New Post (like the old ones)

The Flying Dutchman?

Is Pedo Joe America’s Breshnev?

At the opening ceremony of the Moscow Olympics in 1980. Brezhnev rose to the stand to deliver his opening speech. He removed the written text from his pocket, unfolded it, cleared his throat, and started: “Oh…… oh……. oh…….”

One of his aides ran over to him and whispered: “Leonid Ilyich, skip that part, these are the Olympic rings!”

Brezhnev is viewed as an elderly man, who, as years went by, became more and more senile. He wasn’t seen as someone particularly well equipped for the job he held, and he was the subject of numerous jokes making fun of the way he read his speeches without giving them a thought, and his various other idiosyncrasies like shitting in the pool every time went swimming/wading.

“Spectators at Party congresses noted how Brezhnev seemed zonked out, almost unable to reach the podium from which he would speak. And when he did speak, his language was slurred and incomprehensible. It looked as if he would fall over at any moment.”

His ill-fated venture into Afghanistan cost the lives of many young men across the USSR.  His shortcomings eventually paved the way for the collapse of the Soviet Union. He rarely knew what he signed. His handlers put documents in front of him.

So, yeah, a lot like Pedo Joe. I’m sure that comparison gives Vladimir Vladimirovich a lot of insight.

   Bullet Points:

** The Bulgarian Gambit – RFE’s article about Russian sabotage/espionage operations inside Bulgaria is worth a read (h/t Claudio)

** The Manhattan DA canceled his planned arrest of President Trump when his final grand jury witness told the jurors that Bragg was hiding hundreds of pages of exculpatory evidence from them. Bragg is at risk of being charged with prosecutorial misconduct.

** ‘Bank of America, with no directive from the FBI, data mined its customer base,’ whistleblower George Hill told the House Judiciary Committee. How woke.

** China’s Paw at Work – (RFE) In a statement issued on March 10, Tehran and Riyadh pledged to reopen their embassies within two months and reactivate a security cooperation pact. The sides also confirmed their “respect for the sovereignty of states and noninterference in their internal affairs.”

The deal was brokered by China, a major buyer of Iranian and Saudi oil. Beijing is also one of the few allies of Iran’s clerical regime, which has come under mounting pressure from the West.

** Collecting Dead Russians – Yes, it’s clickbait – sort of, but, still interesting.

** (Fox News) The founder of a veteran-led emergency prevention organization accused the FBI Tuesday of falsely labeling him a facilitator of domestic terror, adding that his family has also been targeted over their association with his group.

Former U.S. Green Beret servicemember Mike Glover, who founded American Contingency to provide disaster relief and support, told Fox News that he feels betrayed by the country he spent nearly two decades protecting after a whistleblower complaint exposed by Rep. Jim Jordan, the current chair of the House Judiciary Committee, confirmed that his organization was targeted by the FBI and falsely designated a facilitator of domestic terror.

** Will the former Prince known as Harry be deported back to the UK? Harry’s star is fading faster than Pedo Joe Biden’s addled memory, and he has no one to blame but himself. The latest controversy involves whether the British royal should be deported amid speculation that he lied on his visa application concerning his admitted history of illicit drug use. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, is urging the Biden administration to release Harry’s visa application so American taxpayers can determine whether he was properly vetted before emigrating to California in 2020 with his shrewish wife Meghan, former Duchess of Sussex.

** The Pulitzer Prize –  The way the Pulitzer Prizes work seems simple enough – an Ivy league university hands out annual awards that ostensibly recognize important journalism. In practice, however, my former colleague Phil Terzian, a Pulitzer finalist who has served on the nominating committee, described the inner workings of the Pulitzers this way:

The Pulitzer Prizes are a singularly corrupt institution, administered by Columbia University and the management of the New York Times largely for the benefit of the New York Times and a limited number of favored publications and personalities. Any citizen who thinks that the annual distribution of awards has something to do with quality probably believes that the Oscar for Best Picture goes to the most distinguished film of the year. If you’re a connoisseur of unrestrained self-praise, may I recommend the citations when the Times awards itself the Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service.

While the Pulitzer Prizes have always been little more than self-dealing masquerading as a journalistic beauty pageant, it was a lot easier to believe in this manufactured prestige back when journalism was at least slightly more competent and concerned with the appearance of objectivity.

** “I don’t think you should send your kids to any universities.  [I told] my daughter, ‘Don’t go to college.  Become an electrician.  I never would have imagined 10 years ago that I would [say] that. … It’s better to stare at a wall … [or] do nothing than to learn things that are false.  — Peter Boghossian, former Philosophy Professor Portland State University, Feb. 28, 2023″ – More at American Thinker

** (Ramirez) Stanford Law School associate dean, Tirien Steinbach and a large number of their Law Students apparently believe diversity, equity, and inclusion only apply to narrow views they agree with. This intolerance of free speech on a campus that supposedly promotes intellectual debate is a national embarrassment.

The Map

Indicates tracks from Dutch cell phones and shows you which roads they use during holiday periods. The metadata is available “in the air” in the same way Google tracks android phones for traffic patterns that you see on your nav.  Put your cell phone/pad/notebook computer into a Faraday Cage/bag (available from retailers) when you’re not using it if you don’t want to be tracked.

Identify the Tank

Yes, it dropped into an impact crater and the crew abandoned it.