effectively remove constitutionally elected sheriffs from office.
SB 5974 would allow the Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC)—an unelected board appointed by the Governor—to strip a sheriff of their law enforcement credentials. Under the proposed law, this decertification would automatically create a “vacancy,” allowing the state to bypass the voters who elected the sheriff in the first place.
Sheriff Keith Swank Unfiltered: Sheriff Swank did not hold back, calling the bill a direct attempt to silence officials who speak “the truth” or dissent from the state’s political direction. He challenged legislators to subject themselves to the same “background checks, polygraphs, and psychological tests” they are demanding for sheriffs, accusing them of having “convicted felons” in their own ranks.
Sheriff: Some of my colleagues naively believe that they can come here and reason with you. They don’t understand what’s at stake here. They don’t understand you as I do. You’re going to pass this law-enforcement qualification bill, but you won’t hold yourselves accountable. Therefore, I propose everyone who runs for elected office go through a background check, a social media review, a polygraph, a psychological test. But Democrats, you won’t agree to that because you have convicted felons who are elected officials here.
I represent almost a million people, more than all of you combined here. Many more people. I wasn’t an elected chief of police. Being Sheriff of Pierce County is much more than police work. Citizens reach out to me all the time about your government’s overreach. Some say they finally have a voice because of me, and you want to silence it because I said transgender women are men. I said the truth. You want to give unelected bureaucracy the ability to decertify me and remove me from office because you don’t agree with my speech.
Just for the record, my deputies don’t wear masks, but once you pass a law that prevents them from doing so, I will not only allow them, but I will encourage them to do so just to see what you do. I don’t recognize your authority to impose these controls over me, and when you try to remove me from office, thousands of Pierce County residents will surround the Pierce County Courthouse in downtown Tacoma and will not allow that to happen. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but we’re both prepared. Are you prepared? Finally, anyone who votes for this will never have an audience with this sheriff.”
Identify the Light Armor/MRAPs
1
2
3
4
Parting Shot
End
(1) IDK, but looks South African.
(2) RG-31 Nyala
(3) Oshkosh M-ATV.
(4) M1117 Guardian ASV, son of the V-150 Commando.
– Kle.
Very good, Kle.
1 – Force Protection Buffalo
2 – BAE Systems RG-31 Nyala
3 – Oshkosh M1240 M-ATV
4 – Textron Marine & Land Systems M1117 Guardian ASV
Excellent
“Sparkle Beach Ken” – comedy gold! If for no other reason, the Trump Administration has brought significant relief to America with their epic comedic astuteness.
Apologies for the double post but Sparkle Beach Ken can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/Geek-Dweeb-or-Spazz
Guessing there will be a hilarious run on SBK dolls, let alone the onslaught of hilarious memes. How can Newsom survive, save for an overactive hubris that gives him the appearance of thick skin?
I don’t think that Newsom sees himself as an American clown on the same order as Mad Maxine Waters and the LA City Mayor whose name escapes me at the moment – the ugly troll, and London Breed, the SF City Mayor. Odd how all four come from California.
‘Bass’…c’mon man, say her name! 🤣
Definitely a LARGE Mouth Bass……
Heh.
Love the comment. Wish I wasn’t sipping coffee when reading it.
Sheriff Swank: Going scorched earth, love it. Problem is among the Demented Class – who believe every inane idea that pops into their brains is genius – that this reality bites gauntlet by the honorable sheriff will only egg them on. So who’s going to stop the political class criminal overreach? Clearly not voters with ‘COEXIST’ and ‘Bernie’ stickers on their Subarus….then scream bloody murder when no one answers 911, completely clueless as to why. At least voters in Alberta are trying.
***
Fraud: Minnesota is about ready to feel the hot probe, can’t ignore it anymore.
***
PDJT/NATO/DAVOS- Reorganizing the entire globe without firing a shot. More Of This Please! (Ps. Why exactly was Hairgel there? What a maroon…just showed the world his irrelevancy.)
Washington State seems hopelessly lost at the state level. There are pockets of sanity as reflected by Sheriff Swank, and I wonder if they can claw back a semblance of rationality. The same is true with California, and despite the current political leadership, there are quite a few pockets of sanity once you get below the state level.
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Having inbred Somalis running around everywhere must be disturbing to the real people in Minnesota. Again, the tipping point. It’s like the UK, which is lost.
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Newsom the clown was in Davos to demonstrate his political relevance to the New World Order and the President. Trump pulled his pants down- again. He said being in the room with Pres. Trump was like being in a room with a T. rex. I don’t think that he meant it as a compliment, but it came out that way. He met with the new Soros (whose name spelled backwards is still Soros), who comes across as an idiot, but a rich one. Old man Nazi Soros should have made the heir go out and work to earn his chops in the Darwinian sea of life. Maybe then he could have become a worthy heir, communist or not.
“Sparkle Beach Ken” was an epic takedown of a teue putz who has no idea he’s a putz (or maybe he does)…Bessent is a velvet sledgehammer.
Better still, PDJT: “You’d all be speaking German or Japanese if it weren’t for us.” That set ‘em back in their seats. But Truman and Eisenhower did the same, told the allies ‘we’re out’, and they folded. Not new, but the era Trump is running in, as the elites have advanced their stranglehold on the world arena, is very different…so he played tough, and won them over with simple but strong words.
There is some hope being realized, maybe how many residents in states overrun by Dem held cities, hoping for a chance to rebalance and take a sigh of relief from the idiocy; from the Citadel CEO speaking to the WEF suits, in a smaller room so there was no misunderstanding who they were dealing with in Trump (a year ago 80% of Americans felt this same way): https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTyHyj-DbQ_/?igsh=MWRhMTdndDJqcDI5bQ==
T. Rex? Geeez…..PDJT is GODZILLZA!
First, that last one. Perfect. Definitely send ‘immigrants’ to Greenland. After all, isn’t that what Russia did to eastern Ukraine? Isn’t that what Obama and Biden did to the US? But it will be wrong if conservatives do it, right?
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I remember when the filet-o-fish was at least relatively tasty. Then again I remember when Big Macs were big and relatively tasty. Dang, I’m old.
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Good on Poland pushing dual use for civilian airfields. In the United States, anywhere you have a ‘V’ or ‘triangle – 3 strip’ airport it’s due to the military buildup before and during WWII. All along the Eastern Seaboard, about 30 miles apart at the most, are heavy airfields, often abandoned or covered up or removed but many are still active. Our military should have use access to any field it needs, as long as they pay for damages, of course.
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As to Lotto winners, yeah, well… either that or a meth lab.
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As to Iran, sigh. Nothing good will come of this for a while. The nation needs a strong man to take charge but strong men have been a problem there. Don’t know if the current Shah-in-Exile is the man for the job. LL would have better insights into that as he seems to have feelers everywhere.
I like fish. I like fish sandwiches. I used to eat the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish and liked the Jack in the Box fishwiches even more. But today, no. And they are going for almost $6 in some areas, which is absurd.
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I work with the Iraqi Kurds professionally, and they’re up to their elbows with the Iran situation. I like the Kurdish people. They have a good sense of humor, and you just like people who are that way. They’re also fierce when they need to be – modern Assyrians. Same bloodlines, different names. The ten million Iranian Kurds have risen and are a problem for the Beards and the IRGC. They will bring military pressure internally. I don’t think the Baby Shah is the answer. Not all of the Internet in Tehran has been shut down. I was chatting with someone there two days ago, and they saw things much the same way we do outside of Iran. They need a transition leader (possibly a rich bazarri) who can come in and be a Cincinattus/George Washington and set things on the right track. That person has not yet emerged. Likely, they will need to come from the Army (as opposed to the IRGC). Maybe from the Kurds, but that would be an outside shot, because the Kurds are not Persians, and they need a Persian for the bulk of the country to identify with.
The FoF used to be the Catholic Lenten Friday fare, was good, now I doubt whether there’s actual fish in it…last one I had tased weird. Except for the better alternative shops we don’t partake in Mickey-D’s and most fastfood outfits anymore, never sits well. It’s what happens when lawyers and accountants and young MBA grads, who care little about a business legacy, get their mitts on the place, they ruin it. Look at Schwan’s…gone to the highest bidder (China). Same goes with ranches when after 100 years it is sold off for cash by the kids.
I didn’t know that Schwan’s was sold to China. I stopped buying from their successor company. Figures.
The larger restaurant food division was sold to China moons ago after ‘the kids’ took over (never knew that existed). When speaking with our prior Schwan’s guy when the home delivery division name was changing to ‘Yellow’ (goofy) due to ‘Schwan’s’ being sold (copyright et al…again, lawyers), then a year later decided to close the home delivery division except for a few more local mid-states (as I last checked…might be completely gone by now). It was convenient for us rural dwellers but we’re okay with it now (adapt or die), Costco’s Kirkland brand ice cream is an excellent substitute, and that’s what’s important.
> [fillet o fish] last one I had tasted weird
You bought food from a clown and now you’re complaining that it tasted funny?!!
What did you expect? Sheesh. Some people would complain if you hanged them with a new rope!
/tish-boom
Hahahah…good point.
Rope: Depends on the situation, if you believe escaping the hanging is in the cards (Jack Sparrow sword dance) then a new rope is good since it might stretch a bit, whereas old ropes – like barbed wire – have the stretch removed from use so one’s demise is inevitable, might as well go with it at that point.
Identify the Light Armor/MRAPs:
1. Buffalo
2. RG-31 Nyala
3. Oshkosh M-ATV
4. M1117 armored security vehicle
You nailed them, Surly.
“If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” -Mark Twain
I take umbrage with that. Men have died for that vote. And it has made a difference.
Thus Trump.
We’re clinging to the Republic with our fingernails, Ed. The Trump election was a close one given the opposition ran a stupid former whore against him. Imagine if the opposition ran somebody with an ounce of charisma who could put two words together. We’d be in another civil war now.
PS – If we go back to paper ballots, hand counted, verified voters who vote ON ELECTION DAY, then yes, it will definitely make a difference.
Despite all the a.i. and tech available I sure hope we see that simple solution achieved. Not as simple, a split electoral like Nebraska has, could it help states like OR, WA, ect ect…where the Metro outvotes the rural?
The best thing about AI is that it’s the final straw that is pushing a lot of people to fall out of love with tech and its illusory promise of a shiny cyber-future.
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I know multiple teachers, from private school to university professors, who are actively moving toward requiring hand-written essays in composition books – in some cases, the test is said essays under a timer with a proctor. And yes, they are marking it wrong if the handwriting is not legible, much less the thoughts disorganized.
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If it moves us away from electronic voting, so much the better for society as a whole.
Keep talking like that and mayes will send the maricopa cops to arrest you, just saying.
I live on the Rim. They’re welcome here.
Like this LL?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z9aTsS3010
That’s called ‘preparation’.
I hear banjo music, Mr. Revenuer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFutge4xn3w
Sorry, hard to hear ya over that fiddle, and the gal singing about Rocky Top, Mr. Revenuer…
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Try the next holler o’er. You know, the one down Copperhead Road.
When you hear the banjo music, it might be time to leave.
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During the last US Census, there was significant pushback in some of the more cantankerous areas of the Arizona mountains. I can’t speak for anywhere else. I found it somewhat amusing speaking with one particular lady who took the federal job as a census taker for a little extra cash. She has lived on “the mountain,” as the locals call the place where I live, for the past 20 years. I told her that for that fact only, she ought to have known better. Nobody was violent, but they were most recalcitrant when it came to barfing up the details of their lives to a distant government they mistrust.
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The Great White Father (in this case, Pedo Joe) and the Ho, along with their coterie of misfits and freaks, didn’t inspire much confidence.
“paper ballots, hand counted”, just eliminated by Spamberger in Va.
Marxist playbook in action. Just to ‘poke the dog’ (as it were) PDJT should move Maduro to the Gov’s Mansion, isn’t he one of her hero’s?
Maybe Delta Force needs to abduct her.
I very enjoyed your last response Miss Dorothy!
Laudible references those are.
Tip of the hat to you.
Juan
Two aspects to ‘running a decent Dem candidate’: 1) Dems have no one remotely decent because they’ve morphed into a big pile of excrement…no matter how you dress one up or pick from the top of the pile, it’s still excrement, and 2) Some portion of lifelong Dem voters have actually woken up to the reality of #1 and voted for PDJT…except, of course, the eternally brainwashed people like Dr. Verma and her ilk. When Sen. Fetterman, a stroke survivor and from whence he came, speaks more rationally than 95% of his group, that’s a pretty low denominator.
Senator Fetterman (D-PA) has become the shining star of the Democrat Party – and it irks them. I kind of like the guy now.
We only got to see him at a health low point, which was weird to say the least. Yet he’s not a rabid Dem loon, just different belief structure like an old style Dem. Betting one could actually sit down over a beer with him and have a decent chat.
👌
SCOTUS just upset the some of the voting problems like we’ve seen here in AZ.
https://youtu.be/JQTSlXvpG8s?si=2ePsrnqYfoi4tR_T
In a 7–2 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that candidates DO have standing to challenge elections where ballots are counted after Election Day.
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Same day, paper ballots (auditable), with ID, and I’m ok with a fingerprint. No “bundling” – free and fair elections.
Gore could have led the U.S. down a 8 lane freeway to a global green climate craze and totalitarian control.
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Seeing the shadow debate between Gavin and DeSantis I was concerned. Someone had in mind that the courtesan in Barry’s pocket was a better choice. Perhaps Providence?
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Saving Our Republic is still an open battlefield. Twain was and is not alone. The temptations to despair still abound. All but a few of the actors and Beltway Pharisee’s that self deported are still here. There’s no better way to die than just keep trying to get my own boots on a do whatever good today is possible in my little corner of the world.
Anbar Airbase; The conspiritorial crowd cried that Bush Jr was just after the oil. What did Halliburton and Cheneytonian corp$ end up with 2 decades later? Apparently there were other bulwarks preventing the twelvers from sending boots across Iraq and driving Isreali’s into the sea. Is the US navy and other Air Force bases sufficiently situated and staffed to keep the peace? ISIS, Hezbolla, and Houti proxies nearly nuetralized for now? Seeing Soleimani go down must’ve been a consolation for all the boots that served our country and tried to bring democracy to the Iraqi trinity of Suni’s, Shiites, and Kurds. H/T for a glimpse of the Kurdish culture.
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Like Eastern Washington and the Sierra communities of Cali, a body can meet and work with some down to earth folks out there. My points of reference are 30 yrs ago. Does that label me outdated?
Given that I have firsthand knowledge of Iraq today, they WANT A BIG US PRESENCE, despite what the mainstream media reports. This is from the mouth of PM Sudani to me, so there is no intervening bullshit. It’s the US and internal squabbling to give a preference to the Kurds that mires the gears. It’s complicated. Iraq would be happy to see 50,000 US troops on the ground. Yes, they’re Shiites – not all twelvers, but the US means stability. They don’t want soldiers on the city streets, but they don’t need to be. They don’t want Chinese or Russians. They have a history with the Brits but the UK is circling the drain. The only game in town is the USA.
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The Kurds are a different issue entirely. And they’re earning their bones in Iran.
MRAPS … hot, cold, noisy, uncomfortable. But better than walking with 130 pounds of kit.
*
Washington State Sheriff chaos is amazing. A bill to remove an elected official via an unelected committee. I don’t have words but obviously it’s wrong.
*
Kurds. If ever a group needed us to just help them, and stay consistent with that help it would be them. Plus they have some amazing good food.
*
Poland … small town motel … thermostat for the room was in … degrees Kelvin. Reused some WWII era industrial stuff to save a dollar. But it worked. So yes, they are a serious people and like the Kurds both want and need long term consistent help from us. Plus they too have some amazing good food.
Why walk when you can ride in an air-conditioned ride?
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I like Middle Eastern food.
When my son’s tank unit was stationed in the Middle East he used to joke about the local’s air-conditioned armored vehicles seen there.
“Degrees Kelvin”… now THAT’S funny.
I watched DJT Davos speech last night. Wow. It’s like he went into the audience, grabbed every jackass by the throat and bitch-slapped them. Made my week.
Especially because Kelvin are absolute (IS absolute? halp — how “to verb” this??) and not in “degrees”.
You are correct Mike_C… it’s just Kelvin. Best part was this was pre internet, pre cell phone days, pre laptop era trying to remember the conversion to F to figure out how to set it … as it was cold in the room and was set to off. Plus since my Polish is very poor getting help at the front desk was not a straight forward solution.
President Trump took over Greenland without firing a shot or deploying one troop. What a guy! And pussy pants Newscum shows up with kneepads.
Sixty years ago, after a college semester while job hunting, I landed a job in a frozen seafood processor making McDonald’s fish patties. They were cod. First night I unboxed 5600 pounds packed in 50 pound cardboard boxes that contained four 16 1/2 waxed boxes each for $2.10 an hour. Two weeks later I was back at my old job in a sand & gravel plant.
Not to overstep your LL book promos, but Sheriff Richard Mack’s County Sheriff America’s Last Hope is a great read. Having lived in six Arizona counties and knowing those sheriffs and also here in Idaho, these are some great Constitution loving and standup guys.
Good for Sheriff Swank.
>“background checks, polygraphs, and psychological tests” they are demanding for sheriffs
Of course we are heading down this road to hell. Egregious misuse/misdiagnosis of “psychiatric problems” was a cornerstone of the soviet system for quashing dissent. And we have vicious and/or stupid people here who want to use the same playbook. On the non-stupid end, I’m sure some are literally kin to those who were at the high levels of the soviet “mental health” system. “If it worked before, it’ll work again.”
—
Apart from the deliberate evil of the political motivations, the other problem is the known higher prevalence of mental instability among those who go into Psychiatry or Psychology as a profession [1]. And on the academic side (relevant because these are the ones who are tapped to advise the government, not some guy in private practice) there is the added problem of high prevalence of leftism/progressivism among ALL medical people, but especially those in the crazy and/or social sciences trade. What is normal to normal sheriff types (or the typical reader of this mind blog, for that matter) is horrifying pathological to lots of academic headshrinkers.
[1] The running joke, which is too often not a joke, is that people go into Psych because they’re nuts and trying to get insight into themselves [2]. This is in contrast to, say cardiology, where we’re widely acknowledged (especially by us, with pride) to be assholes (#blush).
[2] It’s true Freud had some great insights. But I’m convinced that some of his stuff speaks about the dark and twisted mess that was in Freud’s own psyche, and is not reflective of the human condition overall.
== == ==
> paid $ millions by the government in Minnesota to transport non-existing patients
There’s also egregious abuse by those transporting existing patients. I saw my friend and colleague giving a stern lecture to an old couple in the hallway of the outpatient clinics, complete with forceful hand gestures and all that. Afterwards I asked him what that was about. “They wanted me to write them an ambulance voucher. Again.” I was confused. “We give them free taxi/Uber vouchers. Why an ambulance? Both of them were walking fine.” My friend sighed and spoke to me with exaggerated patience. “Okay, so the taxi takes you door to door. As in the front door of your apartment building if you live in an apartment. BUT, the ambulance people will put you on a stretcher, bring you up the elevator and into your apartment.”
“Huh? They were walking fine. They can’t climb stairs is why?”
“No, their building has an elevator. I asked. But yeah, that’s why I’m so angry about it. I tell them they are wasting other people’s money, and they say to me ‘America is rich. You can afford it. Besides, we had hard lives back home, now it’s our turn’. It’d be one thing if it was just this couple, but many of them do it. The other doctors are afraid to tell them no, so they just sign the ambulance voucher. But they can’t pull that stuff on me. For one thing, pretending to not speak English obviously doesn’t work on me because my first language is also Russian.” He mused a few seconds and continued, “I have at least one of these fights each day I have outpatient clinic. When you consider it’s a minimum of $300 per trip, each way … I am really sick of this. Anyway, it’s not exactly about having to take the elevator, it’s about prestige so you can tell your friends that you were treated like royalty.”
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That was in a (very) nice Boston suburb. On the other hand, I had a patient readmitted to the VA hospital (in Midwest city) because the ambulance dropped him off on the sidewalk in front of his little house. So the patient was morbidly obese and had injured his knee. The guy was unable to climb the three steps to the front door of his own house, so he sat on the bottom step all night and the next day a neighbor found him in distress, and EMS had to bring him to hospital for exposure and dehydration. At least it was September and not, say, winter. Sigh. There is so much abuse, and stupidity, in our “medical system”. (No, this was NOT typical, so far as I know. But it should not have happened AT ALL.)
Last Saturday I had to move my FIL from his Senior Living Apartment to an assisted living facility.
Needed a wheelchair van.
First place I called was $450.
The second was $105.
The lady who answered the phone at the second place sounded like Ilhan Omar (Ann Arbor).
The driver was from Turkmenistan. Courteous, good driver, well spoken.
I watched my credit card statement for days :)
I’m surprised that they didn’t want cash.
The business might be ‘subsidized’. (Hmm…scratches chin)
Greenland. So I read this comment elsewhere, and while I don’t endorse it, it did make me laugh out loud with its nihilistic bitterness and casual anti-Inuitism.
Quote:
[I don’t care one way or the other, but] I am in support of anything that discomfits the europoors, especially those sententious pug-nosed mutts on Greenland that we now have to look at. Are there uglier specimens anywhere? You know they’d just move to the US, and within five years you’d have a clutch of blubbery vagina-bearing “Research Fellows” at Yale or whatever pontificating on “Europe, Native Bodies, Colonial Memory: The Greenlandic Diaspora under The Imperial Gaze.”
—
Bwahaha. Whoever this person is, he’s familiar with “higher ed” in the Social Sciences. (no, it was NOT me)
😂
You have a cousin you’ve been tutoring on the fine art of irrefutable acerbic commenting? Sounds like you (a compliment).
Thank you. I’m proud of the bastard whose keyboard dripped those venomous antiinuitisms, whoever he is. But that venomous bastard is smarter than me: I had to look up “sententious”. /hangsheadinshame
Your Native American/Indian name is now Man-Afraid-of-His-Keyboard. I don’t make this up, but sometimes I learn of these things.
>the United States is preparing to send astronauts beyond low Earth orbit again
Are there any ex-police in the astronaut corps? We could brand it “LEOs above LEO”.
Sorry.
In related news, let’s send Mark Kelly above LEO. He could do the first manned Saturn flyby, for example. For values of “manned”.
But, how would he get back?
.
Oh. :)
Mark Kelly could be the first astronaut to land on the Sun.
PPV, especially now with the ability for Go-Pro to film dang near anyone’s Darwin Award Winning trajectory.
“In Gaza”
In my peregrine perusals of the Palestinian predicament (Palimbacchius, indeed! I prefer my meter), I’ve noted that the Egyptians, as well, aren’t particularly happy with the idea of opening the Rafah Crossing.
It doesn’t matter if Israel opens the Rafah Crossing. The Egyptians won’t allow any of the Gazans entry into Egypt, and they’ll shoot.
I think that’s the case. The Egyptians have very little tolerance for Palestinians, who they refer to as ‘human lice’. And at this point the opinion holds throughout the Middle East. Only when you get to the US does the problem change to one of “riot for the Palestinians”. Or save the Somalis, who have an even worse reputation (as if anyone thought that would be possible).
To paraphrase Gaston G-lock’s comment about his pistols and the soldiers they were intended to arm whilst transliterating it to describe McDonald’s alleged fish sammich: “Plastic throwaway sandwiches for plastic throwaway consumers.”
MWRAP? I want one.
https://youtu.be/aP8Rbct_50Y?si=Gh_3KS3sDS1ilPiQ
I like the Filet when it’s fresh, and the ingredients are in the right proportions,
and it’s Lent, so they are BOGO. Popeyes is the best fast food fish sandwich
we can get out here though, with Wendy’s a close second.
*
In R.I. the State runs some of those non-emergency medical transport operations,
and we had one of the drivers get arrested a few years back. Illegal Alien. Drunk
and high while driving. Spoke no English. Never held a valid driver’s license.
Criminal record. Honestly, I’m a lot happier with the fake Somali operations that never
transport the elderly. Every time I see a minivan operating with reckless insanity in
Metro Providence, it’s one of these guys my tax dollar is paying to traumatize elderly
people with no money…
– Kle.
– Kle.