What about Iowa?

63 thoughts on “What about Iowa?”

1. Identify the SPA & Armor:
   1. Hummel
   2. Charioteer
   3. Ram
   4. M48

   1. Ok, I have to make this more challenging.

      1. Darn, he beat me to it.

      2. See NFO’s post today. AI assisted binoculars to identify the target.
         I wonder why that came to mind…

         1. We could have used that a LONG time ago… just sayin…

2. Some years back I stopped at the Horseshoe Cafe in Benson, AZ and had their Horseshoe burger… it had cream cheese and jalapeños. Man it was good and messy!
   I’ll stop in the next time I go by that way just to see if it’s as good as I remembered.

3. So Barack was only able to get one Democrat in that county to come out and play charades? How the might have fallen.

   re: Invasion. Trump needs to go after every NGO that helped move these people across the planet to our border, label them all as terrorist sponsors and seize their assets and arrest their executives. Every country of origin of every illegal should be billed the full cost of the entire border security effort – let them all bitch. Then tell them we’re going stop defending them since they are certainly betraying us. That’s a giant ‘Victoria Nuland’ to the EU but they asked for it.

   1. x2

4. biden deemed? not so fast. the dims are trotting out “polls” almost every day now that claim big mike would beat brandon. they even claim haley would beat him by double digits, lol. i would bet most of haley’s 18 percent were registered dims….rumor mill has it that secdef was actually in the ‘kraine when the rooskies hit the hq with multiple cruise missiles. i doubt it but the official story leaves a lot to the imagination, so who knows? in clownworld everything is possible, simultaneously.

   1. RR, you are hammering the nail. Years ago, the crazy rumors would have not find traction, but now, especially now, the Bee is writing the story a day or two before it is confirmed.

      1. The Bee is clairvoyant. Proving, in a roundabout way, that satire is dead in CLOWN WORLD.

5. Casualties in the Gulf of Aden-
   I hate to say this but if they have not found them by now they’re probably not going to. The most likely scenario is that the one team member lost his grip, fell in and possibly had the hull of the ship knock him unconscious. His teammate dove in after him as per SOP and probably suffered the same fate. Rendering both the men adrift and at the mercy of the sea. My only hope is that they didn’t get sucked under towards the prop. VBSS operations are always a dangerous thing to conduct. Even in the calmest of seas. Nonetheless this was all avoidable and did not have to happen. Weak leadership and catering to the Iranians allowed this tragedy. Pedo Joe better not be checking his f****** watch when they come home!

   Never above you
   Never below you
   Always by your side

   -Steve

   1. Ships also have water intakes that are large enough to suck an adult human through and into the engine – in addition to props. There are a number of unpleasant aspects to ship attacks. They are even hazardous when conducted in training exercises in a harbor with the ship at anchor and the machinery turned off.

      1. Agreed.

         1. Yeah, climbing hull ladders is dangerous as hell. We lose a lot of harbor pilots that way, too.

            RIP.

            – Kle.

6. I still say the Mrs/Mr O likes his/her behind the scenes life too much to be under the flashlight again. The conversation by Dems and his/her show appearances is a smokescreen designed to muddy the optics. There may be another surprise candidate installed for Dem voters to have only one real choice. Jeffries?

   Banana peppers for me, not jalapeños…adds some zing without upsetting the formerly cast iron stomach…but won’t turn it down once in a while just for variety. But bacon, yeah…bacon is a must.

   Thankfully MrsPaulM knits. (Seriously dude, get a hold of yourself…you can say “no” to your bride. Altho, it appears to be a shared sickness with those two.)

   1. What about Dr. Jill Biden for president?

      1. That’s not funny.

         1. You could make the argument that she’s had four years of experience running things.

            1. …into the ground by allowing her stupefied wandering husband to continue his wrecking ball bravo Sierra. Horsewhipped I say.

7. Crochet suits: there’s a reason they come with masks.

   So, what ABOUT Black Hercules? He joins black Achilles, black Zeus, black Patroclus, mixed-race Athena, and albino black Artemis (BBC Troy: Fall of a City), as well as his grace the black Duke of York (The Hollow Crown), and so forth. Sir Isaac Newton is now a queer (actor’s own label) half-Indian (Dr Who; and the Doctor himself is now a flaming Negro*). Nothing new, and nothing to get upset about. After all, it happens to everyone. Golda Meir was played by Ingrid Bergman, for example, but you don’t see people getting upset that Meir was portrayed by one of the most luminous actresses to ever grace Hollywood.

   *Ncuti Gatwa. Ncuti is pronounced “Shooty”. How do you get “sh” out of “nc”? This is even worse than pinyin or the transliterations of Gaelic. (I am convinced both those were deliberately screwed up to mess with people.)

   1. We should at least congratulate Mr. Jordan for collecting a few million for a loser movie.

      1. Gives him more cash to continue working out 6 hours a day.

   2. You left out a black Heimdall, who was described in the Sagas as the fairest (in skin and in hair) of all the Aesir (Norse Human Gods.)

      1. You’re right! I forgot about black Heimdall. Appalling as that casting was, I gotta admit that Idris Elba brought appropriate gravitas to the role, and I like him as an actor in general. The Marvel “Nordic” character (and actress) I can’t stomach is Tessa Thompson.

         And I’m not going to even get started on Taika Waititi.

8. Totally OT. So I was in Flushing, NY through no fault of my own* and noticed a shop near the Flushing MTA terminus called “Shakalaka Bakery”. It’s run by Chinese people and sells coffee and the usual Asian pastries. Somewhat surprisingly, it was clean and even tasteful inside. But I couldn’t help thinking, if I were a terrorist and needed to hit Flushing (for some reason), I’d totally blow the place up, because (all together now): Boom! Shakalaka-laka.

   Seriously, I have no idea why a Chinese bakery is called Shakalaka.

   * “no fault of my own” is just standard narrative structure. It was totally my fault.

   1. Yes, it’s your fault.

   2. The narrative had no fault.

   3. Urban Dictionary: Shakalaka is a term often used to express excitement, joy, or enthusiasm. It is a playful expression that can be used to indicate a high-energy and fun atmosphere.

      Shakalaka Bakery “the happy place” seems to be a franchise name.

      https://www.shakalakabakery.com/

      1. OMG OMG! 😁
         They didn’t even bother to change the “Lorem ipsum …” placeholder? O! Frabjous day! This is … wonderful. 😍😍😍

         Seriously. So happy.
         Boom! Shakalaka boom.

         1. :)

         2. Nice catch!…will have to ask MrsPaulM about that as she knew Paul Brainard (Aldus) who, as I just now discovered, started it’s use for web page design in Pagemaker. Gotta demand a refund from that Web Designer…I mean, serious faux pas (waaaay worse than any of mine).

            However, we could be misappropriating culture here…more from Urban Dictionary:

            “A small, pumpkin headed creature found in mushroom patches. Carries a stabbing knife, which it uses to give you lacerations across the wrist, making you look like an emo.”

            Not very bakery friendly.

            -or-

            From the Sanskrit, Śākalaka. Now, Sanskrit has a certain je ne sais quoi that fits nicely for a high end cost bakery in Flushing or Queens. Nice stumble upon.

            1. ‘it’s’, ‘its’…all the same in love and commenting…right? Add that to my growing Faux Pas list. (Does verbal self flagellation reduce the penalty or is it still the cold cot in the corner for me?)

            2. THAT’s where the Lorem ipsum thing came from? After all this time now I know 🙂 Thank you!

               I’ll bet the web designer told the Shakalaka people how to change the placeholder text with whatever they wanted, but the Shakalaka people couldn’t be bothered. Either because they themselves don’t lead engrish good, or they figure their clientele aren’t goob at engrish. (Sic, and sic)

               One summer I was assembling an IKEA bookcase (you know, particle board, finished in front, rough in back). The uprights I had leaning against the wall started to fall. I reflexively reached to catch them. Caught one, the other caught me. On the wrist. Made two parallel gashes about 1cm apart. Bled like stink, then I had two parallel wounds, obviously recent, across my wrist. And it was shirtsleeve weather summer. I didn’t think much of it, but noticed that people were looking at me funny (more than usual). Then an acquaintance came up to and asked, “Are you okay? I’m here if you need to talk.” I was all Huh? Until I realized it looked like I’d tried to off myself. I was offended. “I’d have made the cuts ALONG the veins! Parallel not perpendicular.” This made my poor acquaintance even more uncomfortable. I mentioned this to a friend who laughed. “Yeah, me too. But you realize the medical training has made us Not Normal People, right?”

            3. Apparently typesetters used it way back in the 60’s as a placeholder, Brainard coopted its use for web design…so understood the original. MrsPaulM worked as a hot lead typesetter during her first round of college (early 80’s) I’ll ask if she used it back then…which is how she got on board at the onset of desktop publishing and personal computing. Keep telling her to write a book.

               See, VM is a venerable wormhole of information, never know where it’ll end up, all our hist has to do is prod the readership.

9. An off topic question, what happened to those 6000 military age Chinese males that were headed to the Southern Infiltration Zone formerly known as the Southern Border? That is an army division, albeit on the small side. It starts to smell of an actual stealth invasion by the CCP. Or are they being prepositioned to “fortify” November’s election results?

   1. Most of the military-age Chinese males who are struggling to cross the chalk line are multi-millionaires.

10. Anyone else remember the picture of a tank that had a crocheted cover?

    1. I literally thought of that yesterday.

       1. https://twitter.com/thegallowboob/status/1642639748291510272

          LL could put that up, see if Surly AI can figure out what’s underneath it…altho, it does have indicator slots which might make it too easy to ID.

          1. Still coming up blank. :(

11. Peppers. I’ve tried the ones at In-N-Out, too hot for me. However, I do luv me some pepperoncini’s. Eat those almost daily with my sandwich at lunch. Once I’ve finished the peppers, I save the jar and the juice. I take couple of garlic bulbs and nuke them (one at a time) for 20 seconds. No more, just enough to make the cloves easy to peel. Then I dump the peeled cloves into the jar. Let them soak at least a day. Haven’t seen a vampire in weeks.

    1. ” I take couple of garlic bulbs and nuke them (one at a time) for 20 seconds. No more, just enough to make the cloves easy to peel. ”

       Now I’ve got to try that – I’ve never heard of it before. It’s tough getting enough garlic. I regularly get blood in my garlic stream because the garlic levels fall too low.

       I do jalapenos on my burgers though – to get back to the original topic.

       1. I eat the skins of the hot little yellow-green peppers at In-N-Out. There is a technique to this. I bite the tips and then peel the skins, leaving the seeds on a napkin. If you eat the seeds, they burn going in and worse going out…yes TMI, but still truth.

          1. TMI? Here’s some TMI. Did you (y’all) know there’s specific lubricant for “the butt seks”? So I learned yesterday. I was 15 min early for meeting a friend near Times Square, and was killing time inside a CVS drugstore. (It was cold and damp.) Wandering up and down the aisles (about 50% of the merchandise was locked up, lower than San Francisco at ~75%) I saw tubes labeled “lube for anal sex” with “extra cushiony” in big letters on the side. A) who knew? B) “cushiony”? Whut?

             So, ewwww. But right next to the butt seks lube was a display of topical analgesics, featuring 4% lidocaine in pride of place right at eye level. The 4% lido was MUCH cheaper than the butt seks lube. Now what would a frugal and sensible person choose? Hmmmm. [insert Jimmy Carr joke here]

             New York City, man.

             1. CVS – supporting the needs of the city.

             2. Man, you do get around to the most interesting finds. First, Shakalaka Bakery, now Anal Lube for a “targeted” clee-en-tell.

                I heard CVS NYC has everything locked up tight due to pilferer criminal types who believe it’s all free.

    2. My wife has a salad at the local diner they have named after her.
       A small greek (small???) with a lot of changes (beets, romaine, pepperoncini, etc.).
       They also send out a cup of the pepperoncini brine.
       Alternately, banana peppers.
       She always carries a small pair of scissors in her purse for salad and pepper prep.

       1. The first time I was in Athens, I saw an “American salad” on the menu. I asked what was in it. They said, “Lettuce.” Iceberg lettuce – with oil and vinegar dressing. Greek salad (in Greece) doesn’t have lettuce incorporated in it. I like lettuce, and American-style Greek salad is a favorite, so I’m with your wife on that.

          Work with Greeks (in or from Greece) on a daily basis and have a lot of Greek stories. Greek food, particularly from the Plaka (Old Town Athens) is my favorite when in town. It sets the bar very high.

          1. As a PS, I’m thrilled that shingles no longer afflict Scherie. An answer to fervent prayer.

             1. Amen…prayer is necessary.

          2. Been too long since I done there. Calamari.

             1. Dined

12. Iowa. Not sure 51% is indicative of anything. The turnout seemed to be very small and the number of people changing their status from Democrat to Republican so they could vote seemed very large.

    Honor the two Seals that lost their lives. The military does dangerous things everyday and thank goodness they do.

    I like either jalapeños or, if I am a bit adventurous that day, habaneros peppers on my burgers. The last time I was in Leavenworth (Washington not Kansas) I found a shop that sold habaneros infused mayonnaise. Wow, definitely a gift from a benevolent God. My sinuses have been clear for weeks.

    Crochet suits. If that isn’t true love I don’t know what is.

    1. The problem with Iowa and New Hampshire is that the sampling is small. Pres. Trump can take a victory lap primarily because neither DeSantis (who I like) nor Tricky Nikki (who I don’t care for) has captured the mood of America. Gov. DeSantis has done an excellent job in Florida. In my opinion, Nikki seems to be more of a political parasite. When your opponent is Pedo Joe, who is a dementia patient, and nobody knows precisely who (maybe Barack/Big Mike?) is calling the shots in the White House, it should be an easy win.

       But it’s not because nobody knows who is counting the votes, and the democrats have their side clamped down so there can be no challengers to the corrupt pedophile.

       1. I love de Santis as Governor. He’s done an excellent job. He would make a good president, but not as good as Trump now.

          Make a good Veep, though. Or SecState. Or pretty much any cabinet position.

    2. 51% matched the polling which was on a larger scale.

       1. Either way, an obvious win is a win. Proves Trump is preferred. Then again, moved a few tons of drifted snow today after 75 mph winds last night (warmed up to 32), which is like concrete until you break it up – loader first, plow truck second. The electoral news was so far off at the noise level and feint I couldn’t hear it over the tractor and High Kings Radio on Pandora coming through the BT headset.

          This election cycle is even more of s–t show than imaginable. Likely to get more bizarre to the point I’m wishing The Founders would rise from the dead and smite the lot of them (except Trump and a few other good ones)…start over using the Documents they drafted…unadulterated by loy-yers and cheats.

13. The problem with Iowa according to the blond negress on MSNBC ,is that it’s full of white Christian’s . And that they think God gave them this country , and they want Trump to give it back. That anyone who is not a white Christian is an artificial American . The other talking heads sat there nodding.

    1. The blonde negress doesn’t think that 71% of the population counts.

    2. Oh bullshit. The people who are the most powerful (proportionally, and likely even absolutely) in the fallen US are neither White nor Christian.

       I really, really hate hypocrisy.

14. I was really sorry to hear about the guys who went down in the Yemeni Sea. But I won’t go on.

    Then there’s Big Mike.

    Will the Dems run it or will they not? I don’t see it making much difference at this point, apart from vague PR. Is that too cynical?

15. If memory serves, the original Tommy Burger stand on Beverly and Rampart had a jug of pepperoncini that you could add to your burger/chili fries/tamale as desired. I suppose it gets into a religious discussion at some point, but as much as I like In-n-Out, I always a Tommy Burger a bit more.

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