Stuff and Nonsense

1. David Douglas Duncan was a genuine stud and did in fact have huevos the size of basketballs.

   By the way, Tim Page has died, of liver cancer at 78. Apparently, there wasn’t a second airstrike in his future after all.

   • I don’t know how Duncan walked, but you know that those brass balls clanked. when he did.

     • Duncan did some photography tours in the USSR. Somehow wangled his way in.
       The picture that that stands out in memory was of a tray, filled with nail trimmers, small pocket knives, etc, held by a guard outside a provincial political meeting. The comment was how the communists did not trust their own people, and had to remove any “weapons” before they could enter.
       Very prescient. This of course was 20 years or more before any TSA theatre.

       • The TSA has perfected and elevated the theatrics to a high and most expensive art. Of course with taxpayers picking up the tab, is any price too high to pay?

2. “If students want to earn an education from the government they can enlist in the military and get the GI Bill.”
   Now they intend forgiveness to ANYONE that works FedGov.

   • That’s love right there. How does it go? Greater love hath no politician than this, that he transfer (meaning steal) money from the little proles – people like YOU and PaulM, Ed. – to the government without calling it a tax.

3. Wray COULD have been talking about what he’s been doing to the FBI, but I expect we’ll see flying pigs first.

   • Wray is a swamp dweller in the same stripe as Burns at CIA. Nobody will hold them to account for anything at present. Just like Fauci and Birx will skate for poisoning a generation with full knowledge – full malice afore thought.

4. Identify the Tank: appears to be an AMX-13 hull mounting an experimental turret fitted with SS.11 anti-tank missiles. I know I’ve seen this photo before but cannot remember where.

   • All it took was coffee! This is a Hotchkiss-Rive LFU (Light Fighting Unit) indeed mounting SS.11 missiles.

     • It’s a variant of the AMX-13. — the ELC EVEN 90, which could mount a lot of different weapons and you’re right. In this case they are SS-11 ATGs.

5. When the SL business came under Federal purvey, in partnership with Wall Street players, that was the end. I had a small loan for my tenure at Penn State, paid it off in short order…but saw college prices being raised excessively every year after, for no good reason…except that colleges got rich playing the gambit, and students got shafted.

   Now The “Aren’t We Merciful” Dem’s are attempting to buy votes with illegal unconstitutional loan forgiveness (aka stale loaves to the starving). To all who can “see”, it is clear the Father of Lies has them believing what they are doing and saying is “good and righteous”. I say: Keep going.

   FBI (and a few other 3 letter shops that have overstepped)- More exposure of the criminal activity will continue to paint them in a worsening light. Dem’s and some portion of the citizenry won’t care, but enough of us do. Funny how no 10 hour raids on actual scumbags and criminals – like the names in Epstein’s Black Book. The upper levels of the FBI are a pig stye that has gone unattended for decades…requiring heavy equipment and possibly a flame thrower to clear out and disinfect. The other player in their game (Judges, Magistrates, etc) will quickly fold then slink away afterwards.

   Market analysts and weatherman use the same foggy crystal ball, hardly ever right in predicting the future. Better predictor: Look at the Home Depot parking at at 7AM…that’s the indicator of what the market is doing. At least a sheet of 7/16″ OSB is down to $20, and slowly falling some more…another indicator.

   • Meat prices are dropping too.

     God of our fathers, known of old,
     Lord of our far-flung battle-line,
     Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
     Dominion over palm and pine—
     Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
     Lest we forget—lest we forget!

     The tumult and the shouting dies;
     The Captains and the Kings depart:
     Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
     An humble and a contrite heart.
     Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
     Lest we forget—lest we forget!

     Far-called, our navies melt away;
     On dune and headland sinks the fire:
     Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
     Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
     Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
     Lest we forget—lest we forget!

     If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
     Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
     Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
     Or lesser breeds without the Law—
     Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
     Lest we forget—lest we forget!

     For heathen heart that puts her trust
     In reeking tube and iron shard,
     All valiant dust that builds on dust,
     And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
     For frantic boast and foolish word—
     Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!

     • Had not read that Kipling in a long while. How is it these men were so prescient?

6. I was born in the late 50s. California is my home state and my folks were poor and I was the baby by 6 years. By the time I finished HS my parents had worked themselves out of being poor, but when I graduated they showed me the door. I worked my way through college where I met my wife. I became an Electrical Engineer and she was in Finance, but life was not easy for the first few years.

   We moved to the Silicon Valley where my wife was from and bought a house, had two sons. In 96 we ended up moving to the East Coast because my business moved me. Our sons graduated HS in the early 2000s but neither wanted to go to College. The went to different Trade Schools they paid for, and are making 6 figures, have houses, cars, and good bank accounts.

   This illegal idea by Biden to force College Loan costs on American tax payers is a way to get: 1) the Federal College Loans that are not being paid to be added to the American tax payer instead of going after the person not paying the loan, 2) the Federal College Loans continue and the defaults continue, 3) nowhere it has been mentioned what Congressional Bill covers this, 4) we will see colleges raise rates by $10k

   • the Federal College Loans that are not being paid to be added to the American tax payer instead of going after the person not paying the loan

     You wouldn’t want the government going after high propensity democrat donors and voters would you?

     There may be another angle. There was a big SNAFU at Sally Mae and a lot of data was lost regarding who owes student loans. A guy I know had $85K on the books and then it wasn’t there. This may have something to do with trying to lure people into asking about their accounts so that the debt can be restored to their books.

     • What??! You aren’t suggesting our government is coercing the unsuspecting with another scheme? Now why would they do thaaat?

       • As the US Army said to the tribes who were starving because the Army had all of the buffalo killed, “The Great White Father (in DC) loves his children.” You’ll love the reservation that he laid out for you to live on.

         • Seems they’re trying to repeat history, except they have forgotten we have weapons, the will to use them, and the ability to move about in petrol vehicles.

         • Is it illegal to line the front of your house with IEDs?
           I’m asking for a friend.

         • I do like that scene in Angel Has Fallen, Nick Nolte as Banning’s dad…he outlined his remote cabin property with explosives. Quite the deterrent.

           Legal or not (especially considering rules seem to be out the window), it looks like a good plan when the intruders decide you need to be a target.

     • Another function of the government taking over the student loan business from private hands during the Obama reign of Terror.
       We’re from the government and we’re here to help….

7. We were those idiots who scrimped and saved so our kids could get their educations without a huge debt hanging over them. My finances are just now recovering. This debt “forgiveness” really ticks me off. I didn’t mind paying for my own kids (useful)degrees, but I resent being put on the hook through my taxes for some other clown’s masters in left-handed polka dancing history.

   • X2

8. Dem’s are Naked & Afraid, except it’s not a reality show, just reality. They are not hiding a damn thing because no one will stop them. We see the Executive Branch blatantly operating illegally, fully against Constitutional powers. Crickets.

   2 months…seems like forever. A lot can happen by then. In the meantime the Federal Pig Stye is getting deeper and muckier.

   • Wait, aren’t the Republicans standing up to them? (more crickets)

     I scorn the elephants in the room.

9. P-38. Interesting, I did not know that. I have read about the “Droop Snoop” version used in the ETO. They flew from our air strips in France. The Droop Snoop had all the guns stripped out of the nose, to be replaced by a glass nose, Norden bomb sight, and a second crewman/bombardier. They would fly as lead ship for a squadron or so sized formation, the other ships being armed with their nose guns and all the bomb load they could carry. They would approach the target at low altitude, then pop up to bombing altitude (IIRC, around 5000 ft.) for the attack. Like their “big friends” higher up, all would drop with the leader.

   https://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/20117

   @ Paul M, OSB. Indeed. Inflation driving prices through the cloud deck, yet selected price drops and mark downs everywhere. Why? Nobody has any disposable income. Sales are in the tank. Food, fuel, power. Period. What’s the current number of households delinquent on their utility bills? Remember “It’s the economy, stupid”? Maybe, just maybe this student loan debacle will be the straw to break the camel’s back for the progs.

10. If only it were “underwater basket weaving” and other stupid but mostly harmless courses. What your money is really subsidizing is teaching hatred of the USA, of whites, of Christians, of heterosexuals, and of traditional values and the West in general.

    To be fair, many of those who are most responsible for the literal evil in modern academia [1] are not Christians, and refuse the label of “white” despite looking pretty damned white. But noticing that is a Hate Crime, so I’m sure I didn’t notice that.

    [1] example one of about five-fricking-million: The Frankfurt School was NOT full of Germans.

    Fascinating that President Zelenskyy (PBUH) says that Ukraine must be like a “big Israel”, the overt implication being that regular citizens should be trained and armed at all times in something of a Swiss model. Yet his counterparts in the US want us cattle all DISarmed. But that’s above my pay grade.

    • I applied to the Frankfurt School, but then I found out that the all-you-can-eat hot dogs were a lie.

      -Kle.

11. The US housing market
    My “part time” job is delivering dun notices to people behind on their mortgages. During the COVID time I would get 12 assignments a month. I’m now getting 12 a week.

    • It will get worse.

      • I turn down assignments in the Foothills. If I accepted them I could nearly double my work load. I am doing one today in Central City as a favor to my scheduler. Sort of, “Riding for the brand”. The lender is a major volume customer.

        You are correct about it getting worse. I suspect us old farts will look back at 2008 as a minor inconvenience.

        • I’m not familiar with the turf, so I can’t visualize it. But I’d think that you could find enough clusters in the lower threat environment to buy the baby a new pair of shoes, etc.

          Maybe your governor will open up his Cayman Island account to bring relief to struggling families. His virtue signals are impressive. Ok, not to the Harry and Meagan level, but impressive all the same.

          • Emperor Polis has presidential ambitions. The DNC is promoting him as a libertarian and independent. Gag!

            Visualize the Foothill residents as diluted White Wolf wannabes, or what my father meant when he said an environmentalist was the man who bought his five acres last year. Virtue signalers who built amidst fire prone Ponderosa forests served by 8-12% grade dirt roads. The areas usually vote Democrat. Average altitudes range from 6.000 ASL to 8,000 ASL.

          • Bring them a soy latte and a cream cheese danish as a peace offering before you serve them papers.

12. Regarding pirate ships, a good read is Born to Be Hanged by Keith Thomson, a good account of pirates and how they operated, in this case raiding Spanish settlements and ships. One hell of a hard life though.

    • Yes, it was a time of hard life for almost all people. Sitting in comfort with A/C and heat at the flip of a switch, a metal roof over my head, walk-in freezer, Wolf Stove, 2 4x4s, a Honda and a Ducati in the garage, i-pod, i-pad, i-phone – we have no idea. Even as a writer who has studied that time with some scrutiny, it’s difficult to fathom.

      My ancestors crossed the prairie before the coming of the Iron Horse and kept journals. The privation was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Very little medicine, bad water, scarce game, etc.

      I think that the pirates had it worse. The story I reference that I’m working on is based loosely on my actual ancestral family line (mother’s side) who were pirates/scavengers who lived in the Cape Hatteras area of North Carolina during that period. Admiralty records tell of some of them who were brought back and hung.

      • It’s good to be the king…of the WWM. (Also, good to be in association of the king)

      • And you live a life better than any of those pirates could imagine.

13. Beef prices are dropping because farmers can’t afford to feed their herds.
    All part of the demonrat play book.

    • Yes, it is. Alinsky’s Rules.

14. Great KV letter. Art philosophy of the right kind. I think I’ll pass that on to the boys.

15. Obama/Biden Admin: “Stop complaining, peasants and just buy a $60,000 EV and you get a $7500 tax credit! You’re welcome! And buy those Chinese made solar panels too and you get a tax credit! Ungrateful serfs. Don’t you realize this is all for the greater good!.”

    • and…anybody who can buy an EV can afford to make payments on their student loan.

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