Whoever staged this needs to have the Golden Rule applied to them

 

@Alphafox78 on Twitter asks:

What kind of a message are democrats trying to send with this display?? 🤨

I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count:

For foreign readers who may not catch the resemblance, the photograph depicts a mannequin dressed as President Trump in the back seat of a vehicle similar to that in which President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 (shown below).

Such a comparison, after at least two and possibly as many as five assassination attempts against President Trump during this election campaign (depending on which news reports one believes), is so mentally sick that it's beyond rational comprehension.  It's an open, unambiguous suggestion that someone should try again.

I wonder how the person who thought up that visual comparison could regard it as in any way justifiable, but literally thousands of mainstream media articles are bloviating that President Trump is a "fascist" and a "racist" and a this, that and the other.  The propaganda is so overwhelming that it's already pushed some people - whose heads were probably already a few cents short of a nickel - to try to kill him.  Images like this will likely inspire more to follow their example.

I've said all along that voting won't solve our problems - not when we have a large section of our population so brainwashed that they actually believe such lies.  There are doubtless many who would cheer if President Trump was injured or killed.  Needless to say, if the situation were reversed and one of their favorite candidates was attacked, there'd be hell to pay . . . but that won't count in their minds.  They're not fascists, after all.

I continue to expect a deliberate attempt by the progressive left wing of US politics to cheat in this election:  to elect their preferred candidate to the Presidency, and even if they can't achieve that, to elect so many of "their" Congresspeople and Senators that they can block any initiative by the "wrong" President until they can reclaim that office.  I truly hope that the will of the people, as expressed at the polls, will prevail:  but looking at the shenanigans already unveiled during early voting, and the number of fraudulent mail-in ballots already submitted, I'm afraid that's a pipe-dream.

Don't get over-confident in the results of this election, and stand by for a massive nationwide campaign of fraud, disinformation and cheating that will make previous attempts pale into insignificance.

I hope I'm wrong . . . but I fear I'm not.  Only time will tell.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 233

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

I was reminded last week of one of Noel Coward's classic British comedy songs.  The reason for their success was not just their biting wit, but the fact that they were so often all too true - uncomfortably so, for those lampooned in and by them.

Here's "The Stately Homes Of England".

Another wince-inducing song was "Mad Dogs and Englishmen".  Being from a colonial English background, this rings all too true!  It's why English-speakers in South Africa were often called "Rooinek" - "Red Neck" - because the burning heat of the African sun did precisely that to their necks.

Then there's his advice to parents of aspiring actresses:  "Don't put your daughter on the stage, Mrs. Worthington".

As a frequent participant in serious amateur dramatics with the Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB) in Cape Town, South Africa, one couldn't help but realize how true that observation was!

I'm very grateful to my parents for raising me on a diet of Noel Coward's music, plays and films, among others.

Peter

Rediscovering a very big bang

 

It looks as if a South American volcano may have played a major role in worldwide climate and weather problems many centuries ago.  The article's over a decade old, but I've just come across it, and I thought other readers might be interested as well.

El Salvador’s Lake Ilopango, near the capital city of San Salvador, is known for boating, diving and the rugged, scenic beauty of its 100 meter-tall cliffs --- the lip of the caldera that holds the lake. However, 1,500 years ago, it may have been the site of one of the most horrific natural disasters in the world. It may also be the long-sought cause of the extreme climate cooling and crop failures of A.D. 535-536, reported Robert A. Dull of the University of Texas at Austin at the Association of American Geographers annual meeting in New York this week.

New research on the extent and the timing of the eruption now places the eruption --- previously thought to have occurred three centuries earlier --- at the right time and place. The massive Plinian-type event with pyroclastic flows would have instantly killed up to 100,000 people, displaced up to 400,000 more and filled the skies with ash and dust for more than a year. The new findings would make it the second-largest volcanic eruption in the last 200,000 years. “This event was much bigger than we ever thought,” Dull said.

Such an eruption would explain the episode in Mayan history known as the Classic Period Hiatus, when the Maya stopped building stelae, decorative stone columns erected to mark events, Dull said. It would also finally explain the global cooling of A.D. 535-536, an 18-month period of cloudy skies, crop failures and famines that was described in both Roman and Chinese historical accounts.

There's more at the link.

Later research appears to have "backdated" the eruption to about 431 AD, meaning it would not have caused the climate events of 535-536 AD:  but it would still have done a colossal amount of damage for many hundreds of miles around the explosion.  It may have caused the abandonment of several city-states, and damaged the overall Mesoamerican civilizations so severely that it may have been a factor in their collapse several centuries later.

Mother Nature can make humans look pretty puny, can't she?

Peter

The "Tanker Mafia"? Yes, we have our own version in the USA...

 

I recently came across an article titled "Tanker mafia causing chaos in South Africa".  Here's an excerpt.

South Africa’s water infrastructure has been steadily deteriorating over the past decade as municipalities have neglected maintenance and have not expanded their supply systems to cope with a growing population. 

This has resulted in a situation where the country has enough water but cannot get it to the end user, as much of it is lost to leakages on the way. 

. . .

While this is mainly due to the lack of maintenance, other factors contribute to this problem. 

Chief among these is vandalism and theft of infrastructure. In particular, electrical cables and equipment are often stolen, resulting in pumping stations being unable to pump water to the end user. 

These are deliberate acts to disrupt the supply of water and increase the need for water tankers in affected areas. 

. . .

“There is a thriving tanker mafia ... that actively sabotages the water infrastructure. They do this to continue and prolong their contracts with the municipalities to provide water tankers across communities that need water,” Turton said.

He added that these tanker suppliers do not source their water from safe, potable sources. Instead, they take unsafe water from dams or rivers as they are paid per tanker.

There's more at the link.

It occurs to me that we have an active "tanker mafia" in the USA as well.  Ours is involved, not with water, but with oil.  You see, railways such as BNSF (controlled by Warren Buffet's investment firm) make billions of dollars by transporting crude oil from fields in Canada and the USA to refineries.  They actively fight any proposal to build pipelines to convey that oil more cheaply and/or efficiently, to the extent of funding lobbyists to block legislation, and paying for activists (e.g. local tribes that refuse to allow pipelines to cross their land) to come together and work to stop such proposals.  There have been unconfirmed rumors that subsidies have even been paid to environmental activists who actively sabotage (i.e. commit crimes against) such construction efforts.  The railway companies are trying to protect their profits.  They don't really give a damn about the needs of the country or its residents.

I'm reminded of that every time I see a train thundering through our town, with dozens of black-painted oil tankers rattling and rocking as they bump their way over our level crossings.  I note, too, that we never know what's in all those tankers.  It's not just fuel - some cargoes can be far more dangerous.  Sometimes, when derailments or collisions have occurred, locals have found that out the hard way (most recently in East Palestine, Ohio, last year, resulting in mass evacuations and massive environmental damage).  Pipelines could eliminate or greatly reduce the tanker transport of such substances . . . but that would cut into the profits of the railroad companies, so they continue their opposition.

It's all about the money, as always.  People and society are secondary, and can be ignored.

Peter

Bureaucracy gone mad!

 

Elon Musk describes some of the bureaucratic, regulatory hoops through which he and SpaceX had to jump in order to get approval to launch their rockets.  It's mind-boggling, but also very funny.

If this is just one example of bureaucratic idiocy, how many more are out there?  And how much of their administrative deadwood is weighing down the US economy as a whole?

Peter

Another blogger gets it: economy edition

 

Atomic Fungus loses his cool over the economy and how government has mismanaged it.

This morning, as I was getting ready for work, it occurred to me that I'm never going to be able to retire. I led a feckless life in my youth, and made a lot of mistakes, but that's not why. I mean, even if I had done everything right, just look at the economy right now. Our government is hiding the truth from us because if the American public found out what the real numbers were, all the politicians would be hanging from lampposts by sunset!

Our government has literally spent all the money in the world. They're printing new dollars at the rate of ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS PER SECOND and there is no sign of stopping, or even slowing down. There's a story today about our banking system having a trillion dollars' worth of bad assets, things that count up to $1 trillion on the balance sheets, but are simply not worth that much, and won't fetch anything like that if sold. Someone said that so many banks have overvauled assets that FDIC can only insure deposits at 1:100--meaning that for every dollar you've got in the bank, they'll give you a penny.

When the collapse comes, every last damned asset that isn't in your hands is going to be worthless. Your 401k--whether it's $10k or $100k--won't buy a loaf of bread. The stock portfolios won't be worth anything; I mean, even with the Dow at 200 trillion, if a loaf of bread costs five hundred billion dollars, your stocks are worthless.

I am still of the opinion that the government will nationalize 401k and other retirement instruments before the end. Basically, they'll do to your savings what they did to the "Social Security fund": they'll spend it, and give you an IOU.

Bear in mind that FDR made private ownership of gold illegal, and people had to turn their gold in. They got dollars for it. ...dollars which started inflating almost immediately.

The financial cataclysm I see coming means that no one my age is going to get to retire. Anyone who actually has managed it will not be able to stay retired.

And the absolute worst part of this? The part that really keeps me up nights is that I'M OPTIMISTIC ABOUT HOW IT WILL GO. I'm betting that there are going to be some hard times when we'll be eating rice and beans for most of the week, with maybe a can of SPAM on Sunday--no treats, no cookies, no dessert, just the absolute bare minimum to keep body and soul together, and you eat what's put in front of you even if you hate it--but otherwise things will even out relatively quickly and get better. A year, maybe, of hard times. For everyone, not just us. Only the hyper-rich will not see their standard of living change dramatically.

And then I wonder why I have problems with anxiety??

There's more at the link.

He's more optimistic than I am about a short-duration crisis (I think it'll last much longer), but I can't disagree with his thesis overall.  We've been saying the same thing in these pages for a long time, most recently:

The scariest graphic I've seen in a long time

A nation of dependopotami?

I'd dearly love to see an honest politician stand up and state publicly that the USA is bankrupt, that it's our own fault, and that the only way out of this mess is to slash government spending by up to 50% - which will require cutting entitlement programs to the bone, and abolishing many of them.  Yes, people will suffer hardship as a result;  but they're going to suffer hardship anyway when our fiscal house of cards comes tumbling down.  Do it soon or do it later, it's still going to hurt all of us.

Unfortunately, the genus "honest politician" has so few members that one hardly ever encounters them, so nobody's going to own up to the truth.

Peter

World's smallest washing machine

 

One can only ask "Why?"

An Indian man showed off his miniature engineering skills by crafting the world's smallest washing machine, measuring just 1.28 inches by 1.32 inches by 1.52 inches.

Guinness World Records confirmed Sebin Saji's washing machine, which is smaller than a Tamagotchi digital pet, is the smallest in the world.

In order to qualify for the record, Saji had to demonstrate that his washing machine was functional and could run a full cycle -- wash, rinse and spin.

It's really tiny, I'll concede that . . .

. . . but given that you can't even wash a single sock or a handkerchief in it, what's the point?

Peter

Where did our military ranks come from?

 

I came across an interesting document from the US Defense Department that gives the history of each rank and its insignia.  It makes great reading for military history buffs.  Here are a few excerpts.  They're in the form of images, because the original .PDF file appears to be corrupted and doesn't copy across correctly.

There's much more at the link.  Recommended reading.

Peter

The mating game?

 

From Stephan Pastis.  Click the image to be taken to a larger view at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

Swipe in any direction except left?

Peter

Interesting fiscal experiments in Argentina

 

Three headlines from Argentina caught my attention over the past week or two.  First, President Milei is abolishing their equivalent of the IRS.

Argentina’s government has announced it will dissolve its current tax bureau and replace it with a new “simplified” agency, cutting a third of jobs in the process.

. . .

The new entity will maintain AFIP's current dual role of overseeing tax collection and customs monitoring.

More than 3,000 AFIP agents who joined during former president Alberto Fernández’s 2019-2023 government will be laid off as part of a 34 percent reduction of current staffing levels, said the statement.

. . .

“This measure will reduce senior authorities by 45 percent and lower levels by 31 percent, which represents an elimination of 34 percent of the [overall] current structure, generating annual savings of 6.4 billion pesos," said the government’s statement.

The statement also said it would eliminate rules ensuring large salaries for senior officials, lowering their pay to similar to that of a Cabinet minister.

There's more at the link.

Next, the President is offering a tax amnesty for previously undeclared income and savings.

Argentines are declaring hundreds of millions of dollars of previously hidden savings in a tax amnesty that libertarian President Javier Milei hopes will boost the country’s moribund economy and scarce foreign exchange reserves.

. . .

Argentina’s long history of economic turmoil, marked by hyperinflation, currency controls and governments restricting access to savings, has pushed citizens to hold some $258bn in dollars outside its financial system, according to official estimates for early 2024. An unknown portion has not been declared to authorities.

Experts said most Argentines keep savings in dollars — either stuffed under mattresses, in safety deposit boxes, or in accounts in the US and other countries.

The government believes tapping those greenbacks would help solve its two biggest problems: reinvigorating a real economy that has been battered by a long-running crisis and Milei’s austerity measures, and adding to the central bank’s dangerously low hard currency reserves.

Again, more at the link (which may be paywalled).

Finally, one Argentine province, dominated by left-wing politicians, has taken to issuing its own currency in response to cuts in Government subsidies.  It's valid only in that province, and only if merchants will accept it.  Unsurprisingly, many won't.

Across La Rioja's capital, “Chachos accepted here” decals now appear on the windows of everything from chain supermarkets and gas stations to upscale restaurants and hair salons. The local government guarantees a 1-to-1 exchange rate with pesos, and accepts chachos for tax payments and utilities bills.

But there’s a catch. Chachos can’t be used outside La Rioja, and only registered businesses can swap chachos for pesos at a few government exchange points.

“I need real money,” said Adriana Parcas, a 22-year-old street vendor who pays her suppliers in pesos, after turning down two customers in a row who asked if they could buy her perfumes with chachos.

. . .

But as Milei and his allies tell it, Quintela’s alternative offers little more than a return to Argentina’s habitual Peronist preserve of reckless spending — and insolvency — that delivered the unmitigated crisis that his government inherited.

“You were used to having your tie fastened for you and your shoes polished, but now, you’ve got to tie the knot yourself,” Eduardo Serenellini, press secretary of Milei’s office, snapped at La Rioja business leaders on a recent visit to the province. “When you run out of cash, you run out cash.”

Serenellini picked up a chacho note, then flicked it away like lint.

More at the link.

That last story is surprising only in that one province has done so;  the others, who may resent the heck out of President Milei's policies, have refrained.  Nevertheless, the "deep state" equivalent in Argentina hates his guts, and would like nothing better than to see him removed.

Milei is cutting through decades of feather-bedding the bureaucracy, cutting government employment, slashing budgets, and ignoring screams of outrage from socialist-oriented trades unions.  In economic terms, his reforms are producing results, reducing inflation from unmanageable proportions to something much more bearable.  Unfortunately, to do that, he has to gore all sorts of sacred cows, and there's always the danger that those left out in the cold by his reforms will throw him out by hook or by crook and demand a return to the socialism that crippled Argentina's economy for so long.

I wish him luck . . . and I hope we may see some of his reforms in this country, too.  Whether or not that's a pipe-dream remains to be seen.

Peter

So... what were they up to?

 

The armed forces of the United States offer individual and unit awards for good performance, valor in action, leadership, etc.  They are usually equated to each other on a level.  For example, in the US Navy:

• The Meritorious Unit Commendation is awarded to a unit (a ship, shore base, etc.) for actions on the same level as would qualify an individual navy service member for the Bronze Star award, the fourth-highest award for valor in action of the US military;
• The Navy Unit Commendation is equated to an individual order of the Silver Star medal, the third-highest award for valor in action;
• The Presidential Unit Citation, the highest unit award offered by the Navy, is equated to an individual order of the Navy Cross, the service's second-highest award for valor in action (the highest being the Medal of Honor).

Therefore, the news that the Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Washington has just been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation is more important than it might seem at first sight.

"The award of the Presidential Unit Citation to the USS Washington is a profound honor, signifying the crew's exceptional dedication and strategic impact,” said Vice Adm. Rob Gaucher, commander, Submarine Forces. “Their work in challenging, high risk environments completing vital national level missions demonstrates the key role our submarines play in ensuring maritime security and global stability."

The PUC is awarded to any U.S. military unit that has distinguished itself by outstanding performance and heroism in action against enemy forces and is the highest unit award in the Department of the Defense.

During Washington’s deployment, the submarine, also known as the Blackfish, completed three demanding missions vital to national security that resulted in obtaining sensitive and unique intelligence information, where it executed the Chief of Naval Operations' maritime strategy by supporting national security interests and maritime security operations.

. . .

Washington steamed more than 37,000 nautical miles with the crew supporting diplomatic relationships by conducting port visits in Faslane, Scotland, and Grotsund, Norway. In recognition of the Blackfish’s exceptional service and dedication during operations in the strategic Arctic region, the Washington was awarded the newly announced Arctic Service Medal.

There's more at the link.

We don't know what the Washington did while on patrol, but it was sufficiently important and valuable to earn her the highest unit award the Navy has to offer, and also what may be the first ever award of the newly-created Arctic Service Medal.  Her crew will, of course, wear individual emblems signifying those awards on their uniforms.  What's more, this mission or missions took place during peacetime, not wartime, so the awards are doubly unusual.

Hmmm . . . Arctic service . . . heroism in action as an award criterion . . . one wonders what they were up to!  Veterans and well-informed observers can probably come up with some interesting possibilities.

Peter

A nation of dependopotami?

 

Shortly after coming to the United States, I was amused to learn that service personnel have a word they use to describe women who hang around military bases, trying to latch on to (and preferably marry) a young, inexperienced serviceman in order to access his military pay and benefits.  The military describes spouses as "dependents", so the slang term for such ladies (?) is "dependopotamus".  (Here's an example of the species.)  All too often the result is a messy divorce, support payments that the serviceman will have to pay for decades, and another notch on the dependopotamus' bedstead as she starts looking for her next victim.  I'm told some of that ilk are collecting divorce payments from as many as half a dozen former spouses.

Unfortunately, the term seems to be expanding to cover all those who regard "the government" as the source of everything they need.  There's never any attempt to earn these things for themselves.  Instead, their absence is "the government's fault".  To get them, "the government must do something".  If they still don't arrive, it's the fault of "the rich" for not paying "their fair share" of taxes to "the government", which therefore can't afford to buy what "the people need".  In so many words, the majority of the electorate are all becoming dependopotami.

Two recent examples come to mind.  First, Sarah Hoyt has just visited Portugal for the wedding of her second son and his bride (to whom our congratulations).  She had this to say about such attitudes there.

When I was in Europe, whether visiting in Portugal or in brief airport sojourns in Madrid and Amsterdam I kept running into weird things coming off the TV. No, seriously.

“The government must provide more affordable housing.” “We demand the government create more pre-school slots.” “Government must provide more transportation.” “Government needs to create more child care.”

Look, it was so pervasive that I heard it twice at least per airport, though I only stayed there a couple of hours.

. . .

... in Europe the phrasing wasn’t even questioned. And I’ve seen the same from Australian posters on Twittex.

It makes me wonder, it does. Do they think government is going to be out there with trowel and bricks building houses? If not, where do they think it comes from?

. . .

You see, they have become convinced that the government giveth, the government taketh away, blessed be the name of the government. And at this point what they expect the government to do is the equivalent of expecting vampires to produce living children.

I’m not saying we don’t have trouble right here. And if we manage to thread this needle and get ourselves out of this pinch, it will be proof certain that G-d looks after fools, drunkards and the united states of America.

But I hate to say this, in the fight against globalist technocracy, Europe’s feet are in a cement bucket. It is impossible to fight against intrusive, all controlling government when you think government is the engine of the economy.

There's more at the link.

Next, from my country of birth, South Africa, there's this report.

The South African Social Security Agency’s (SASSA) annual report for the 2023/24 financial year revealed that it pays grants to 28 million South Africans.

In turn, the National Treasury’s 2024 Budget Review shows that 7.4 million individuals in South Africa pay income tax.

. . .

Put differently, approximately 45% of South Africa’s 64 million population benefits from social transfers.

. . .

The biggest contributors [to tax revenues] are people who earn above R1.5 million per year. They contribute R236 billion, or 32%, to personal income tax revenue.

What is concerning is that there are only 197,866 people in South Africa who earn over R1.5 million.

This means that 2.7% of people who pay personal income tax account for 32% of all collections from this important revenue source.

Even more concerning is that South Africa’s expenses, particularly related to social grants, are increasing much faster than tax revenue.

Again, more at the link.

Does that sound familiar to US taxpayers?  Most US citizens and residents derive at least some financial benefit or support from our federal government.  Many who derive such benefit(s) are not paying any tax at all.  They're freeloading on those of us who do pay taxes.  In so many words, they're dependopotami.

In fact, the situation is so bad in the USA that our government long ago stopped pretending to balance its budget.  Instead, it issued "bonds" or "treasury notes" to raise extra money from investors, promising to repay them that amount plus interest over time.  That's become so all-pervasive that close to a third of our national budget is currently funded by such means.  When enough bonds can't be sold, the Treasury "sells" them to the Federal Reserve Bank, which conjures up the money to "pay for them" by means of computer transactions.  No real money changes hands:  it's all accounting sleight of hand.  We're becoming more bankrupt by the day because our politicians dare not cut benefits to the dependopotami, who would vote them out of office in a heartbeat if they dared to cut our national coat according to the actual cloth (i.e. funds) we have available.

We are already, to a very large extent, a nation dependent on our government, rather than our own efforts and resources, for what we need to survive.  That's very dangerous.  As the late President Ford warned us:

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

True dat.

As for where that can lead us?  Power Line published a parable about that a few days ago.  Go read it, and ponder.

Peter

The literal "mother" of all military leave requests

 

Courtesy of a link at Task & Purpose, we find this leave request from 1967.  Click the image below for a larger view.

I'd say that's a pretty good reason to apply for leave, wouldn't you?

Peter

"There's a $1 trillion+ hole in the commercial banks' balance sheets"

 

That's the claim of a thread on X in which the author, Porter Stansberry, describes the danger of large-scale bank failures as very real.  Here's an excerpt.

How bad is it? Quoting from the St. Louis Fed's Bank Capital Analysis report of June 30, 2022: Since 2019, banks increased securities holdings by $2.0 trillion, increasing the share of securities as a percentage of total assets to 33.7% in the second quarter of 2022 from 17.8% 

Let me make sure you understand what that means. It means that fully one-third of the reserves of our biggest banks are deeply “underwater.” That's because they bought $2 trillion worth of long-term bonds (and mortgages) at interest rates around 1%. 

The real market value of these assets has plummeted because of rising interest rates. It was soaring losses on these assets, which led to the run on deposits in the spring of 2023 at Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank. 

These banks didn't fail because they made bad loans. They failed because they owned long-dated Treasury bonds. Total losses on those bank failures were $40 billion.

. . .

Today, Bank of America reports it has $86 billion in unrecognized “mark to market” losses on that bond portfolio. The bank has tangible equity (that is, real equity) of $200 billion. If rates go above 5%, I believe Bank of America's tangible equity would be wiped out. 

It' not just $BAC either. The end of the Fed's BTFP will lead several major banks to raise more capital. But, if interest rates continue to rise, the bank runs we saw in the spring of 2023 will return – with Bank of America most at risk. 

With $2 trillion in deposits, Bank of America's shareholders would, most likely, not survive a run on its deposits.

There's more at the link.  You'll need to read the entire thread to grasp what's been happening, and its implications for the future of the American banking system as a whole.

I don't know whether Mr. Stansberry (a controversial analyst and economic pundit) is correct to correlate "mark to market" losses with the widespread selling-off of banking shares by top investment firms and authorities such as Warren Buffet (as discussed in the thread).  Nevertheless, it is feasible, and makes for a very scary picture.  For small fry like you and I, with mere pennies to our names compared to the millions and billions held by such investors, the picture is even worse, because our funds will be wiped out along with the banks if this comes to pass.

It's not certain that a collapse will come soon.  So far, our politicians have "kicked the can down the road" at every possible opportunity.  However, remember Stein's Law:  "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."  Sooner or later, the road will run out (as we discussed just last week), and then there'll be no place to kick the can any further.  If Mr. Stansberry's forecast is correct, that can't be long delayed.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #1,121

 

Today's award goes to the designers of a new fire station in Stadtallendorf, Germany.

A multi-million euro fire station in western Germany has burned down, along with 10 fire engines on the site – because it did not have any fire alarms installed.

. . .

According to Oberhessische Presse, the fire station had not been fitted with fire alarms when it was constructed.

. . .

“It is a nightmare for a firefighter. No one wants to have to extinguish his own fire station,” Lars Schafer, the district fire inspector, told reporters after firefighters failed to bring the blaze under control.

The fire has caused estimated damage of € 20 million (about US $21.7 million), including the loss of 10 fire engines.

There's more at the link.

A tad embarrassing, that!  I wonder who was the bright spark (you should pardon the expression) who failed to include alarms in the design?  And what's the bet that the replacement fire station will have fire alarms?

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 232

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

Today we have something completely new to me:  the smallest member of the violin family, known as the "pochette".  That's the French word for a small pocket, into which the instrument was designed to fit.  According to Wikipedia, "Also known as a pocket fiddle it was developed to be used by dance masters in royal courts and other places of nobility, and by street musicians, from about the 15th century until around the 19th century, with it being especially popular in the 1800s."

The "Breaking Violins" Web site avers that the pochette "helped Scots become Englishmen":

They were primarily made for fiddle teachers and those players who were dance masters. Both required some mobility – made easier with a pocket-sized instrument – and one can only imagine the impromptu dances that resulted by having this little fiddle handy when the libations lent to merriment.

Importantly, when Scotland was basically annexed by England in 1707, the pochette played a role in helping proper Scots to “English-ize” and be accepted in the larger new society. Knowing how to properly dance (as well as to drop the brogue and sound a little more like their countrymen to the south) was considered a social advantage. So a cottage industry arose among dance teachers, accompanied by their pochette-toting musicians, to teach Scottish nobles and merchants baroque dance moves in duple, triple and compound duple rhythms. The modern day equivalent is the personal fitness trainer who brings a sound system with him or her for a home workout.

There's more at the link.

There doesn't appear to be any music composed specifically for the pochette.  Instead, it was used for solo and impromptu renditions of better-known violin pieces, typically as accompaniment to dancers learning the steps.  There are several video clips on YouTube of the instrument at work.  In no particular order, try these.

An interesting twist on musical history, albeit not one likely to be chosen for listening pleasure.

Peter

"A Radical Plan To Save America’s Economy In One Year"

 

That's the title of an article by Brandon Smith, whom we've met in these pages on several occasions.  He proposes some radical steps, but points out that until relatively recently they were considered normal by most Americans.  It's only since the loony progressive left gained prominence that they've been pushed aside.

National solutions require millions of Americans get off their couches, go outside, and take extensive risks. This is why human beings in general tend to adapt to the worst conditions until things are so bad society snaps. We wait until we can’t stand it any longer, and then finally, we take action.

. . .

The thing is, time is running out and debate is a luxury. I believe Americans today are close to the breaking point economically with stagflation continuing to crush the middle class and those already in poverty. The future is bleak; housing costs have spiked to levels beyond what the vast majority of people can afford. All necessities including food and utilities have seen a 30%-50% minimal price increase since 2020, and inflation continues to rise.

Wages are stagnant and profit margins for employers are shrinking, which means the jobs market will be next to see cuts. By the end of 2025 and under current policies, I suspect we will be witnessing a combination of serious deflationary and inflationary crisis events simultaneously. A crash in employment and GDP combined with incessant price jumps on goods and services.  This crash has been decades in the making and might be unavoidable. That said, I do believe there is a way out, but it requires dramatic changes in the way our government and society operates.

The policy measures I suggest are a kind of fiscal time machine – A way to turn back the clock on collapse. Some might consider them “radical” but they are only policies that America USED TO value and that we have been pressured to forget. Can the modern American brain with its steady exposure to big government and socialist programs handle such a shift? It’s hard to say.

There's more at the link.  I won't steal Smith's thunder by going into each of his proposals, but I recommend that you click over to his article and read it in full.  It's worth your time.

Whoever wins November's elections for the Presidency, House and Senate is going to face a very serious economic situation.  Will they have the courage to stake everything on a radical solution, as President Milei is doing in Argentina (and, at least to some extent, succeeding)?  Or will they "kick the can down the road" in the hope that by the time everything crashes down, they won't be in office and can't be held accountable?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Peter

I don't notice the donors being asked for their permission or approval...

 

The latest in a long, long line of expensive headlines:

Archdiocese of Los Angeles agrees to pay $880 million to over 1,300 victims of clergy sexual abuse

The archdiocese has previously paid $740 million to victims in various settlements and had pledged to better protect its church members, so this settlement would put the total payout at more than $1.5 billion, the Times said.

There's more at the link.

Insurance policies have doubtless contributed some of that money, but a very large amount of it has come from the contributions, bequests and donations of ordinary Catholics over decades - possibly over centuries.  Investments made generations ago have had to be wiped out to pay these claims.

Has anyone noticed any Catholic donor or contributor being asked for permission to use their donations in this way?  No?  I've certainly never seen or heard of that - and when I inquired about it, back in the day, I was told that the money belongs to the Church, and the Church alone would make the decision on how it was to be spent.  Not a word of appreciation for the "widow's mite" that some donations undoubtedly represented, or the families that contributed so their kids could get "a good Catholic education" but instead were exposed to sexual predators who used the Catholic education system as a private hunting ground.

And still the Catholic hierarchy insists that it's doing the right thing by settling these claims:

After the announcement of the agreement in principle, Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a statement, “I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart.”

“My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered,” the archbishop added.

“I believe that we have come to a resolution of these claims that will provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses.”

And yet . . . if the Church had done its job in earlier years by screening candidates for the priesthood more carefully, and supervising their training more rigorously, and insisting that its clergy upheld the high moral standards they preached . . . none of this would be necessary, and countless victims of sexual predators would not have become victims.

Those of you who know my background will understand that I'm feeling particularly heartburn-ish this morning.

Peter

Remember your introduction to military beds?

 

I can remember mine, particularly the inordinate care with which we had to make our beds each morning before inspection.  Sheets carefully folded and ironed, blankets taut, corners ironed with shaving cream, the whole "package" so tight that the instructor could bounce a coin off it.  The slightest imperfection and everything was ripped off and tossed on the floor.  "Idle!  Do it again - and do it right this time!"  In those early days of basic training, we might spend an hour or more at it every morning before the instructors were satisfied.

Despite it being officially forbidden, most of us developed the habit of making our beds as perfectly as possible - helping each other to do so - and then sleeping on the floor underneath our beds, so as not to disturb their pristine inspection-ready status.  One of us would keep watch for impromptu inspections during the small hours of the morning, which would always find us practicing drill or doing something militarily educational and/or useful rather than sleeping.  I'm sure our instructors knew what we were up to, but if we made them look good to their bosses, they turned a blind eye.

I don't miss those days . . . but I couldn't help smiling, remembering them, as I watched this Japanese bed-making competition.

I could have used their skills during military basic training, that's for sure!  I wonder how long it took them to get that good at it?  And did they have to suffer punishment PT (or the Japanese equivalent) if they got it wrong?

Peter

Er... oops?

 

I came across this photograph on MeWe (sorry, I can't link to the source post, as MeWe has no facilities to do that).  It made me laugh.  Click the image for a larger view.

Not a bad bit of parking, if you ignore the hole in the wall.  The barrel didn't mess up the running tracks for the overhead door at all!

What I'm curious about is where the photograph was taken, and of what armed force's artillery.  The camouflage on the vehicle looks to be German or further east in Europe, but I'm no expert on camo patterns, so I can't be sure.  There are only 5 road wheels, and the tall, angled turret enclosing the cannon doesn't fit any US artillery I can think of.

Can any reader identify the service (and, if possible, the SPG) and post more information in Comments?  Thanks.

Peter

How Hezbollah's pagers went BOOM!

 

Reuters has an interesting article about how the exploding pagers that crippled Hezbollah's leadership and communications network were prepared.

A thin, square sheet with six grams of white pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) plastic explosive was squeezed between two rectangular battery cells, according to the Lebanese source and photos.

The remaining space between the battery cells could not be seen in the photos but was occupied by a strip of highly flammable material that acted as the detonator, the source said.

This three-layer sandwich was inserted in a black plastic sleeve, and encapsulated in a metal casing roughly the size of a match box, the photos showed.

The assembly was unusual because it did not rely on a standard miniaturised detonator, typically a metallic cylinder, the source and two bomb experts said. All three spoke on conditions of anonymity.

Without any metal components, the material used to trigger detonation had an edge: like the plastic explosives, it was not detected by X-ray.

Upon receiving the pagers in February, Hezbollah looked for the presence of explosives, two people familiar with the matter said, putting them through airport security scanners to see if they triggered alarms. Nothing suspicious was reported.

The devices were likely set up to generate a spark within the battery pack, enough to light the detonating material, and trigger the sheet of PETN to explode, said the two bomb experts, to whom Reuters showed the pager-bomb design.

There's more at the link.

I'm amazed that the Israelis could package enough explosive into such a tiny cavity to inflict the injuries - and a few deaths - that they did.  One wouldn't think that a mere six grams of explosive would be enough to do that, but in this case, it was.

It also makes me wonder about so many handheld communications devices powered by specialized batteries, to say nothing of larger equipment.  If the sabotage of these pagers could be concealed so effectively, what's to stop an enemy - whether a terrorist organization, or even a nation-state - doing something similar to critical equipment that might cripple US infrastructure if it explodes in sufficient quantities?  Cellphone tower equipment, perhaps?  Radio repeaters?  Internet servers?

One presumes that competent people are looking into that right now.  I hope they are, anyway!

Peter

A sad, but inevitable end to a great ship

 

The SS United States was the fastest ocean liner ever built.  She snatched the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage, both east-bound to Europe and west-bound to the USA, and never relinquished it to another passenger liner.

The advent of jet transport aircraft doomed the transatlantic passenger shipping market, and she was too expensive to operate on other routes or as a cruise liner.  For decades she's languished at moorings in Philadelphia while efforts were made to develop economically viable plans for her future.  Sadly, that process has now come to an end.

The SS United States and Penn Warehousing have officially settled their two-year-long dispute and the ship will now be turned into an artificial reef in accordance with a museum in Okaloosa County, Florida.

. . .

The statement continued by saying that since they couldn't save the ship in its current state and were under the time constraint of the court order, they had one of two options: scrap the boat or convert it into an artificial reef. The conservancy decided to go with the latter.

"This next chapter of the SS United States' story will bring tens of thousands of people annually from around the world to experience her," Gibbs said. "Okaloosa County has now allocated more than $10 million to reactivate the SS United States as the world's largest artificial reef in tandem with the conservancy's land-based museum and visitor center."

According to Gibbs, the conservancy is committed to creating a state-of-the-art museum infusing modern-day technology with original artifacts and artwork from the SS United States. They plan to incorporate one or both of the ship's funnels, radar mast and recreate areas on the ship using original materials. 

As for the next step, once the conservancy transfers the vessel's title over to Okaloosa County, the ship will leave Philadelphia's waters and head to Norfolk, Virginia, for extensive preparations for reefing over the next several months.

There's more at the link, and in the video report below.

It's sad that so few of the truly historical ships from the past have been preserved.  Britain has done moderately well with nineteenth-century vessels and a few from the twentieth, but in most other cases wars and catastrophes have destroyed famous ships and left few memories of them.  I suppose preserving the United States wasn't really an economical option, but I still regret her passing.  She was an icon of her age.

Author Stephen Ujifusa has written an excellent book about not only the ship and her designer, but of the entire transatlantic travel era that inspired her.

I have it in my library.  It's an entertaining and informative read for all those interested in ships and the sea.  Recommended.

Peter

A couple of useful resources when planning for emergencies

 

I recently came across two very useful resources for those planning how they'll cope with emergency situations.  In the light of very recent experiences with Hurricanes Helene and Milton, they take on added value.

First is "Food Storage & Shelf Life Charts From Months To 25+ Years".  It covers almost all important foods, including what most families seem to eat.  Recommended reading.

Next is an article titled "Home Prep Guide: What You Need To Last 2 Weeks In An Emergency".  It includes a graphic that's particularly valuable:  click on it to view it at a larger size.  Here's a brief excerpt.

Prepping doesn’t have to be daunting. “Preparedness is very simple,” Stewart said, “but without a proper guide, you are going to become overwhelmed.”

In this guide, we streamline the process by outlining the essential items recommended by survival experts.

“Think of preparedness as an insurance policy,” preparedness expert Paul Martin told The Epoch Times. “None of us like paying insurance premiums, but we do it in order to transfer the risk of loss.”

A robust preparedness plan has three core elements: family communication, evacuation, and sheltering in place.

There's much more at the link.  Very useful reading.

Peter

It might work...

 

Stephan Pastis offers a potential solution to the rabid partisanship bedeviling American politics.  Click the image to be taken to a larger view at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

That reminds me of our situation in South Africa in the early 1990's, when rabid radicals on both ends of the political spectrum were attacking and killing each other with diabolical enthusiasm.  Many of us thought that establishing two more bantustans or "homelands", in the style of the old apartheid system, would be an optimal solution.  They'd be right next door to each other.  One would be designated for racists and white supremacists;  the other for black power and communist/terrorist supporters.  Fences would separate them from the rest of the country, but there'd be no barrier between them at all.  While the fanatics of both sides went about killing each other, the rest of us could get on with ending the conflict and restoring democracy.  When everything had been sorted out, we'd let the survivors (if any) out of their "homelands" to rejoin civilization.

It never happened, but we had longing thoughts about it . . . as I'm sure many Americans are about our own homegrown extremists today.

Peter

Some bad news, health-wise

 

As regular readers will know, I've been battling a kidney condition, hydronephrosis, and associated kidney stones for just about a year now.  An ultrasound and two CT scans later, plus three surgical procedures, and I thought it was healed.  Unfortunately, that's proved to be a pipe dream.  A few weeks ago I began to get renewed pain in my kidney, and my waterworks began to dry up.  I was fed up by then with the lack of communication from the local urologist who'd done the work, so I asked my primary care physician to refer me to a top-level specialist at a major medical center, who could analyze what's going on and (hopefully) come up with a solution.

Yesterday my wife and I drove down to the DFW metroplex, and spent three hours at a facility there.  The new (to me) urologist ordered a further CT scan, which they were able to do within an hour (let's hear it for big city medicine and its abundant facilities!).  The upshot is, there are still blockages.  Some of them may, in fact, be scar tissue from earlier procedures that were "less than optimally performed".  Needless to say, I was not delighted to hear that!

I'm expecting to hear today or tomorrow from the scheduler in DFW.  It looks like I'll be having yet another procedure, this time an exploratory one to establish the extent of the problem.  That may include removal of stone fragments from earlier procedures, but it's mostly to get a good look from the inside at what the latest scan is showing.  Depending on what they find, I may be admitted right away for a more invasive procedure, involving going into the kidney through the back and digging out whatever bits and pieces are a problem.  If the damage to the kidney is already too great, then we may be looking at taking it out altogether.  That's not a desirable solution, of course, but there's no point in leaving it in place if it's just going to go on giving me trouble.  It's been dragging on for a year now, so it has to be resolved, one way or another.

Adding to my frustration is, as I've mentioned earlier, the further deterioration in my spine following my disabling injury two decades ago.  A detailed scan has revealed the need for at least two spinal fusions above the site of my existing fusion.  My medical insurance doesn't want to pay for them because the initial injury was paid for by workers compensation;  but workers compensation doesn't want to pay for the new surgeries because (it insists) it's impossible to prove that the deterioration is the result of the previous injury.  (All my doctors insist it is, but getting that past the lawyers and bureaucrats is a tale in itself . . .)

Therefore, I've been planning a fundraiser to ask for your help in paying for that surgery.  It's going to be very expensive, as well as painful, and I'd been putting it off until my kidney problems had been resolved.  Unfortunately, I can't afford to delay any longer, or I may end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.  Look for a fundraiser here within the next week or two.  I'll hopefully get some or all of the cost back from either workers comp and/or medical insurance at some stage, but that may take a year or two to get through the legalese and bureaucratic shenanigans.  I have to get this done out of my own pocket if it's to be done in the short to medium term.

All in all, I'm frustrated and annoyed right now.  This is a terribly depressing and miserable situation to be in.  I'm trying to look on the bright side and find light amid the clouds, but it ain't easy sometimes.  To those of you so inclined, please say a prayer or two for me now and then;  and I'll ask all of you to please spread the word about the fundraiser when it kicks off.  I have no idea whether or not I'll be able to raise enough for the surgery through donations, so my wife and I will be talking to our bank about a second mortgage on our home if necessary.  One way or another, with God's help, we'll make this happen.

To those of you who've been wondering when I'm going to publish more books - that's why you haven't seen any for well over a year.  My levels of pain and medical frustration have been so high as to interfere with the creative writing process (which is a very euphemistic way of putting it).  I have two books almost ready to go, but finding the pain-free time and energy to finish editing and put them through the publishing process is almost impossible right now.  I have every intention of carrying on writing and publishing, even if it does have to happen from a wheelchair;  so keep your fingers crossed, and tie knots in what you can't cross.  Every little helps!

Thanks for listening to me moan about life, the universe and everything.  Oddly enough, it does help to vent about it now and then.  Your support means a great deal to me, and to my wife.

Peter