The most extraordinary (non-fiction) account of (modern) humanity you may ever have the fortune of reading**…wherein most everyone, and most everything, is interconnected…often miraculously, if not always for the better….
“The Rower;
“A story about karma”— https://www.tabletmag.com/the-rower
H/T Lee Smith twitter roll.
**But if you HAVE read something better, then you are even more…and incredibly…fortunate…
File under: An intercontinental travelogue of the mind…over matter…
How much can you trust “certified vegan” labels? In other nutrition-related news, Sam B-F’s parents “reportedly called the rodent-infested Bahamas prison where he is being held and asked if he could get vegan meals. . . . Bankman-Fried’s relatives called the Fox Hill jail in Nassau Tuesday night to request that vegan meals be provided to him, a source told the outlet.”
Judging from his pudginess, Sam isn’t too worried about counting calories.
That’s a deep dive into food energies. I knew most of it, but there’s quite a few new tidbits there too.
Barry: thanks for the link to “The Rower”. Quite a story. Reminded me of Charles McCarry’s novels about the fictional Christopher family in Germany before the war and their connection after the war to a tribe of North African nomads. Perhaps McCarry–a CIA officer who worked under journalistic cover in Europe in the 1950s-1960s–learned about Knud Christiansen’s story and how it intersected with Niels Bohr, British Intelligence, the rescue of the Danish Jews, and postwar Danish politics.
Amazing interview with a remarkable French philosopher, former Communist, convert to Catholicism, student of Raymond Aron, erudite, reasonable, historically literate, sane.
Utterly, indefatigably Human.
“Who Is Pierre Manent?
“One of the world’s greatest living political philosophers reflects on his intellectual formation, and how he sees Europe, Israel, and America today.”— https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/history-ideas/2022/12/who-is-pierre-manent/
H/T Powerline blog.
Who, indeed…. An extraordinary panorama of ideas and observations mounted under the organizing principle of human dignity…
Thanks, Hubert.
Yes, a mind-bogglingly beautiful, written monument to some extraordinary people.
Uncanny, actually.
(Incredible what might happen when one wanders into a clock-repair shoppe…)
CNBC at the moment has an “expert” trashing Musk. He says Musk is wrecking TSLA because he is doing ridiculous things like insulting Fauci. There is a sneer on his face. It is apparently self-evident that Fauci is a wonderful public servant and doesn’t warrant any criticism. Also, Musk should know that his customers will not accept any criticism of Fauci and will refuse to buy his car because of it.
This is just another example of the sheer idiocy and moral degeneracy of being a liberal in America today. Fauci can commit the most outrageous crimes against humanity, yet it is unacceptable to say anything negative about him because he is a loyal Democrat.
This is sick. Really, really sick. To quote the greatest football coach, Vince Lombardi, “What the hell is going on out there?” These people are monstrous.
For Democrats, the ONLY moral metric is identifying with the Left. The ONLY determinant of morality. They will wear masks, get DNA altering shots, destroy lives, abuse power, approve of moral monsters, denounce normal people and normal behavior, embrace superstition, knowingly profess nonsense, support horrific crimes … whatever they are told to do. All that matters is team loyalty.
A Democrat is incapable of being a bad person. An opponent is incapable of being a good person or doing anything worthy.
This level of moral maturity would embarrass a kindergartener.
I for one paid zero attention to nutrition labels prior to June, when I started dieting. Now I don’t eat anything without looking. (Down about 75 pounds, btw, and having a gastric sleeve done next week).
Yeesh, that should be “Dwaz” up there.
And he was the EXACT reason I changed my registration from GOP to independent when he was Speaker. I haven’t regretted the decision and won’t go back to being a registered Republican until there are a lot less of his type around; if ever.
What is that sect that claims they exist just by breathing?
Don’t need to eat at all. Ultra Mega Vegans?
But then some may classify SBF as an oxygen thief.
I was reading the interview with Pierre Manent that Barry Meislin linked to, and as Manent was talking about his mentor Raymnd Aron, I was struck by the similarities to the modern left and the Communists Aron opposed and Stan @ 12:03 describes in his comment. It’s all become lies.
Pierre Manent: During this time, many intellectuals, a good part of the university, was Communist or friendly to the Communists. It was in this context that Raymond Aron took his stand. His whole life, he was sober, never furious. He always kept his equilibrium. But he was a very firm, entrenched critic of Communism and its illusions.
Pierre Manent: One of the main things that repelled Aron in Communism was the lie—the enormous part that lying played in the Communist regime. People today speak about fake news and alternate truth, or the divided truth, or whatever. But Communism, in some sense, is a huge, enormous lie. And Aron felt keenly what Solzhenitsyn would say at the same time (although we in the West did not become aware of Solzhenitsyn until later): that the beginning and the basis of opposition to Communism was the will not to live by the lie, to refuse to live by lying and through lying. So, that was the ethical or moral heart of Aron’s opposition to Communism.
Excellent. Thanks Barry Meislin.
too late for yesterday’s discussion on the Octopus … I highly recommend the Netflix doc “My Octopus Teacher”, if for nothing else the wonderful photography/videography.
Trump is selling NFTs. The price tag is absurd even setting aside how bad NFTs are as an investment. The only people who benefit from selling NFTs are the people selling them. In that, I see genius on Trump’s part, but this won’t play well with voters.
Cnbc’ cramer trumpeted ftx to the stars as well as disney and microsoft
Meh the the pogs, you can take them or leave them
Brian E,
I wasted some time years ago learning about the tenets of anarchism. Their sales pitch is that anarchism is the ultimate liberating ideology. Get rid of government structures and power and capitalist ownership rules and enforcement. Then the utopia is workers working for their own benefit.
I have a friend who had been an unconventional lefty most of his life and years ago he asked me, “What’s the most important thing that a local government needs to do?” My answer: Have an effective police force. “What’s the most important thing that a federal government needs to do?” My answer: Have an effective military and national defense.
Of course, he looked at me like I was from another planet.
The gigantic lie of anarchism, as I see it, is that even a child can see that the absence of all formal power structures leaves one with a world controlled by bullies and war lords.
Calorie labels are “per serving”. Looking at serving size is humorously enlightening.
Tostito chips, 140 calories per serving. Serving size, 11 chips.
Fortunately, since I now eat a low carbohydrate diet, I pay no attention at all to calorie counts.
One of the main things that repelled Aron in Communism was the lie
I don’t remember exactly when I came to the same conclusion, but it was sometime around age fourteen. I had a small list of why the Left were my natural enemies, and that was on the list. Other entries were the outlawing of unconventional ideas and the strict enforcement of conformity. The list has become more sophisticated over the years, but the core remains intact.
Fullmoon:
A half a cup of ice cream is another amusing one.
Anarchists seem to assume they will never be marched out, lined up, and shot by the bigger bullies, or just executed in onesies and twosies. Never will happen (anarchists can’t read or understand history). Usefull idiots indeed.
Indeed, Orwell discovered that in Catalonia (of Hommage fame).
And almost didn’t live to write about it…
…thus becoming Orwell….(even if he was “Orwell” before that…)
The House, in the (Federal) Congress, wants to make PUERTO RICO into the USA’s 51st state.
cbsnews.com/news/puerto-rico-statehood-house-bill/
For that to happen, the Govt. will likely have to give Puerto Rico: 2 senators + 5 representatives (in the house).
So, what do you guys think?
Should the US citizens make PUERTO RICO into a US state?
Should the US citizens make PUERTO RICO into a US state?
No, Puerto Rico should be put on the road to formal sovereignty. We should have been working on this for 70 years. As for DC, retrocede it to Maryland. A tripartite compact between Maryland, Virginia, and the federal government ceding certain prerogatives to the federal government and incorporating some joint institutions should do for the government of our federal capital.
Other than moving the federal government to Oklahoma City, I agree with Art Deco. We need distance equity!
If Puerto Rico votes, I hope they have better election integrity than we do.
I once took a long plane ride with a very rude Puerto Rican woman who spent the flight telling me all about how awful we norteamericanos are. It’s not clear that the proposed vote will be in favor of statehood. Remember that, unlike Jan. 6, 2021, Puerto Rican revolutionaries actually bombed the US Capitol.
puerto rico would lose out on statehood, it’s not the first time they do this, as opposed to their current status,
I once took a long plane ride with a very rude Puerto Rican woman who spent the flight telling me all about how awful we norteamericanos are.
Why didn’t you tell her to get stuffed?
Full sovereignty for Puerto Rico. It has a nice ring to it.
Move many government agencies to other states. With instant communications and air travel there’s no reason they shouldn’t be nearer to their fiefdoms. Agriculture to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Interior to Denver, Colorado. Energy to Cheyene, Wyoming of Midland Texas. Education to nowhere – get rid of it. HHS to Kansas City, Missouri. And so on. Well, I can dream, can’t I?
I can’t image that the gang of 100 would vote to become the gang of 102, at least I wouldn’t. On the other hand, I think Puerto Ricans are already citizens. If we didn’t want them, we should not have annexed them.
Art Deco, starting altercations on airplanes is not my style. At least I had an aisle seat.
In opening remarks Thursday evening, Tucker Carlson quoted political scientist Lance deHaven-Smith: “The term ‘conspiracy theory’ did not exist as a phrase in everyday American conversation before 1964.”
Tucker says that the assassination and it’s aftermath mark a pivot point of accelerating mistrust of the U.S. government, and this week’s drastically limited release of assassination files further accelerates that mistrust.
What was Tucker leading up to? He says that earlier Thursday “we” (perhaps Tucker himself) spoke to someone who had access to the still hidden documents, “a person who is deeply familiar with what they contain” and asked point blank “Did the CIA have a hand in the murder of John F Kennedy?”
Pure speculation, but we may know of someone Tucker is on friendly speaking terms with and who has definitely had the clearance to view those docs. The phrasing sounds familiar…
Art Deco, starting altercations on airplanes is not my style.
Evidently, it was hers. You’re not doing her any favors if you just sit there and take it.
Barry Meislin,
Item 2. You mean the Biden administration has been lying about the number of new jobs. From the article:
“… In the meantime, however, the Fed is shaping monetary policy using the clearly flawed assumption that the US labor market is “hot”, “tight” and “strong”, when in reality we now know that between March and June, monthly payrolls were overstated by about 350,000. This matters because this is what the BLS reported for payrolls for those months:
April 368K
May 386K
June 293K
Now take those numbers and adjust them to subtract an average of 350K from each month (to get the revised Philly Fed payroll over this period) and you get this:
April 18K
May 36K
June 57K
And the final numbers for fiscal year 2022 will likely be worse.
This should be headline news in every financial publication in the country. But crickets.
If we didn’t want them, we should not have annexed them.
They could have been maintained as a l/t dependency and then weaned off, as was the Philippines. They were not granted citizenship until 1917, IIRC. That was a mistake.
Note, Puerto Rico’s area, population, and productive base is such that light dependency will do – reliance on American capital markets, on diplomatic and consular services outside the island’s principal trading partners, and an American naval presence and security guarantees. Formal sovereignty with functional protectorate status. They live in their own country, not the Bronx. They go their own way on public policy except in the realms named. Would have been better than what we have now.
Abiding dependency is proper for insular states and coastal enclaves which small populations and productive bases. Even there, generous internal autonomy should be the order of the day. Also, citizenship should be local; they’re under the protection of a foreign patron, not citizens of that patron. France held on to its insular territories and coastal enclaves, for the most part. IMO, all the powers who had overseas dependencies in 1914 should have. The places which should have been relinquished were those which were challenging to defend (the French enclaves in India) or which so populous and so unproductive that they weren’t worth the candle (Tropical and Southern Africa) or wherein the local population was so restive the costs were prohibitive (British India, French Indochina). All of the Pacific Islands bar New Zealand and New Guinea should have a foreign patron, as should all the Caribbean territories bar Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico. (Haiti should be under a trusteeship for different reasons).
Move many government agencies to other states.
About 85% of all federal employees are stationed outside of metropolitan Washington. This is just not an issue.
Your problem in Washington is not with the common-and-garden people living there but with ‘political Washington’, which is demographically small but quite crooked and destructive. ‘Political Washington’ consists of elected officials, salaried congressional aides (some working for individual members, some for committees), lobbyists, discretionary appointees in the federal executive, foreign diplomats and spies, political journalists, lawyers in firms with a ‘government relations’ practice, judges and their clerks, lawfare outfits. There are a few honest people therein (we have a dear friend who is a retired congressional aide; he’s a good guy). There are some crooked characters in the permanent government (Andrew McCabe comes to mind).
NB, about 20% of the working population of greater Washington are federal employees. There is also very little manufacturing in greater Washington. Otherwise, the city has a lot in common with other large cities, bar perhaps the bad traffic engineering.
Big difference between the Philippines and Puerto Rico, namely The Philippine Insurrection.
Thanks for the ideas about Puerto Rico, everyone.
It’s great to hear the different viewpoints on this subject.
Banned Lizard:
There is no question that the JFK assassination provided fodder for ongoing conspiracy theories that have lasted to this day, the flames of which Tucker Carlson is apparently fanning.
I have written about the subject many, many times. Here’s a post of mine that summarizes much of what I’ve written. I suggest you read it.
@om– Those were the “breatharians”. I believe they were mainly in San Francisco, and had a bit of a following until someone followed one of their poo-bahs around and discovered late night sortees to MacDonalds. Their balloon deflated quickly.
@ fulllmoon– my favorite was Coca-Cola basing the caloric level of Coke Classic based on a can of Coke being 2 servings. I think it was Andy Rooney who exposed that on his 60-minutes closer.
I personally believe that there is little truth in the caloric claims, the nutritional levels, and maybe even the actual contents as listed on the labels. As to “organic” and “vegan” and “gluten-free”, I believe they put whatever they think will sell the item on the label.
Dr. Michael Colgan has written a bunch of bestselling nutrition books. He was nutrition consultant to the Australian Olympic team and the US Olympic team.
As a professor teaching grad students in nutrition one assignment was to measure the vitamin C levels in some oranges. The students came back with zero. He checked for himself. They were right. He was shocked and he started investigating the factors that affected the vitamin levels of fruit and other foods. Turns out that there are huge variances that depend on ripeness when picked, time interval before eating, and a variety of other factors.
The truth is that foods vary a lot from whatever numbers are given on the label. Widely and Wildly.
Neo:
I think the main thrust of Tucker’s comments, and the reason he reached out to his source, is the government’s continued lack of transparence. Releasing the files is legally required, and it seems there is no good reason not to.
As far as this unnamed source and vague CIA stuff of Tucker Carlson’s goes, I think he’s capitalizing on the generally rising distrust of government and the intelligence agencies in order to spur ratings.
Read Bugliosi’s book. It is phenomenal.
Olive Stone’s movie – really? Are you kidding me? Oliver Stone’s specialty is ahistorical garbage loaded with lie after lie. He depends on his audience not knowing the truth, plus the emotional power of a dramatic film.
Bugliosi’s book deals with Stone’s film in depth. Actually, it deals with all of the theories in depth, plus the actual evidence. As I’ve already said many times, I suggest everyone read it, at least the first few hundred pages and hopefully the first 500 pages. That sounds like a lot, but it goes quickly because it’s a fascinating read.
I can understand the sentiment after another long war, that went nowhere and enriched a small clique, while many men and women were maimed and killed for no good reason, those who were our brothers in the struggle in afghanistan, are captured and deported and nearly 100 militants of different kinds have been let into the country, the same septagenarian and even octogenerians like pelosi and biden, who were singing the soviet tune, now push another fruitless quagmire,
The link to Joe Pesci as David Ferrie in JFK was for effect. I like the spooky mystique the scene evokes. That said, shame on Oliver Stone. I paid full cinema prices for multiple viewings in theaters, and I’ll never get that time and money back.
It’s reassuring to hear that the absolute drop dead release date for the rest of the docs is in 6 months. Are they waiting for a few last coconspirators to die (by whatever means)? I look forward to the closure.
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The most extraordinary (non-fiction) account of (modern) humanity you may ever have the fortune of reading**…wherein most everyone, and most everything, is interconnected…often miraculously, if not always for the better….
“The Rower;
“A story about karma”—
https://www.tabletmag.com/the-rower
H/T Lee Smith twitter roll.
**But if you HAVE read something better, then you are even more…and incredibly…fortunate…
File under: An intercontinental travelogue of the mind…over matter…
How much can you trust “certified vegan” labels? In other nutrition-related news, Sam B-F’s parents “reportedly called the rodent-infested Bahamas prison where he is being held and asked if he could get vegan meals. . . . Bankman-Fried’s relatives called the Fox Hill jail in Nassau Tuesday night to request that vegan meals be provided to him, a source told the outlet.”
https://nypost.com/2022/12/15/sam-bankman-frieds-family-requested-jail-serve-him-vegan-food-report/
Judging from his pudginess, Sam isn’t too worried about counting calories.
That’s a deep dive into food energies. I knew most of it, but there’s quite a few new tidbits there too.
Barry: thanks for the link to “The Rower”. Quite a story. Reminded me of Charles McCarry’s novels about the fictional Christopher family in Germany before the war and their connection after the war to a tribe of North African nomads. Perhaps McCarry–a CIA officer who worked under journalistic cover in Europe in the 1950s-1960s–learned about Knud Christiansen’s story and how it intersected with Niels Bohr, British Intelligence, the rescue of the Danish Jews, and postwar Danish politics.
Amazing interview with a remarkable French philosopher, former Communist, convert to Catholicism, student of Raymond Aron, erudite, reasonable, historically literate, sane.
Utterly, indefatigably Human.
“Who Is Pierre Manent?
“One of the world’s greatest living political philosophers reflects on his intellectual formation, and how he sees Europe, Israel, and America today.”—
https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/history-ideas/2022/12/who-is-pierre-manent/
H/T Powerline blog.
Who, indeed…. An extraordinary panorama of ideas and observations mounted under the organizing principle of human dignity…
Thanks, Hubert.
Yes, a mind-bogglingly beautiful, written monument to some extraordinary people.
Uncanny, actually.
(Incredible what might happen when one wanders into a clock-repair shoppe…)
CNBC at the moment has an “expert” trashing Musk. He says Musk is wrecking TSLA because he is doing ridiculous things like insulting Fauci. There is a sneer on his face. It is apparently self-evident that Fauci is a wonderful public servant and doesn’t warrant any criticism. Also, Musk should know that his customers will not accept any criticism of Fauci and will refuse to buy his car because of it.
This is just another example of the sheer idiocy and moral degeneracy of being a liberal in America today. Fauci can commit the most outrageous crimes against humanity, yet it is unacceptable to say anything negative about him because he is a loyal Democrat.
This is sick. Really, really sick. To quote the greatest football coach, Vince Lombardi, “What the hell is going on out there?” These people are monstrous.
For Democrats, the ONLY moral metric is identifying with the Left. The ONLY determinant of morality. They will wear masks, get DNA altering shots, destroy lives, abuse power, approve of moral monsters, denounce normal people and normal behavior, embrace superstition, knowingly profess nonsense, support horrific crimes … whatever they are told to do. All that matters is team loyalty.
A Democrat is incapable of being a bad person. An opponent is incapable of being a good person or doing anything worthy.
This level of moral maturity would embarrass a kindergartener.
I for one paid zero attention to nutrition labels prior to June, when I started dieting. Now I don’t eat anything without looking. (Down about 75 pounds, btw, and having a gastric sleeve done next week).
Yeesh, that should be “Dwaz” up there.
And he was the EXACT reason I changed my registration from GOP to independent when he was Speaker. I haven’t regretted the decision and won’t go back to being a registered Republican until there are a lot less of his type around; if ever.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/conservatives-disgusted-liberals-delighted-boehner-crying-pelosi-tribute
Hold on … aren’t bread and water vegan?
What is that sect that claims they exist just by breathing?
Don’t need to eat at all. Ultra Mega Vegans?
But then some may classify SBF as an oxygen thief.
I was reading the interview with Pierre Manent that Barry Meislin linked to, and as Manent was talking about his mentor Raymnd Aron, I was struck by the similarities to the modern left and the Communists Aron opposed and Stan @ 12:03 describes in his comment. It’s all become lies.
Pierre Manent: During this time, many intellectuals, a good part of the university, was Communist or friendly to the Communists. It was in this context that Raymond Aron took his stand. His whole life, he was sober, never furious. He always kept his equilibrium. But he was a very firm, entrenched critic of Communism and its illusions.
Pierre Manent: One of the main things that repelled Aron in Communism was the lie—the enormous part that lying played in the Communist regime. People today speak about fake news and alternate truth, or the divided truth, or whatever. But Communism, in some sense, is a huge, enormous lie. And Aron felt keenly what Solzhenitsyn would say at the same time (although we in the West did not become aware of Solzhenitsyn until later): that the beginning and the basis of opposition to Communism was the will not to live by the lie, to refuse to live by lying and through lying. So, that was the ethical or moral heart of Aron’s opposition to Communism.
Excellent. Thanks Barry Meislin.
too late for yesterday’s discussion on the Octopus … I highly recommend the Netflix doc “My Octopus Teacher”, if for nothing else the wonderful photography/videography.
Trump is selling NFTs. The price tag is absurd even setting aside how bad NFTs are as an investment. The only people who benefit from selling NFTs are the people selling them. In that, I see genius on Trump’s part, but this won’t play well with voters.
Cnbc’ cramer trumpeted ftx to the stars as well as disney and microsoft
Meh the the pogs, you can take them or leave them
Brian E,
I wasted some time years ago learning about the tenets of anarchism. Their sales pitch is that anarchism is the ultimate liberating ideology. Get rid of government structures and power and capitalist ownership rules and enforcement. Then the utopia is workers working for their own benefit.
I have a friend who had been an unconventional lefty most of his life and years ago he asked me, “What’s the most important thing that a local government needs to do?” My answer: Have an effective police force. “What’s the most important thing that a federal government needs to do?” My answer: Have an effective military and national defense.
Of course, he looked at me like I was from another planet.
The gigantic lie of anarchism, as I see it, is that even a child can see that the absence of all formal power structures leaves one with a world controlled by bullies and war lords.
Calorie labels are “per serving”. Looking at serving size is humorously enlightening.
Tostito chips, 140 calories per serving. Serving size, 11 chips.
Fortunately, since I now eat a low carbohydrate diet, I pay no attention at all to calorie counts.
One of the main things that repelled Aron in Communism was the lie
I don’t remember exactly when I came to the same conclusion, but it was sometime around age fourteen. I had a small list of why the Left were my natural enemies, and that was on the list. Other entries were the outlawing of unconventional ideas and the strict enforcement of conformity. The list has become more sophisticated over the years, but the core remains intact.
Fullmoon:
A half a cup of ice cream is another amusing one.
Anarchists seem to assume they will never be marched out, lined up, and shot by the bigger bullies, or just executed in onesies and twosies. Never will happen (anarchists can’t read or understand history). Usefull idiots indeed.
Indeed, Orwell discovered that in Catalonia (of Hommage fame).
And almost didn’t live to write about it…
…thus becoming Orwell….(even if he was “Orwell” before that…)
The House, in the (Federal) Congress, wants to make PUERTO RICO into the USA’s 51st state.
cbsnews.com/news/puerto-rico-statehood-house-bill/
For that to happen, the Govt. will likely have to give Puerto Rico: 2 senators + 5 representatives (in the house).
So, what do you guys think?
Should the US citizens make PUERTO RICO into a US state?
That link didn’t work.
Let me try this one.
Subject- Puerto Rico.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/house-passes-bill-allowing-puerto-rico-to-hold-statehood-referendum/3998245/
What do you think?
Should the US citizens make PUERTO RICO into a US state?
No, Puerto Rico should be put on the road to formal sovereignty. We should have been working on this for 70 years. As for DC, retrocede it to Maryland. A tripartite compact between Maryland, Virginia, and the federal government ceding certain prerogatives to the federal government and incorporating some joint institutions should do for the government of our federal capital.
Other than moving the federal government to Oklahoma City, I agree with Art Deco. We need distance equity!
If Puerto Rico votes, I hope they have better election integrity than we do.
I once took a long plane ride with a very rude Puerto Rican woman who spent the flight telling me all about how awful we norteamericanos are. It’s not clear that the proposed vote will be in favor of statehood. Remember that, unlike Jan. 6, 2021, Puerto Rican revolutionaries actually bombed the US Capitol.
puerto rico would lose out on statehood, it’s not the first time they do this, as opposed to their current status,
I once took a long plane ride with a very rude Puerto Rican woman who spent the flight telling me all about how awful we norteamericanos are.
Why didn’t you tell her to get stuffed?
Full sovereignty for Puerto Rico. It has a nice ring to it.
Move many government agencies to other states. With instant communications and air travel there’s no reason they shouldn’t be nearer to their fiefdoms. Agriculture to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Interior to Denver, Colorado. Energy to Cheyene, Wyoming of Midland Texas. Education to nowhere – get rid of it. HHS to Kansas City, Missouri. And so on. Well, I can dream, can’t I?
I can’t image that the gang of 100 would vote to become the gang of 102, at least I wouldn’t. On the other hand, I think Puerto Ricans are already citizens. If we didn’t want them, we should not have annexed them.
Art Deco, starting altercations on airplanes is not my style. At least I had an aisle seat.
In opening remarks Thursday evening, Tucker Carlson quoted political scientist Lance deHaven-Smith: “The term ‘conspiracy theory’ did not exist as a phrase in everyday American conversation before 1964.”
Tucker says that the assassination and it’s aftermath mark a pivot point of accelerating mistrust of the U.S. government, and this week’s drastically limited release of assassination files further accelerates that mistrust.
What was Tucker leading up to? He says that earlier Thursday “we” (perhaps Tucker himself) spoke to someone who had access to the still hidden documents, “a person who is deeply familiar with what they contain” and asked point blank “Did the CIA have a hand in the murder of John F Kennedy?”
Here is the verbatim reply Tucker received from his unnamed source: The answer is yes. I believe they were involved. It’s a whole different country from what we thought it was. It’s all fake.
Pure speculation, but we may know of someone Tucker is on friendly speaking terms with and who has definitely had the clearance to view those docs. The phrasing sounds familiar…
Doing what they do best.
(Just two itty bitty examples…)
1.
‘ Karine Jean-Pierre Blames Trump for Border Crisis, Claims Biden is Securing the Border;
‘ “The president has done the work to deal with what we are seeing that border since day one.” ‘—
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/12/karine-jean-pierre-blames-trump-for-border-crisis-claims-biden-is-securing-the-border/
2.
‘ Here Comes The Job Shock: Philadelphia Fed Admits US Jobs “Overstated” By At Least 1.1 Million ‘—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/here-comes-job-shock-philadelphia-fed-admits-us-jobs-overstated-least-11-million
EVERYTHING they say is a lie.
Count on it.
Art Deco, starting altercations on airplanes is not my style.
Evidently, it was hers. You’re not doing her any favors if you just sit there and take it.
Barry Meislin,
Item 2. You mean the Biden administration has been lying about the number of new jobs. From the article:
“… In the meantime, however, the Fed is shaping monetary policy using the clearly flawed assumption that the US labor market is “hot”, “tight” and “strong”, when in reality we now know that between March and June, monthly payrolls were overstated by about 350,000. This matters because this is what the BLS reported for payrolls for those months:
April 368K
May 386K
June 293K
Now take those numbers and adjust them to subtract an average of 350K from each month (to get the revised Philly Fed payroll over this period) and you get this:
April 18K
May 36K
June 57K
And the final numbers for fiscal year 2022 will likely be worse.
This should be headline news in every financial publication in the country. But crickets.
If we didn’t want them, we should not have annexed them.
They could have been maintained as a l/t dependency and then weaned off, as was the Philippines. They were not granted citizenship until 1917, IIRC. That was a mistake.
Note, Puerto Rico’s area, population, and productive base is such that light dependency will do – reliance on American capital markets, on diplomatic and consular services outside the island’s principal trading partners, and an American naval presence and security guarantees. Formal sovereignty with functional protectorate status. They live in their own country, not the Bronx. They go their own way on public policy except in the realms named. Would have been better than what we have now.
Abiding dependency is proper for insular states and coastal enclaves which small populations and productive bases. Even there, generous internal autonomy should be the order of the day. Also, citizenship should be local; they’re under the protection of a foreign patron, not citizens of that patron. France held on to its insular territories and coastal enclaves, for the most part. IMO, all the powers who had overseas dependencies in 1914 should have. The places which should have been relinquished were those which were challenging to defend (the French enclaves in India) or which so populous and so unproductive that they weren’t worth the candle (Tropical and Southern Africa) or wherein the local population was so restive the costs were prohibitive (British India, French Indochina). All of the Pacific Islands bar New Zealand and New Guinea should have a foreign patron, as should all the Caribbean territories bar Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico. (Haiti should be under a trusteeship for different reasons).
Move many government agencies to other states.
About 85% of all federal employees are stationed outside of metropolitan Washington. This is just not an issue.
Your problem in Washington is not with the common-and-garden people living there but with ‘political Washington’, which is demographically small but quite crooked and destructive. ‘Political Washington’ consists of elected officials, salaried congressional aides (some working for individual members, some for committees), lobbyists, discretionary appointees in the federal executive, foreign diplomats and spies, political journalists, lawyers in firms with a ‘government relations’ practice, judges and their clerks, lawfare outfits. There are a few honest people therein (we have a dear friend who is a retired congressional aide; he’s a good guy). There are some crooked characters in the permanent government (Andrew McCabe comes to mind).
NB, about 20% of the working population of greater Washington are federal employees. There is also very little manufacturing in greater Washington. Otherwise, the city has a lot in common with other large cities, bar perhaps the bad traffic engineering.
Big difference between the Philippines and Puerto Rico, namely The Philippine Insurrection.
Thanks for the ideas about Puerto Rico, everyone.
It’s great to hear the different viewpoints on this subject.
Banned Lizard:
There is no question that the JFK assassination provided fodder for ongoing conspiracy theories that have lasted to this day, the flames of which Tucker Carlson is apparently fanning.
I have written about the subject many, many times. Here’s a post of mine that summarizes much of what I’ve written. I suggest you read it.
@om– Those were the “breatharians”. I believe they were mainly in San Francisco, and had a bit of a following until someone followed one of their poo-bahs around and discovered late night sortees to MacDonalds. Their balloon deflated quickly.
@ fulllmoon– my favorite was Coca-Cola basing the caloric level of Coke Classic based on a can of Coke being 2 servings. I think it was Andy Rooney who exposed that on his 60-minutes closer.
I personally believe that there is little truth in the caloric claims, the nutritional levels, and maybe even the actual contents as listed on the labels. As to “organic” and “vegan” and “gluten-free”, I believe they put whatever they think will sell the item on the label.
Dr. Michael Colgan has written a bunch of bestselling nutrition books. He was nutrition consultant to the Australian Olympic team and the US Olympic team.
As a professor teaching grad students in nutrition one assignment was to measure the vitamin C levels in some oranges. The students came back with zero. He checked for himself. They were right. He was shocked and he started investigating the factors that affected the vitamin levels of fruit and other foods. Turns out that there are huge variances that depend on ripeness when picked, time interval before eating, and a variety of other factors.
The truth is that foods vary a lot from whatever numbers are given on the label. Widely and Wildly.
Neo:
I think the main thrust of Tucker’s comments, and the reason he reached out to his source, is the government’s continued lack of transparence. Releasing the files is legally required, and it seems there is no good reason not to.
As for Bugliosi, he has a colorful past.
Tom O’Neill: Manson Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi Was Compromised
Further, what did he know and when did he know it?
Was Charles Manson a CIA Asset? w/Tom O’Neill | Joe Rogan
Just how deep does the rabbit hole go?
A Mystery Wrapped in a Riddle Inside an Enigma
Banned Lizard:
As far as this unnamed source and vague CIA stuff of Tucker Carlson’s goes, I think he’s capitalizing on the generally rising distrust of government and the intelligence agencies in order to spur ratings.
Read Bugliosi’s book. It is phenomenal.
Olive Stone’s movie – really? Are you kidding me? Oliver Stone’s specialty is ahistorical garbage loaded with lie after lie. He depends on his audience not knowing the truth, plus the emotional power of a dramatic film.
Bugliosi’s book deals with Stone’s film in depth. Actually, it deals with all of the theories in depth, plus the actual evidence. As I’ve already said many times, I suggest everyone read it, at least the first few hundred pages and hopefully the first 500 pages. That sounds like a lot, but it goes quickly because it’s a fascinating read.
just some of the tripe, that stone frothed up,
https://www.jfk-assassination.net/deaths.htm#ferriedeath
I can understand the sentiment after another long war, that went nowhere and enriched a small clique, while many men and women were maimed and killed for no good reason, those who were our brothers in the struggle in afghanistan, are captured and deported and nearly 100 militants of different kinds have been let into the country, the same septagenarian and even octogenerians like pelosi and biden, who were singing the soviet tune, now push another fruitless quagmire,
The link to Joe Pesci as David Ferrie in JFK was for effect. I like the spooky mystique the scene evokes. That said, shame on Oliver Stone. I paid full cinema prices for multiple viewings in theaters, and I’ll never get that time and money back.
It’s reassuring to hear that the absolute drop dead release date for the rest of the docs is in 6 months. Are they waiting for a few last coconspirators to die (by whatever means)? I look forward to the closure.