Somebody in the Marine Corps Band has a sense of humor...

 

This news is a couple of days old, but I only just came across it.  After I stopped laughing, I thought I'd share it here for others who might not have heard it yet.

It's emerged that soon after entering the White House, somebody in the Administration decided that whenever Mrs. Biden entered an official function, she needed her own theme music, much as the President is greeted by "Hail To The Chief".

Somebody - presumably in the Marine Corps Band, which plays at the White House - came up with this "Fanfare for the First Lady".

Only recently did somebody note that the Fanfare sounds uncannily similar to the theme music for the 1960's TV comedy series "F Troop", about a hapless cavalry troop in the Old West that can't do anything right and gets everything wrong.  See - or, rather, listen - for yourself.

Seems to me that the Fanfare is nothing more or less than a (very) thinly disguised rendition of the F Troop theme.  Given the performance of the Biden administration, I daresay it's a pretty fair tribute to its accomplishments, too!

I wonder if the composer of the Fanfare was able to get his tongue out of his cheek after completing it . . . ?

Peter

Climate truth

 

From Chris Martz on Twitter/X:

This plot shows the average number of days per year with daily maximum temperatures ≥95°, ≥100° and ≥105° per USHCN station since 1895.

The trend is down.

You will not see this reported anywhere in the press. I guarantee it. The extremes don’t increase at the same rate that the background warming does. Extremes are a reflection of the bounds of natural variability. Trends don’t create extremes.

There is also no such thing as “climate-fueled heat.” That’s media-spun BS. The climate is not a fuel. Local environmental conditions at the time of occurrence are. That’s called “weather.” Stop confusing the two concepts.

There's more at the link.

Here in north Texas, we're currently well into our annual heat endurance contest.  In any given week, temperatures at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit are likely to dominate, and it'll stay that way until sometime in September.  (We've only lived here for a decade, yet we've already had one summer where the temperature was over 100 degrees on each of over 100 consecutive days.)  According to the news media, this is proof of "global warming".  Around here, we call it "summer", because it's been that way for as long as people have lived here, and is likely to remain that way.

Peter

Lawdog impales the mainstream media on their own lies

 

Friend, blogger, author and publisher Lawdog takes a vituperative look at the mainstream media's cover-up of the long-running Biden scandal.  Here's a sample.

I’m listening to the Legacy Media clutching their pearls and expressing shock — shock, I say — over the state of President Biden’s mental faculties.

Claims from the Media that the “Biden inner circle” “concealed his mental state” are falling upon deaf ears, so they’re pivotting to the excuse of “It’s a sudden decline, over the last couple of months”.

Horse. Puckey.

The Media was there in 2019, when the then-candidate for FICUS called an Iowa farmer a “damned liar” and challenged him to a push-up contest.

They were there in 2020 when he called a voter a “Lying dog-faced pony soldier” for pointing out that he had only come in at 4th place in the Iowa Democratic caucus. 

There were the requests for wheelchair-bound paraplegics to stand up; demands to talk to long-dead European country leaders, tripping over various stairs, ignoring and wandering off from meetings with leaders of allied nations, unprovoked angry outbursts at American troops, calling out to dead Congresswomen at a service where he was dedicating a building to her memory — all of which predate the “last couple of months”.

. . .

Let me ask you a question that should nail home how bad you should be hating journalists right now: How many brain surgeries did Joe Biden undergo in 1988?

The answer is two. Both of them for leaking brain aneurysms, at least one of which was a berry aneurysm at the base of his brain. Not to mention that he got himself a romping pulmonary embolism while recovering from the first time someone went spelunking through his think-pudding.

None of this should be a surprise to any reporter, much less the White House Press Pool, but I’m willing to bet it’s a surprise to some of my Gentle Readers.

There's more at the link.

Lawdog does an excellent job of laying bare the unabashed machinations, censorship and partisanship of the mainstream media.  It's gotten to the point that I literally can't think of a single mainstream media organization that's completely trustworthy to be neutral and unbiased when reporting the news.  (That includes Fox News, which is today as unbalanced on the right as The Atlantic or CNN is on the left.)

When are we going to stop referring to The News Media, and start calling them what they are - The Propagandists?

Peter

First, big trucks; next, our personal vehicles?

 

I note that a proposal to limit the speed of large trucks has been put off until next year.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will delay a potential rule on speed limiters for heavy-duty vehicles once again — this time postponing rulemaking to May 2025, according to a regulatory agenda.

. . .

The proposal seeks to cover interstate commercial vehicles weighing 26,001 pounds or more equipped with an electronic engine control unit capable of governing the truck, whereby the device would restrict the equipment to “a speed to be determined by the rulemaking,” per the updated agenda.

The issue has drawn critics and supporters. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has said such limits would disrupt traffic flow and lead to more crashes. The Truckload Carriers Association noted room for flexibility with the devices, suggesting 65 mph or 70 mph restrictions and a need to reexamine policy every five years.

There's more at the link.

On the face of it, it sounds like a useful idea.  I've been passed by, and have had to avoid, fast-moving 18-wheelers, and I'm sure many of us have been scared by them on the roads too often for comfort.  However, this is yet another "thin end of the wedge" issue.  If, after a year or two of limited truck speeds, some unelected bureaucrat or progressive-left pressure group claims that lower limits have been a success from a safety perspective, and that therefore lighter vehicles should also be limited in their maximum speed . . . how will that be countered?

I can think of a few good arguments against it:

• In an emergency - for example, if you want to get someone to the hospital in a hurry - a speed-limited vehicle may prevent you arriving there in time to save the victim.
• Sometimes you need speed to get out of the way of a fast-moving hazard (for example, a vehicle barreling along a roadway out of control).  If you can't go faster than your vehicle's speed limiter allows, you may not be able to avoid the resulting accident.

I'm sure there are many more instances where limiting speed might be hazardous to your health.  However, that's never yet stopped an over-officious bureaucrat or left-wing pressure group.

Also, what happens when speed limits are arbitrarily lowered due to external pressures?  As an example, consider the National Maximum Speed Law passed in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, leading to  Sammy Hagar's famous protest that "I can't drive 55!"  The lowered speed limit was extremely unpopular among almost all motorists, and was abandoned as soon as feasible;  but we don't know whether that outcome would be permitted this time around.  The Karens in our administrative state would doubtless do all they could to grab, and hold onto, yet another way to control us.

Vehicle speed limiters are now mandatory in all European Union nations.  How soon until we face the same official mandate?

Peter

Cute!

 

A kitten experiences a sunbeam for the first time.

All together now:  Aaaawwwww!

Peter

"The blunder that changed chickens forever"

 

I was interested to learn that today's enormous US chicken industry started with a simple ordering error.  This video was originally on the BBC, but this copy has been posted to YouTube.

Just a minor mistake . . . or was that a poultry error?

Peter

Hotels and migrants in New York City - a license to print money?

 

Yesterday I ran into an acquaintance who lives in Lawton, Oklahoma.  I'll call him Kumar (not his real name, for reasons of confidentiality).  He manages a hotel along I-44 in Lawton, one of several owned by his extended family around the country.  He was driving a brand-new Mercedes SUV, a big change from his normal run-down delivery van.

I asked him how he'd been able to afford the upgrade.  He smiled, and said "We owe it all to the New York municipal council."

"Come again?" I asked, puzzled.

"Oh, they've rented both of our family's hotels in the city - every single room - to house migrants, almost since they started arriving in New York.  We're making over a million dollars every month in gross revenue off the migrant surge!  Sure, the expenses are high, too, but overall we've doubled our net family income."

He may have been exaggerating, but a quick Internet search shows he's pretty much on the mark.

In New York City, hotels that have converted into shelters for hordes of illegal aliens have been given over $1 billion in taxpayer money to keep them in business.

As reported by Fox News, the average hotel room for an illegal costs $156 per night, with some costing over $300 per night. As such, the city government has already spent at least $1.98 billion on housing for illegals, with 80% of that amount going to hotels or inns that have been converted into shelters, rather than to shelters operated by the city. Overall, the city has spent at least $4.88 billion on the mass migration crisis.

. . .

Business owners in the surrounding neighborhoods have noted the decline in economic revenue for their businesses and others around them, as the tourists that would normally stay in such hotels and subsequently patronize their own businesses have been replaced by illegals who have no money.

“Our taxes are being used to pay for the migrants, and where are we supposed to make revenue?” asked William Shandler, manager at the Iron Bar located across the street from the Row hotel. “How as a business could we function?”

Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola also criticized the gutting of the tourism industry in favor of illegals, pointing out that hotels were built to be used by tourists, “not for sheltering the masses of people pouring over our borders every day.”

“These locations were meant to boost the economy of this city,” Ariola continued, “but instead they’ve become a net drain and are costing us enormously.”

There's more at the link.

Kumar's family came here from India about 40 or 50 years ago, if I understand correctly.  His grandfather and grandmother slaved at any work they could find, and saved every penny they could, while pushing their kids to do well at school.  By the end of ten years, they'd saved enough to buy their first motel, near a major Interstate highway in Pennsylvania.  Grandpa and Grandma managed it, and made sure all the kids worked there before and after school, saving the cost of hiring workers.  By the time most of the kids had graduated high school, the family could afford to buy a second hotel, this one in New Jersey.  It went on like that until today, with three generations of the family involved, they own eleven hotels, all managed by family members, sharing their revenues so that the whole family enjoys the rewards of their hard work.

Well done to all of them - they've certainly demonstrated that the American dream is still within reach if you're prepared to work hard and go for it.  I'm just annoyed that in the process, they've illustrated how fundamentally corrupt our local and regional governments have become.  Look at the numbers cited above.  One city is spending almost $5 billion - so far - to house migrants who should never have been allowed across the border in the first place;  and all that money is coming from local ratepayers and businesses, most of whom desperately need it themselves!  The only upside I can see is that Kumar's family is spending a lot of that windfall income to buy more hotels, and spread themselves out further in this land of opportunity.  One can't blame them at all.  In the process, they're providing a needed service, and that's something we can all appreciate.

Pity one can't say the same about New York City and its demented spendthrift policies . . .

Peter

"Don't buy a house built in 2024"

 

That's the message from a construction worker in a video that I came across on Twitter/X.  It's less than two minutes long, and worth watching.  PROFANITY ALERT:  The speaker isn't afraid to drop F-bombs all over the place, but that doesn't make his message any less worthwhile.

Basically, the construction worker shows us the shoddy materials and workmanship that can be found in almost all modern construction, due largely (he says) to the fact that better materials often aren't available.  As he points out, once everything's assembled and hidden behind siding, we'll never know how poor the quality is - until something goes wrong, or something fails, and we have to pay for repairs.

If he's right, the entire construction industry right now appears to be a giant rip-off.  I don't see how it can be that bad everywhere, because it would surely have become a national scandal by now;  but I'm prepared to believe that it's that bad in certain areas, or involving certain products.  That being the case, forewarned is fore-armed.

Go watch the video, and learn.

Peter

A real election nightmare

 

James Howard Kunstler imagines the unthinkable:

Finally, there’s the novelty solution to this fine mess: “Joe Biden” stays in the race, bumps Kamala, installs Barack Obama in the veep candidate slot, they romp, then somewhere around January 21, 2025, “JB” bows out. . . and cazart! It’s back to the Good ol’ days with President Obama again! What a play!  Genius! You see, the 22nd Amendment only says: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice. Doesn’t say anything about getting elected veep and then being elevated to president by happenstance. If that doesn’t save our democracy, I don’t know what will.

A nightmare prospect indeed!  That'll make it Obama's fourth term, because he's effectively been in command all the way through Biden's first . . .

Peter

Yet another reason to leave big cities

 

Welcome to the urban world of the 2020's, in at least some American cities.  An NBC affiliate reports:

Delivery drivers in the South Bay say they're increasingly worried about becoming robbery targets.

It's happening enough that at least one company, Core Mart, is now hiring armed guards to escort its drivers.

Darrell Cortez, a retired San Jose police officer who now works in corporate and retail security, said, "Unfortunately, this is what society has become now with armed guards guarding merchandise from the retailer because there seems to be a sense of lawlessness in our society."

There's more at the link.

And we're supposed to go into those stores in those cities and spend our hard-earned money there, despite the risks posed by thieves outside and inside, aggressive panhandlers, drug addicts looking for a quick score, homeless folks with unpredictable and frequently unsafe behavior living on the streets, and who knows what else?

It makes the old Budweiser tail gunner joke sound rather more real than funny!

Sorry.  Count me out.  I prefer to live and shop in safer climes.

Peter

Inflation and economy watch

 

When it comes to figuring out what our economy is doing, most of the high mucky-mucks of politics and finance are simply not to be trusted.  They insist that things are all wine and roses, running along quite splendidly . . . and meanwhile they're making sure they won't be affected by the downturn they must surely know is coming.

I've been accused of being a financial alarmist, of issuing warnings that never seem to be realized in reality.  Well, they mostly have already been realized, as regular observers of our economy will realize:  and they continue to be realized, on almost a daily basis.  To reinforce the message, here are five inputs from different sources that you can read and research for yourself, to figure out what's going on.  I highly recommend that you take the time to do so.

First, from Quoth The Raven, interviewing Chris Martenson:

The US Is A "Runaway Train"

"We clearly have a runaway monetary fiscal train at this point in time, and it's just headed towards what I call the nuclear reactor critical mass runaway moment,” Chris told me. “Higher interest payments beget more borrowing, which begets higher interest rates, which begets higher interest payments. And you're on that spiral. That's the death spiral, which happens to companies, but it can happen to countries too.”

He continued: “We could have probably kicked the can another cycle or two, but now you have the rest of the world backing away, if not trotting away from the U.S. dollar, and people don't get it yet. China's negatively hoarding their treasuries, they're dis-hoarding right now. So China's selling. Japan's in a world of hurt. I don't know if you see, but the yen's here banging around at the 160 level again. So they're selling, and their big bank has to probably sell some treasuries. Russia, obviously not buying any of our crap—they kicked that habit in 2018. But Saudi Arabia now not buying treasuries, dis-hoarding.”

And he raised questions about where, exactly, treasury demand is coming from, telling me: “So who's buying? Well, you go to the Treasury International Capital Report. You find out, oh good, the Cayman Islands stepped in. Dude, we need an audit of the Fed right away. I don't think it's always suspicious to see it, no, because every time we need the Cayman Islands and the UK to step up and buy just hand over fist treasuries, somehow they do.”

Finally, Chris — like most of us watching flawed policy unfold — says we’re definitely going back to QE: “But listen, here's a prediction. It's very easy to make for me. The Fed's going to have to go back to QE. It's not just lowering interest rates—that's going to do dick all for us at this point. They're going to go back to QE because we can't risk a treasury failure. We have $9 trillion of debt, new and existing, rolling through the auction market this next calendar year. And so the Fed's going to have to step in and start buying that stuff. Full stop. That's inflation."

Next, from CNN:

The world is sitting on a $91 trillion problem. ‘Hard choices’ are coming

The International Monetary Fund last week reiterated its warning that “chronic fiscal deficits” in the US must be “urgently addressed.”

. . .

Tackling America’s debt problem will require either tax hikes or cuts to benefits, such as social security and health insurance programs, said Karen Dynan, former chief economist at the US Treasury and now professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. “Many (politicians) are not willing to talk about the hard choices that are going to need to be made. These are very serious decisions… and they could be very consequential for people’s lives.”

. . .

In the United States, the federal government will spend $892 billion in the current fiscal year on interest payments — more than it has earmarked for defense and approaching the budget for Medicare, health insurance for older people and those with disabilities.

Next year, interest payments will top $1 trillion on national debt of more than $30 trillion, itself a sum roughly equal to the size of the US economy, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Congress’s fiscal watchdog.

Debt is a problem in itself, right enough, but it also boosts inflation, which is something affecting far more of us.  Here's Jeffrey Tucker, who reminds us about "The Many Faces Of Inflation".

There is clearly no chance that inflation has been running 3 to 5 percent. Once you do all the corrections to the data, you can easily generate a number 3 times that level or perhaps even 4 or 5.

No one knows for sure.

It’s not just higher prices for the same goods and services you used to buy.

Tucker goes on to list numerous inputs to overall inflation:

• Shrinkflation;
• Substitution of cheaper ingredients for more expensive ones;
• Service costs;
• Increases in taxes and fees;
• Shipping and delivery charges;
• Confusing and misleading charges and additions to your phone and utility bills;
• Increased insurance costs (Tucker notes that "Neither home nor auto insurance are included in the calculation of the Consumer Price Index");
• Higher interest rates;
• Increases in home rental and purchase rates.

He concludes:

All of this stuff is complicated for a reason. It’s because all companies today are hiding their charges from the customer for fear of a revolt. If they are hiding them from the customer, they obviously and easily hide them from the data mavens at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

. . .

When you add it all up ... we find something approaching what used to be called hyperinflation. And this is taking place even as the business press is celebrating the end of inflation, and has been for fully two years!

Strange times indeed: the dollar is being gradually wrecked domestically while growing stronger internationally, and it’s never really been in the headlines.

This is why you feel so gaslit these days.

In another article a few days later, Tucker asks "Wait, How Much Have Groceries Gone Up?"

The most startling moment in the CNN debate last week between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump was not from the candidates. It was from moderator Jake Tapper, who said with a straight face as if it were just the science that grocery prices were up by 20 percent since President Biden was elected.

. . .

The trouble is that this fits with no one’s experiences. People on social media are posting receipts showing grocery prices up by anywhere between two and 10 times that rate.

In one viral video that offered receipts, a man bought 45 items (he says a full month of groceries) two years ago for $145. WalMart’s software allows him to reorder that now. He tried it just as a test. The new price: $414.

That’s an increase in two years of 185 percent! If we stretch that to three years assuming no inflation in the first, that’s an annualized increase of 61 percent. Over two years, it’s 92.5 percent.

Adding in some inflation in the first year, we can round it to 100 percent annualized, which is hyperinflation by any measure.

Commentators offered corrections that this is just one person’s experience. Maybe there was one item in there that went up vastly in price, changing the entire basket. All that is true. However, I tried looking at a few items that I bought in 2021 and found price increases of 54 percent. That’s just one item but a very normal one: lemon juice.

When all the anecdotal evidence points one way and all the official data points another way, we’ve got a problem. The distance between real experience and the official data is gigantic. And it raises the eternal problem first articulated by Chico Marx: “Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?”

. . .

What about the CPI? It excludes interest rate increases on everything: taxes, housing, health insurance (accurately), homeowners insurance, car insurance, government services such as public schools, shrinkflation, quality declines, substitutions due to price, or additional service fees. In particular, on the last point, a basket must compare prices in two periods. A new service and convenience fee or a simple charge for processing is not included because it is new.

People often ask: Is this all a deliberate obfuscation or is it the limits of data collection? I tend toward the latter explanation while granting that reports of a lower rate are politically advantageous. People loathe inflation. No one wants to report bad news, and that might be true of data collectors themselves.

The data collectors are sticking with systems that seemed to work in the past, but the way in which inflationary pressures have boiled through production and consumption structures this time, which is without precedent, has simply outrun the ability of old-fashioned systems of calculation to keep up.

In essence, the real world is blowing up the models.

. . .

My suggestion: Dig through your receipts. The good old days live in your digital archive. Do your own calculation and see what you come up with.

Finally, Vox Day mentions an example that I've heard from several other people over the past few weeks.

A reader notices that the credit card companies are rapidly reducing the amount of credit available to their more conservative cardholders.

My husband and I run a small business and have noticed an unusual practice by credit card companies over the last 4-5 months.

Our business is seasonal, and during our ramp up in from February to April, we usually max out 6 cards on supplies and improvements for the coming season. And then the profits from May and June pay those down, before we start making real profits July-October. We’ve been doing this for over ten years, and typically the result of the max-out and quick pay down has been an increased credit limit. 

This year, as we have started the pay down, each large pay down amount, say $2000 on a $10,000 card for example, has come with a credit limit reduction of 50% – 100% of the amount paid. One card, upon paying it off in whole dropped from $2500 to $350 as the limit. 

We have no personal reasons that our limits in particular would be getting slashed after so many years of increases. So I am wondering if this is a systemic attempt to use debt deflation to slow the rate of inflation without further interest rate increases. 

More generally, if what I’m seeing is systemic, is this a correct understanding of debt deflation? 

This is 100 percent debt deflation. And in some ways, it’s more worrisome than the leadup to the 2008 contraction. Whereas in 2008, there was a dearth of people willing to borrow, now it is apparent that the banks simply can’t afford to offer the credit if there isn’t a sufficient amount of interest to be gained.

Which suggests that the 2024 credit cruch and subsequent financial institution failures will be bigger and more consequential than we witnessed in 2008. It’s even possible that the federal government will not be able to bail out most of the failing institutions.

I had something similar happen to me during the 2007/08 financial crisis.  At the time, I had a high-limit credit card on which I was carrying a large balance.  Out of the blue, when I made a large payment to reduce the balance, my credit limit was slashed by more than 50%, to equal the remaining balance.  When I protested, the card issuer informed me that they were reducing everybody's credit limit "due to the financial crisis", despite the fact that I'd never defaulted on a payment and was in good financial health.  They then informed me that I would lose my favorable interest rate and have to pay a greatly increased one on my outstanding balance, and would be required to further reduce my balance within a few months.  I closed my account rather than adhere to their ridiculous restrictions.

Unfortunately, it looks like more than a few people today are encountering similar policies.  Apart from Vox's correspondents, I've heard similar reports from at least a dozen sources.  If credit card issuers are being that cautious and restrictive, what does that say about their perspective on current and future economic conditions?  They're clearly preparing for something not very good.  Shouldn't we do likewise?

Food for thought.  I can only suggest that we all take these factors into account now, while we may still have some financial "wiggle room".

Peter

Keep your guard up - because if you let it drop, you may not have time to get it back

 

Remaining alert and prepared for danger, whatever it may be, is the hallmark of successful individuals, groups, tribes and nations.  Those who don't . . . well, most of them aren't around any longer, or if they are, their lack of preparedness has cost them dearly before they could ensure their survival.  That's not just in military terms, either (although the example of Formerly Great Britain in 1914 and 1939 should convey its own message);  it applies to being prepared for emergencies of any kind, at any time.

I was reminded of that by a citation over at Larry Lambert's place, where he referred to this article.

Two underlying assumptions guided Israel’s security establishment for the past generation. The first asserted that with the end of the Cold War, the era of conventional wars had ended. In the present age, brains, rather than brawn, would rule the roost ... A generation of IDF Chiefs of General Staff organized around the vision of a “small, technological and lethal army.”

. . .

Brick’s warnings fell on deaf ears until the “small, smart army” fallacy was obliterated by Hamas invaders on Oct. 7. Israel’s multi-billion shekel “smart fence” was felled by bulldozers. Its automatic response system was obliterated by RPGs. Hundreds of soldiers manning these worthless technological wonders were slaughtered or kidnapped. Everything failed.

This brings us to the second underlying assumption that guided Israel’s security establishment for the past generation. This assumption, also championed by Barak, asserted that Israel’s most important strategic asset was the United States ... Under the spell of Barak’s U.S. dependence doctrine, Israel gutted its domestic military production capabilities. Nearly everything that it had produced domestically—from uniforms to rifles to bullets, to artillery and tank shells—was shut down. Thousands of military industry workers lost their jobs. Knowledge was lost. The contracts moved to the United States. Even projects developed jointly by Israeli engineers financed by America were transferred to the United States for production. So it happened that Israel’s Iron Dome missiles are solely produced in the United States.

Along with Barak, the dependence doctrine’s biggest champions were the air force generals. Under their leadership, Israel’s air force effectively became a U.S. asset. The air force cannot operate without U.S. platforms, spare parts and bombs. All air force ordnance is made in America.

. . .

It will take years to correct the damage the generals wrought by reducing the size of the IDF and inducing its total dependence on the United States ... the Defense Ministry is launching a crash program with Israel’s military industries and major industrialists to make Israel independent in everything related to ordnance. In the initial phase, Israel will begin producing bombs for its aircraft. Jerusalem also intends to expand its production of tank and artillery shells, as well as assault rifles and bullets. Separately, there is increased discussion regarding the establishment of a missile force as an independent arm of the IDF. The force would reduce reliance on the air force and develop more versatile, more easily defended missile launch platforms and massively expand Israel’s missile and drone arsenals.

. . .

Brick and others argue that had Hezbollah joined Hamas in invading and bombing Israel on Oct. 7, Israel may well have been destroyed that day. A combination of Hezbollah’s 10,000-man Radwan Brigades perched at the border and capable of invading the Galilee, and a barrage of up to 4,000 missiles with various payloads targeting Israel’s air bases, and other strategic sites and civilian population centers every day for weeks, would have caused irreparable damage equal in force to a nuclear bomb.

There's more at the link.  The whole article is well worth reading in full.

The article drives home, yet again, for the umpteenth time in history, the truth of Vegetius' adapted and oft-repeated statement:

Si vis pacem, para bellum.

If you want peace, prepare for war.

Nobody ever won a war by preparing for peace.

Nobody ever became more prepared for an emergency by ignoring emergency preparations.

Nobody ever prospered by ignoring the dangers that imperil prosperity.

We can put it any way we like, in any context of human endeavor that we wish, but the truth remains inescapable.  If we close our eyes to reality, and relax, and forget about the innumerable lessons embodied in human history, we're going to get clobbered when it comes around again.  For a very sobering example of that, see this post from Karl Denninger, where he describes how a well-prepared friend was undone by the little things that had been forgotten or ignored - but came back to bite him when his emergency preparations were really needed.

How many people in the Caribbean, and the Yucatan Peninsula, and the southern Gulf Coast of Texas, did nothing to prepare for a hurricane - despite living in one of the most hurricane-prone regions of the world?  Hurricane Beryl is currently reminding them to be more prepared and proactive in future.

How many of us are watching the present political instability in the United States' government and not preparing for major upheavals?  We have a President who's manifestly incapable of managing his own affairs, let alone the nation's.  Can we trust his finger on the nuclear button in emergency?  I don't.  I don't think anyone with any sense does . . . yet he's still in office, and the powers that be are desperate to persuade us that everything's fine, and there's no danger.  One rogue state taking matters into its own hands, and that can change in literally seconds.  Do you feel safe?

Our economy is a mess.  Warning signs are flashing all over (I'll be writing more about that later today or tomorrow.)  Do we feel prosperous?  Do we feel economically secure?  Then we aren't prepared for what's likely to happen Real Soon Now.

BE PREPARED.  IF YOU'RE NOT YET PREPARED, GET PREPARED AS BEST YOU CAN . . . or else.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 217

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  There's a bumper crop in this edition, thanks to Independence Day generating a lot more memes than usual.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

Something different this Sunday, combining very old musical styles with recent pop and rock hits.  Algal the Bard plays a genre he largely originated, which has become known as Bardcore:   "medieval-inspired remakes of popular songs".

I don't like some of them, but then, I don't like a lot of modern music.  However, some are very well done indeed.  Here are a few samples.  First, Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters".

Next, a "tavern version" of "Take On Me".

"Losing My Religion" in medieval style.

And finally, here's "Toxicity" from System Of A Down.

You'll find many more of his videos at his YouTube channel.  Do a search there on "Bardcore" for more performers and music in the genre.

Peter

No Snippet today

 

No book excerpt this morning.  We have house guests, which is occupying our time, and I'm still not fully back to normal (as far as normal goes, I guess!) after all my medical procedures over the past few months.  I simply haven't been able to get around to preparing a snippet.

Please amuse yourselves with the bloggers in the sidebar.

Peter

The trials and tribulations of married life...

 

... according to Jennie Breeden and her "The Devil's Panties" comic strip.  Click the image to be taken to a larger version at her Web page.

"Renewed our vows".  Gigglesnort!

Peter

Again I say it: There is NO, repeat, NO trustworthy news coming out of the Ukraine war...

 

... unless and until you verify it through at least half a dozen reliable (well, as reliable as possible) sources.  I don't care whether Ukraine or Russia is claiming something:  they're all lying.

The latest example is the "scandal" over Ukraine leader Zelensky's wife's alleged purchase of a Bugatti sports car.  It was made up out of whole cloth by Russian propaganda sources.  You can read all about it in this BBC report, which shows how it was created and disseminated, and why it's "fake news".

I've gotten to the point where, if I know that a news report originated from one or the other side's official sources, I automatically disbelieve it.  The only people I'll listen to are those that use independent sources (particularly satellite imagery, reports from people on the ground who've established a reputation for reliability, and so on).  If they report and/or confirm something, all well and good.  If they don't . . . fuggetaboutit.

The same goes for video clips of fighting in the area.  We've seen "recycled" video footage dating back years, even decades, purporting to show atrocities.  I'm sure there are some real clips among them, but when it's so difficult to verify any of them, why waste time trusting them?  Given modern technology and editing facilities, the camera can - and does - lie like a trooper.

Trouble is, too many of our legislators believe - or pretend to believe - such biased sources, and use them to justify voting for a few dozen billion dollars more for Ukraine, or more sanctions against Russia.  They don't want to know the truth, because if they did (and their constituents did) they'd be voted out of office for being spendthrift wasters of taxpayer dollars.  US veterans need health care?  Victims of natural disasters in our country need help to recover?  None of that matters as much as funneling more of our dollars into the bottomless pit of the Ukraine war - not to mention the few billion here and there that get kicked back to our politicians as a "Thank you!" for their compliance.

One of the nicest things about President Trump's term of office was that he didn't get America involved in any more foreign adventures;  in fact, he pulled a lot of US troops out of areas they had no need to be, and brought them home.  That alone offers good grounds to vote for him next time round, IMHO.

Peter

So much for globular worming and sea level rise

 

Courtesy of Pascal Fervor, commenting at Liberty's Torch, we find this object lesson in reality.  Click the image for a larger view.

Next time a climate alarmist tries to pull "The seas are rising!" on you, show them that picture, and ask them to explain it.  They won't, of course - because they can't, unless they admit that sea levels on the whole are not rising.

Thank you, ancient Romans!

Peter

"America grew tall out of the cramping ache of old Europe"

 

That's from a 2013 article in Vanity Fair, examining why European elites unjustifiably feel so smugly superior to Americans and their country.  I thought it might be fitting, this July 4th, to bring it to your attention.  Here's an excerpt.

Enough. Enough, enough, enough of this convivial rant, this collectively confirming bigotry. The nasty laugh of little togetherness, or Euro-liberal insecurity. It’s embarrassing, infectious, and belittling. Look at that European snapshot of America. It is so unlike the country I have known for 30 years. Not just a caricature but a travesty, an invention. Even on the most cursory observation, the intellectual European view of the New World is a homemade, Old World effigy that suits some internal purpose. The belittling, the discounting, the mocking of Americans is not about them at all. It’s about us, back here on the ancient, classical, civilized Continent. Well, how stupid can America actually be? On the international list of the world’s best universities, 14 of the top 20 are American. Four are British. Of the top 100, only 4 are French, and Heidelberg is one of 4 that creeps in for the Germans. America has won 338 Nobel Prizes. The U.K., 119. France, 59. America has more Nobel Prizes than Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia combined. Of course, Nobel Prizes aren’t everything, and America’s aren’t all for inventing Prozac or refining oil. It has 22 Peace Prizes, 12 for literature. (T. S. Eliot is shared with the Brits.)

And are Americans emotionally dim, naïve, irony-free? Do you imagine the society that produced Dorothy Parker and Lenny Bruce doesn’t understand irony? It was an American who said that political satire died when they awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger. It’s not irony that America lacks; it’s cynicism. In Europe, that arid sneer out of which nothing is grown or made is often mistaken for the creative scalpel of irony. And what about vulgarity? Americans are innately, sniggeringly vulgar. What, vulgar like Henry James or Eleanor Roosevelt or Cole Porter, or the Mormons? Again, it’s a question of definitions. What Americans value and strive for is straight talking, plain saying. They don’t go in for ambiguity or dissembling, the etiquette of hidden meaning, the skill of the socially polite lie. The French in particular confuse unadorned direct language with a lack of culture or intellectual elegance. It was Camus who sniffily said that only in America could you be a novelist without being an intellectual. There is a belief that America has no cultural depth or critical seriousness. Well, you only have to walk into an American bookshop to realize that is wildly wrong and willfully blind. What about Mark Twain, or jazz, or Abstract Expressionism?

What is so contrary about Europe’s liberal antipathy to America is that any visiting Venusian anthropologist would see with the merest cursory glance that America and Europe are far more similar than they are different. The threads of the Old World are woven into the New. America is Europe’s greatest invention. That’s not to exclude the contribution to America that has come from around the globe, but it is built out of Europe’s ideas, Europe’s understanding, aesthetic, morality, assumptions, and laws. From the way it sets a table to the chairs it sits on, to the rhythms of its poetry and the scales of its music, the meter of its aspirations and its laws, its markets, its prejudices and neuroses. The conventions and the breadth of America’s reason are European.

This isn’t a claim for ownership, or for credit. But America didn’t arrive by chance. It wasn’t a ship that lost its way. It wasn’t coincidence or happenstance. America grew tall out of the cramping ache of old Europe.

There's much more at the link.

It's worth a read, if others' opinion about America bothers you.  Since moving here almost thirty years ago, I've become more and more proud to be an adopted American.  Despite all this country's innumerable problems, I wouldn't choose to be anywhere else.  I'd rather stay here and help fix my home.

A happy and blessed Independence Day to us all!

Peter

A tourist trap disappears

 

It seems an old sword has vanished.  It's deemed by locals (particularly those in the tourist trade) to be the original, real, cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die, pinky-swear Durandal belonging to the mythically-enhanced, legendary Roland, one of Charlemagne's military governors during the 8th century AD.  The Telegraph reports:

It is southern France’s answer to Excalibur, the mythical sword that King Arthur legendarily pulled from a rock to obtain the British throne.

However, Rocamadour has no idea who managed to wrench its famed Durandal sword from the stone in which it had been embedded for centuries, particularly because it was 10 metres (32.5 feet) off the ground.

All the town knows is that one of its main tourist attractions has vanished. It is presumed stolen and an investigation has been launched.

Durandal was the sword of Roland, a legendary paladin (knight) and officer of Charlemagne in French epic literature. According to the legend, Durandal was indestructible and the sharpest sword in all existence, capable of cutting through giant boulders with a single strike.

Its magical qualities are recounted in the 11th-century epic poem The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving major work of French literature.

. . .

Medieval “myth” has it that before it was given to Roland, Charlemagne received Durandal from an angel. Before his death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, Roland is said to have tried in vain to break it on the rocks to prevent his enemies from seizing it. He finally threw it into the air to save it. Miraculously travelling hundreds of kilometres, it is said to have embedded itself in the rock face of Rocamadour.

There's more at the link.

I can't help laughing at the fuss and bother.  It's patently obvious to anybody with two working brain cells to rub together that Rocamadour installed a fake Durandal to attract medieval tourists, who were rather more credulous than their modern equivalents.  It's the same sort of fake as the "pieces cut from the sail of Saint Peter's fishing-boat!" that pedlars sold to pilgrims, or the fabled "Holy House of Loreto", the purported original home of the Virgin Mary.  It supposedly flew (powered by angels) from Nazareth in the Holy Land, via two other locations, until it landed in Loreto, Italy (which proceeded to make a fortune from pilgrims thronging there to see it).

(Perhaps Boeing might like to hire the angels concerned?  They need all the help they can get right now!)

So, a long-standing fake has been stolen.  So what???  Just whip up a convincing copy of it, put it back in place, and Bob's your uncle.  It's not as if the stolen fake has any value, intrinsic or otherwise.  "Flew from Roncevaux to Rocamadour", my fundamental jujube!

(On the other hand, if President Biden turns up wielding the stolen Durandal copy during his next debate with former President Trump, all sorts of things might get more interesting!  It might help his cutting remarks . . . )

Peter

This year, next year, sometime, never...

 

The latest Sequential Art cartoon made me grin wryly - and snarl a little, too.  Click the image to be taken to a larger version at the comic's Web page.

I've had far too many one-sided telephone conversations like that.  When can we have a menu tree that includes, "Press hash to permanently, utterly destroy the company's automated answering system"?  I reckon that would be the most popular and most-used option out there!

Peter

Fireworks

 

I come from a country (South Africa) where fireworks were never a big cultural "thing".  The 5th of November (Guy Fawkes Night) was celebrated as a sort of hangover from colonial days, but not in a big way.  Dad would buy a small box of mixed fireworks, and us kids would wave sparklers enthusiastically while Roman Candles and small rockets lit up the sky over the garden - but it wasn't that big a deal to us.  It was almost exclusively a family affair, with few or no public displays of fireworks.  We didn't spend the rest of the year breathlessly waiting for the next round of bangs, booms and zooms.

Thus, when I came to this country, I was taken aback by the enthusiasm shown by almost everyone, adults and kids alike, at the prospect of converting large sums of money into smoke and (particularly) noise.  I can do that on a shooting range and get some useful practice out of it, but just blowing paper, cardboard and powder into the sky?  It simply doesn't do much for me.  Last weekend, when the town we live in held its annual July 4th fireworks display a little early, I didn't even bother to go out and look.  I did some writing at my desk, comforted the cats (who were being driven frantic by the excessive noise) and endured as patiently as possible until it was over.  I know some (a lot?) of my friends here can't figure that out.  To them, this is a highlight of the civic year, and the more noise we make, the better.  Well, I'm glad they enjoy it.

Something I could never figure out was the seemingly immense number of small fireworks stalls and outlets along the sides of local roads.  Within a couple of miles radius of my home there are at least five, all operating seasonally for major celebrations like July 4th.  A couple of weeks before the day they'll open their doors, and close them again a week afterwards, reverting to their usual status of derelict old shipping containers and garden sheds, locked up until next time.  I wondered how on earth their owners could make a living off such haphazard businesses . . . until I read Mr. B's explanation.

One of the guys that hangs around the airport works for an FBO….and his side job is managing at a Fireworks Outlet.

He was telling us that their market research tells them that the average customer spends nearly 820 dollars for the Independence Day holiday….And their average customer is on welfare or other government assistance, has 4 children, and gets some form of housing subsidy. They nearly all live below the poverty line.

Yet, oddly, they have enough money for fireworks.

He also said that the year they gave out Covid subsidy checks was the best year ever for the business.

There's more at the link.

The average customer spends $820 for Independence Day celebrations?  I don't know if that's for food and drinks as well as fireworks, but even so, ye gods and little fishes!  Those fireworks are over and above the bigger displays put on by almost all cities, towns and villages all over the country.  Around this time of year, you could fly over rural northern Texas and think you were having a flashback to World War II, with every town in sight trying to shoot down everything passing overhead!

I'm sorry.  I must be holiday-spirit-deficient in some way, because the thought of that much money being blown sky-high at this time of year - when many, many people are finding it so hard to make ends meet - is just . . . weird.

Peter

What if this happened to the Mississippi River?

 

I was interested to read that an ancient course of the Ganges River in India, some 2,500 years old, has been discovered.

Earthquakes, caused by the shifting of Earth’s tectonic plates, have the potential to transform the face of the world. Now, for the first time, scientists have evidence that earthquakes can reroute rivers: It happened to the Ganges River 2,500 years ago.

. . .

In a July 2016 study, Dr. Michael Steckler ... had previously reconstructed the tectonic plate movements — gigantic slowly moving pieces of Earth’s crust and uppermost mantle — that account for earthquakes experienced in the Ganges Delta.

His models showed that the likely source of earthquakes in the region is more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) away from the sand volcanoes that Chamberlain and her colleagues found. Based on the large size of the sand volcanoes, the quake must have been at least a 7 or an 8 magnitude — approaching the size of the Great 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

. . .

About 50 miles (85 kilometers) away from the sand volcanoes, the scientists also found a large river channel that filled with mud at roughly the same time. This finding indicates that 2,500 years ago, the course of the river dramatically changed. The proximity of these events in both time and space suggests that a massive earthquake 2,500 years ago is the cause of this rerouting of the Ganges.

There's more at the link.

The now-demonstrated fact that a major earthquake can change the course of even a huge river like the Ganges, moving it 50 to 100 miles away from its previous course, made me think hard.  I don't know that we've ever seen the like in North America;  most of our rivers have changed course through a combination of erosion and silting (as far as I know, anyway).  However, what might happen if something like the New Madrid Fault let go in a big way?

Earthquakes that occur in the New Madrid Seismic Zone potentially threaten parts of seven American states: Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and to a lesser extent Mississippi and Indiana.

The 150-mile (240 km)-long seismic zone, which extends into five states, stretches southward from Cairo, Illinois; through Hayti, Caruthersville, and New Madrid in Missouri; through Blytheville into Marked Tree in Arkansas. It also covers a part of West Tennessee near Reelfoot Lake, extending southeast into Dyersburg. It is southwest of the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone.

Again, more at the link.

What's more, the New Madrid Fault runs slap bang underneath the Mississippi River.  If it really let go, it could easily produce an earthquake with a magnitude of 7 to 8 - it already has in the not too distant past.  If it were big enough, and lasted for long enough, what might that do to the biggest river on our continent?  If a waterway that big were to be displaced by 50 to 100 miles east or west, how much of our economy, our cities and our population would it take with it?  And what would happen to anything in the way?

It's a fascinating subject for speculation.  I wonder if it might make an interesting novel - perhaps set in older times, around the Civil War or Wild West period, as alternate history?  There were powerful earthquakes along the Fault in 1811-12.  What if they were repeated, say, 60 or 70 years later, at even greater intensity?

Hmmm . . .

Peter

And so say all combat veterans, cops, firefighters and paramedics!

 

Found on MeWe:

(Presumably referring to this study.)

And all of us who've "been up the sharp end" in our joint and several ways nod our heads in agreement, and say (loudly, with feeling, in well-lubricated chorus):

Of course it is!  You don't think we'd have been there without being demented, do you?

Sheesh!!!

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #1,115

 

I guess this post could also be titled "Headline Of The Day":

Man arrested for using fake ID

to bond friend out of jail,

who was arrested for using fake IDs

A man was arrested Monday after he allegedly used fake IDs and information to make purchases at several St. Tammany Parish stores. 

Later that same day, his believed accomplice was also arrested for using a fake ID to try and bond him out of jail. 

One would think that, knowing your buddy had just been arrested over fake ID's, you might perhaps consider that the cops would be familiar with them and looking for more, wouldn't you?

Oh, well.  Looks like itinerant criminals are now in the business of providing entertainment to otherwise bored cops in Louisiana!

Peter

Larry Correia on Presidential elections after the Chevron decision

 

In his usual famously polite, delicate, shy and retiring way, author and friend Larry Correia points out what's needed after the Chevron precedent was overturned.  I've edited it for language (this being a family-friendly blog), but if you want the unexpurgated original, it's at the link.

In honor of today's argument about Chevron, here's my proposal for a new government agency that I wrote on here years ago. The Department of **** Your Job Security. :D 

## 

We need somebody who actively HATES the government to run it.

If I was President (ha!) I would only create a single new executive branch entity. The Department of **** Your Job Security.

The DoFYJS would consist of surly auditors, and their only job would be to go into other government agencies to figure out -

A. do you ****ers do anything worth a ****?

B. which of you ****ers actually get **** done?

Then fire everyone else.

Right now it is pretty much impossible to fire government employees. The process is asinine. It is so bad that the worst government employees, who nobody else can stand, don’t get fired. They get PROMOTED. It’s easier, and then its somebody else’s problem.

But the DoFYJS don’t care. If your job is making tax payers fill out mandatory paperwork and then filing it somewhere nobody will ever read it? **** you. Gone. Clean out your desk.

We need to get rid of entire agencies. Gone. WTF does the Department of Education improve? NOTHING.

Gone. Fire them all. Sell the assets.

Any agency that survives this purge, move it out of DC to an area more appropriate to its mission. Do we need a Dept of Agriculture? Okay. Go to Kansas.

This will also cause all the DC/NOVA power monger set to resign so I don’t have to waste time firing them.

Oh, and right wing pet causes, you’re not safe. I worked for the Air Force. We all know that we could fire 1/3 of the GS employees tomorrow and the only noticeable difference would be more parking available on base.

Cut everything. We never do, because somebody might cry. Too bad. They’re called budget cuts because they’re supposed to hurt. Not budget tickles. **** you. Cut.

Shutting off the money faucet will also destroy the unholy alliance between gov/media/academia/tech.

Right now there is a revolving door, government job, university job, corporate board, think tank, the same crowd who goes to the same parties and went to the same schools and all that other incestuous **** just take turns in the different chairs.

Sell the ****ing chairs.

Every entity that gets tax money inevitably turns into a pig trough for these people. Cut it all off. All of these money faucets ALWAYS cause some kind of financial crisis later anyway.

See the student loan crisis caused by the government, here is free money, oh college has become expensive and useless, so now we need more government to solve it. You dummies get to pay for it. Have some inflation.

It’s all bullshit.

Quit pretending any of this makes sense.

The only way the leviathan shrinks is we elect people who actively hate the government to the government, and then only let them stay there long enough to **** the government without getting corrupted by it.

The instant you see the small government crusader you sent to DC going “Oh, well maybe an unholy alliance between the state and OmniGlobalMegaCorp to develop a mind control ray is a good thing” FIRE HIM.

So there you have it. That’s my platform if you elect me president. Fire ****ing everybody. And only give me one term. Thank you.

I think I've found my ideal candidate for November 2024 . . .

Peter

Animals can be a darn sight more loving than many humans...

 

Click over to this tweet by Flappr and watch the brief video provided (it's just over a minute long).

Dang, it got dusty in here all of a sudden . . .

Peter

This gets to the heart of the matter

 

I'm long since sick of the talking heads that are yammering on about the Biden-Trump debate last week.  The essential elements could be figured out by anyone with two working brain cells (or even less) in a few minutes.  Nobody yet knows how it'll work out (although it promises to be a cross between a tortured melodrama and a laugh-a-minute yuckfest finding out).

There's one commenter who seems to have his finger on the political pulse of last week's encounter.  Speaking in Australia at a conservative conference, Tucker Carlson had this to say.  Even if you've seen or heard bits of it before, it's worth taking nine minutes out of your day to hear it again.

I wasn't very enamored of President Trump's performance last week either.  Bombastic, sometimes shrill, sometimes childish, sometimes downright dishonest . . . he did not come across as presidential, I'm afraid (at least, not by my somewhat old-fashioned standards).  Nevertheless, if the choice is between him and President Biden, I think most of us will line up behind him.

Unless . . . we could persuade Tucker Carlson to offer himself as a candidate?

I'm not sure that would be a good idea;  Carlson is invaluable as an honest, no-holds-barred observer of the scene and a trenchant commenter.  We need him doing his present job, and calling the rest of our political establishment to account (frequently).  Nevertheless . . . what if we had a mind like his in charge - whether from the left or the right, I don't care - taking a long, unafraid look at the catastrophe which is our federal government at present, rolling up his sleeves, and starting in on the cleanup?

Tempting thought . . .

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 216

 

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