I remember the Monkeys. They weren’t that bad, a band created for a TV show. Individually they were fairly good musicians.
A lot better than most of todays musicians.
Yes they werent terrible they just werent the beattles snl then dialed it up for the ruttles
A British military general is warning that Britain had better get ready for a war with Russia in the next several years.
A leaked report from the Germany Ministry of Defense says that Russia may attack NATO nations in 2024 and that Germany best get ready for this.
Swedish officials warned that Sweden had best get ready for a war with Russia.
Make what you will of these reports, but for me the real tell tale is that Sweden and Finland have recently joined NATO, and Poland is building up its military to be the largest in Europe.
Recall that Sweden had been a neutral nation for 200 years, and so had Finland since the end of WWII.
Poland joined NATO soon after the USSR fell apart.
It’s informative to see how many former Warsaw Pact nations joined NATO upon the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.
If Russia is allowed to prevail in Ukraine, IMHO, it is a slam dunk they will turn their attention onto the Baltic States, all of which border Russia or their close ally, Belarus.
Report based on what, i thought Russia was down for the count
I’ve watched this guy’s videos before, and his observations are generally pretty interesting.
He (understandably) decries the ubiquity of autotune / pitch monitoring software. I agree with him — it really “medicrotizes” voices. He’s five a couple of videos on old recordings that are remastered using autotune. Ugh. I think one of the recordings he analyzed was of a Journey tune with Steve Perry. It was interesting to see / hear how the “imperfections” of Perry’s voice adds depth to the recording. It wasn’t just that autotune / pitch monitoring levels a lot of vibrato — it makes it artificially “smooth.” And for lack of a better description, to me, it sounded unctuous.
Michael Nesmith recorded Nine Times Blue on his Magnetic South LP, Michael Nesmith and the First National Band. It’s a hidden gem showcasing his songwriting talent.
Monkees: fun band, emphasis on fun not ground breaking rock, that exceeded expectations. Took a lot of good songs and made them their own. eg, I’m a Believer by Neil Diamond.
I did not know that
My first thought is how could Russia take the rest of Europe when they haven’t been able to take Ukraine? But I suppose a mad man, not thinking clearly Putin might think he could do a Strategic drive around the west of Ukraine with Belarusian help.
RE: Ya know all of this crazy UFO stuff, well, I saw a video about this yesterday, and the supposed 10 foot tall wraith like aliens at a Mall in Miami just registered.
My question is, why would many dozens, some reported 100 squad cars (see one aerial view below) be called in to deal with something which was totally illusory, a few spooked shoppers, but nothing other than that? *
Another possible explanation for all of the threatening stories about Russia – perhaps Ukraine has just about played out the string and is about to capitulate. Maybe this is a last-gasp effort to increase international commitment to Ukraine before it falls or has to negotiate a peace? Another form of the “fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here” argument?
I’m with Jon baker in that I find it difficult to believe that Russia would try to invade a NATO country after having such a difficult time in Ukraine. Grinding out an ugly victory against Ukraine is one thing. Expecting to defeat NATO in a head-on fight is something entirely different.
The navarro conviction is also the process is the punishment
brinster,
Have you seen Nesmith’s, “Elephant Parts” or, “Tape Heads?”
They were both great and somewhat groundbreaking in their day, especially, “Elephant Parts.” Nesmith was very creative and clever.
Bauxite on January 25, 2024 at 1:07 pm said:
Another possible explanation for all of the threatening stories about Russia – perhaps Ukraine has just about played out the string and is about to capitulate. Maybe this is a last-gasp effort to increase international commitment to Ukraine before it falls or has to negotiate a peace? Another form of the “fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here” argument?
I agree with this. I would be more inclined to believe Ukraine if they were less entwined with US politicians of both parties.
I obviously think that the UFO Phenomena is real, and that the Secrecy faction within the government has done a masterful job of engineering in a coverup lasting, at this point, some 80 years or more–fear of being ridiculed, loss of job or prestige, or even worse, are all powerful persuaders.
As with many other events–not just UFOs–the media has been the government’s partner in all this, either by just not reporting events involving UFOs or, if forced to report them–say, when dozens or hundreds of people have witnessed an event–reporting/characterizing the event with a tone of dismissal or ridicule, claiming such UFO incidents to be nonsense, and, by the tone and substace of their coverage, letting readers know that the people reporting witnessing these incidents are either crazy, easily fooled, or dim-witted.
Keeping this history in mind, this recent incident at the Mall in Miami makes me wonder, just how many other UFO/NHI incidents throughout the past decades might actually have been real, but were covered up–just not even reported, and/or buried under a ton of ridicule?
Thus, what we have are two different Realities, existing side by side.
One in which UFOs NHIs, and a lot of other supposedly “anomalous” evens are just not possible or real.
Then, the other Reality, one in which all of these supposedly anomalous things are actually real.
I happen to think that we are seeing the slow revelation that that second Reality is actually the true one.
Re: Zeihan / Russia’s Desired Borders
Desiring something and having the means to take it aren’t the same thing. Zeihan hmself didn’t believe Russia would have this much trouble in Ukraine. Though since that war began, Zeihan has always considered it a possibility that Ukraine could fold anytime. I do too. In the meantime, props to the White-and-Blue.
If Ukraine does fold, is it out of the question that Russia invade a NATO state? (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland or Romania, as I reckon it.)’
Zeihan’s reasoning is that Russia has historically been invaded from the west through the geographically open plains on its western border. Demographically, this is Russia’s last chance to close those easy access areas and safeguard itself from future invasions.
This theory hits Zeihan’s sweet spot of demography and geography. I’m not so sure, myself.
I find the NATO solidarity with Ukraine somewhat surprising. Not that it’s unreasonable but the Europeans have long seemed feckless.
P.S. Wouldn’t most of us want to live in a world of essentially un-threatening, “normal,” pretty predictable Reality–with comforting and protecting “consensus reality” walls all around us, there to and prevent “unreality” and chaos from breaking in–versus a Reality which is not just humdrum “normal,” but a Reality which is much more threatening, and dangerous, much wider in scope and complexity, and more mysterious, more mutable and unsettling, and a Reality in which there are really things which do go “bump in the night”?
THe producer (i met) hated them… or grew to hate them…
he hated they thought they were real musicians
the producer decided to do it differently next time
next time he put a group together, it too had hit songs
but he didn’t have to argue with the “stars” as they were a cartoons
they were called “The Archies” hit song was “Sugar”
who was this? Don Kirshner
There are many audition groups…
one I personally worked with was called R-Angels
(I did mostly A-List so they were always on me to take pics)
R Angels were one of the many girl groups to emerge in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s, amidst The Spice Girls’ success. Signed to Motown Records and made up of four young women named Gina, Vonnie, Dorothy & Lian, they released two singles, “I Need To Know” & “Left To Right”
and then there was the group that got signed that never existed!!!
BOSTON
Boston’s debut album was initially rejected because band founder Tom Scholz had recorded and produced it entirely in his basement. In order to appease/fool the label, Scholz hired someone to pretend to produce the album while he rerecorded and reproduced the same album from his basement again.
Jiang Qing was ordered to stay out of politics, and she did so until the 1960s when she openly criticized traditional Chinese opera and the bourgeois influences in Chinese arts and literature. In 1966, Mao made her first deputy head of the Cultural Revolution and gave her far-reaching powers over China’s intellectual and cultural life. The Cultural Revolution was Mao’s attempt to revolutionize Chinese society, and Jiang proved adept at manipulating the media and the young radicals known as the Red Guards. The movement was characterized by terror and purges in which hundreds of thousands were killed and millions suffered.
In the late 1960s, the Cultural Revolution waned, and Jiang faded from the public eye. However, after her husband’s death in 1976, she and three other radicals who had come to power in the revolution were singled out as the “Gang of Four.” Jiang was arrested and in 1977 expelled from the Communist Party. Three years later, the Gang of Four were put on trial. Jiang was held responsible for provoking the turmoil and bloodshed of the revolution, but she denied the charges and denounced China’s leaders. She was found guilty and sentenced to die. On January 25, 1983, exactly two years after she was condemned, the Chinese government commuted her sentence to life imprisonment. In 1991, she died in prison of an apparent suicide.
There are tons of oddities, like Bad Company from the band Bad Company on the album Bad Company
I would be more inclined to trust the benign altutistic motives of Russia if they hadn’t been waging wars by proxie and actual war against their neighbors since 2008, weren’t allied with Iran, North Korea, and committed to everturning international stability. But thats just me.
From above:
Michael Nesmith recorded Nine Times Blue on his Magnetic South LP, Michael Nesmith and the First National Band. It’s a hidden gem showcasing his songwriting talent.
Guess what his mother invented!!
Single mother Bette Nesmith Graham struggled to financially support her son on her meager secretarial salary while trying to overcome a technological learning curve that could very well have cost Nesmith Graham her job
His mother, Bette Claire Graham, invented Liquid Paper, which she sold to Gillette in 1979 for $47.5 million. A year later, Nesmith inherited her fortune when she died. His inheritance financed Nesmith’s “Elephant Parts,” the innovative video that won the first video Grammy Award
We make them rich by dropping sanctions on iran by kneecapping our energy supply the trained chimps on dei i think they see their odds pretty well
So were buying discount russian oil from india how is that helpful
Artful Dodger,
…“Neil Young auditioned to be a monkey, but his teeth were too crooked”
Neil did session work with the Monkeys but I’m pretty sure it was Steven Stills who auditioned along with his imperfect teeth.
That was an amazing time for music. Young musicians flooding into LA in the hopes of being discovered. The Hollywood Hills above Sunset, Laurel Canyon, were abuzz with the
sounds of music. The Byrds, (one of the first to make it), CSN&Y, Mama’s and Papa’s, the Doors, Frank Zappa and the Mothers, Jerry Garcia, the Beachboys, and of course Joni Mitchell all lived in proximity to each other. Even Brits like the Stones and the Beatles sat in on it. The Monkeys were buddies with them all.
All of this happening even before the scene shifted to SF for the summer of love. The Sunset Strip riots where LA police came down hard on young people helped push things North. I was on the younger side of things, 72 now, but I feel so blessed to have experienced those times and that great music.
Snow on pine @148pm,
In my personal experience people are more reluctant to discuss the supernatural than UFOs. It’s not unusual when I’ve been on a lakeshore at night, or sitting around a fire and someone will bring up strange lights they’ve seen in the sky, seeming to move unlike any known human powered craft. I’ve never seen any of these people ridiculed. Others present go “hmmm,” or offer their own story of a similar circumstance.
But even amongst my very close friends I don’t know which ones have seen ghosts, or sensed a deceased loved ones presence or had a supernatural religious experience (hearing a voice, seeing/sensing an angel, etc.).
BTW, Buffalo Springfield’s anthem, “For What It’s Worth” commemorated the Sunset Riots.
Snow on Pine @2:10pm,
Years before I sat for my driver’s license exam I read a fairly detailed book on how internal combustion engines work, and how cars “go” (distributor caps, differentials, positraction axels, manual and automatic transmissions, carburetors [I’m old]). I imagine less than 40% of people on the roads in the U.S. (other countries are much more rigorous) know their cars’ inner workings in a detailed manner.
How does your home’s refrigerator work? Heater? Cooktop? Television set? The computer you’re reading this on? I imagine you, and many others here, know all or most of these things, but how many of your fellow humans do?
I’m not wired like that, but it seems most humans are very comfortable using extremely complex things with no idea of what they are made of, or why they do what they do. They navigate amazingly complex things with only cursory, surface knowledge of what is happening “under the hood.”
My favorite song of his is “Different Drum”. Stone Poneys version.
ArtfldgrsShadow @3:16pm,
“Elephant Parts” wasn’t an innovative video; it was a movie with a plot that allowed for multiple, embedded music videos within its structure. Sort of like a video version of one of those Broadway musicals about a doo-wop group that’s an excuse to work in a lot of song and dance numbers.
ArtfldgrsShadow,
Regarding “The Monkees,” I know you know this, but there is no shortage of rock groups who made real money and are/were barely musicians. And there is no shortage of extremely talented rock musicians who couldn’t make a living in music and ended up getting a “day” job. Lack of musical experience/talent was one of the essential components of early Punk. The Talking Heads met at art school (they were visual artists). I think only one of them had played an instrument prior.
And, like your Boston story, there are quite a few similar stories of talented musicians recording songs and/or albums on their own using multi-track technology and then scrambling to find additional, live musicians to tour with after signing a record deal.
Don Kirshner hated the Monkees because they wouldn’t settle for being puppets. Hence, “The Archies” cartoon show. Kirshner would never lose control of those characters.
The Monkees weren’t seasoned music pros at the beginning but they became good and even damn good. They certainly could harmonize and I think Dolenz had one of the great male pop voices of the 60s. By the end of their show, they were writing their own songs and playing their own instruments, though the results were not so popular as their first two albums.
Keep in mind that the Monkees weren’t the only group faking their instruments. They were backed by the legendary Wrecking Crew just as many other LA pop bands in the day such as Jan and Dean, the Association, Sonny & Cher, the Mamas and the Papas, the 5th Dimension, Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra, the Byrds and the Beach Boys.
Mike Nesmith went on creating moderately successful albums and videos. Mickey Dolenz went on to a career producing/directing/acting film, video and TV, plus some music. Davey Jones had a long career as a singer and actor until he died in 2012. Peter Tork mostly had TV acting roles, aside from Monkees’ reunions.
Wiki tells me that Nesmith and Tork never really liked each other. Nonetheless, Nesmith was broken up by Tork’s death.
When I was assistant manager at Tulagi in Boulder Co. Nesmith and his band had a 5-day stint at the place. They played Western swing and suchlike. I remember “Five-o’clock in the Texas Morning” with a beautiful steel guitar. Nesmith was a nice guy, very personable and modest. After hours we would sit around drinking 3.2 beer and gabbing.
I saw The Association live in concert three times and they all played their instruments, and played them very well. No wrecking crew needed, they sounded great, their harmonies were great — just like their recordings. Not like the Beach Boys whom I also saw live in their heyday, or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, neither band was able to carry a tune (singing). I mean, they were really bad, flat and out of tune.
Concerning UFOs, I for one am not above making fun of people who “believe” in them.
IrishOtter49:
Re: Nesmith — What a great story! I like to think Nesmith is a decent fellow.
As to the Association — On the Wrecking Crew documentary there is a section on an Association song, forgotten, which has an intricate guitar riff played by a Crew member, but the Association lead guitar just could not hit live.
If you are into 60s pop, it’s an essential document.
IrishOtter:
And of course my beloved Bee Gees usually sounded even BETTER in concert than in the studio, and they already sounded plenty good in the studio. They also played instruments – Barry rhythm guitar and Mo bass and keyboards. Robin could play instruments, too, but chose not to do so except when composing; he apparently preferred to concentrate on his singing. The Bee Gees paid their dues, performing live in three-part harmony even as young children. They were pros.
Sarah Hoyt is sunlighting her nighttime job at Instapundit. She’s been keeping watch on the accelerating rush of states and then Republican Governor’s taking Texas’ side against the BidenKKKrat traitors!
Avatar
Jeff M.
19 minutes ago
According to Fox, the Biden administration has given TX until tomorrow to allow BP agents access to remove the razor wire. I can’t find anything about what they said they’d do if TX doesn’t comply.
UPDATE
WTFDYTYA?
40 minutes ago
No Democrat governors yet, but RFK Jr. has come out in support of it.
Rufus T. Firefly—
Am just now viewing Whitley Strieber interviewing ex-CIA operations officer Jim Semivan, who had a 30 year career at the Agency, and who has also had his close encounters with NHIs.
When discussing the issue of why the government doesn’t disclose what it knows about UFOs and NHIs, Semivan said that he was told by some very senior and knowledgeable individuals that the truth was not being disclosed because it was both extremely complicated, and also horrific.
This akin to what Lou Elizondo has hinted at in one statement, with him saying that, if people knew what he knew about UFOs, it would make them very “somber,” and moreover, that we will have to reevaluate our understanding of our place in the Universe, and our belief that we are apex predators, and at the top of the food chain.
P. S.—
Semivan also pointed out the absurd and trickster behavior of these NHIs, which haven’t actually helped the human race by, say, preventing wars, massacres, disease outbreaks, etc., and that they appear to just be “messing with us.”
Moreover, that these entities/forces appear not to be able to be fit within our ideas of good and evil; they just do whatever they want to do.
Trump statement supporting Texas, today.
“Texas has rightly invoked the Invasion Clause of the Constitution, and must be given full support to repel the Invasion. We encourage all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of Illegals, and to remove them back across the Border. All Americans should support the commonsense measures by Texas authorities to protect the Safety, Security, and Sovereignty of Texas, and of the American people.”
The story at The Hill adds Nikki Haley to the Amen chorus: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley also spoke out in support of Abbott on Thursday and called Biden’s position “absolutely ridiculous.”
One commenter adds the Democrat Governor of Right-leaning Kentucky.
Unicorns are not vegans or herbivores? An Ex-CIA critter said so? As credible as those 51 senior intelligence officials.
“ Moreover, that these entities/forces appear not to be able to be fit within our ideas of good and evil; they just do whatever they want to do.”
So democrats then eh?
Regarding Texas and “immigration,”
I have read almost no actual law on the subject, other than the Constitution, but it seems the debate has to come down to nomenclature. Are the people crossing the border “invaders” or “refugees?” Texas states the former, immigration overseen by the Biden administration, states the latter.
If they are invaders the Federal government needs to protect the states and the state governments have the right to protect their citizens.
If they are refugees the Federal government should follow whatever process or policies are in place. But if it doesn’t there isn’t much the states can do to make it. And, as we saw with the Trump administration and the Biden administration, Executive orders and the stroke of a pen can quickly and legally change how and where refugees are processed.
I don’t see how Texas will win a court battle insisting these are invaders if the Federal government insists they are refugees following existing procedures*.**
*And yes, I know “existing procedures” include shelter within the U.S. while asylum seekers await their hearings, that can be up to 7 years in the future.
**It’s sort of like Nebraska deciding we are at war with Lichtenstein and insisting it has the right to keep any Lichtensteinians (Lichtensteiners?) currently in Nebraska in state run interment camps. Well, Congress declares war and if Congress hasn’t declared war against Lichtenstein we cannot be at war with Lichtenstein. How can Texas declare the people crossing its border are not refugees. I personally believe the vast majority do not qualify for refugee status, but they have a right to a hearing under current law, and those hearing dates are in the future and the Biden administration states they can shelter within our borders until they have their hearing. If that’s the case, and it is, Texas does not have the ability to define them as “invaders” and force the Federal government to treat them as such.
Re Rufus-
The claim that young single men from Africa, Asia, and much of Latin America, are ALL refugees is absurd.
But that corruption and confusion spread by Democrats is what these weasels have done for a long, long time.
.
Ace of Spades has a good evening roundup of the score of State support for Texas today:
January 25, 2024
Showdown In Texas: The Texas Military Department Says It Will “Hold the Line”
Boy it sure is important to Democrats to open the borders to millions of new illegal voters.
I guess that’s just because they can reliably count on 81 million “Americans” voting for them every election, huh? You know, like they got last time?
Right?
The Texas Military Department says it will continue to “hold the line in Shelby Park” in their efforts to “deter and prevent unlawful entry into the State of Texas.” Under Operation Lone Star orders from Governor Greg Abbott, the Texas National Guard’s actions continue despite a second demand letter from the Department of Homeland Security to release control of the park seized by the State earlier this month.
Governor Abbott pledged to continue deploying razor wire along the Rio Grande border with Mexico:
“We remain resolute in our actions to secure our border, preserve the rule of law, and protect the sovereignty of our State,” TMD officials wrote in a post on X.
Shortly after DHS officials issued a second letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton demanding accesses to Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, a defiant Governor Abbott posted, “We will continue to deploy this razor wire to repel illegal immigration.”
John Daniel Davidson @johnddavidson [replying to Charlie Kirk?]
This is correct as far as it goes, but a lot of commentators are missing that
we have left the realm of the strictly legal and are in the realm of the political now.
________________________
TAKE THIS IN AGAIN:
“we have left the realm of the strictly legal and are in the realm of the political now.“
THIS IS TRUE, AND SERIOUS, BUT FINALLY EMPOWERS The People, AGAINST THE DC GRIDLOCK.
And therefore, needed and necessary,
TJ,
I agree it’s absurd, but who defines the term? I am not versed in the law or precedent, but I can’t imagine any law cedes the definition of “refugee” to the states or gives them jurisdiction over handling refugees. As you see with my example of Lichtensteinonians (Lichtensteinishers?), it would be chaos to allow states to determine whom we are at war with or which citizens can request asylum based on which criteria.
It is absurd, but under Federalism if the U.S. government acts absurdly in this instance that is its prerogative.
You probably disagreed with Maine and Colorado declaring Donald Trump an insurrectionist and removing his name from their states’ ballots, right? What if all the Democrat run states decide that orange-skinned real estate barons who had television shows are not U.S. citizens? Like asylum, our Constitution does not leave such global decisions to the states.
Nesmith’s Monkees gig was only the start of a successful career in entertainment. Among other projects, he created a show for Nickelodeon called PopClips which consisted entirely of music videos, and which later was modified by Time Warner into the MTV network franchise. He always seemed to me to be the kind of great guy to drink beer with. He was one of the few musicians that mastered the 12-string electric guitar.
Am I the only one who finds the goings-on in Texas exciting?
“There are five main consequences DHS can impose on illegal entrants: (1) prosecution for “improper entry” under section 275 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA); (2) detention, mandated by section 235(b) of the INA for all illegal migrants at the border and ports; (3) “expedited removal” under section 235(b)(1) of the INA; (4) placement in removal proceedings under section 240 of the INA; and (5) return back across the border to await removal proceedings, under section 235(b)(2)(C) of the INA.
Notwithstanding that “consequences” language in the latest Border Patrol Strategy, the administration has largely refused to impose any of those consequences on illegal migrants. Prosecutions dropped during the pandemic, Biden paused, and Mayorkas then ended, section 235(b)(2)(C) returns (“Remain in Mexico”), nearly all illegal migrants are released, and just 15 percent of the (nearly 189,000) aliens apprehended at the Southwest border in October were subject to expedited removal.
The administration is putting released illegal migrants into removal proceedings, but only as a vehicle to permit those aliens to apply for asylum. Consequently, the dockets of the nation’s 659 immigration judges were burdened with more than 851,000 pending cases as of the third quarter of FY 2023.”
“As for our “longstanding international obligations”, the United States is a signatory to the 1967 Protocol to the 1951 Refugee Convention, but every other nation in the Western Hemisphere save Cuba and Guyana has acceded to one or both of those agreements, too, and illegal migrants can seek protection in any of them. Most come here because the economic conditions are better in the United States.
And, as DOJ explained in 1991: “The language of the Protocol by which the United States adhered to the Refugee Convention demonstrates that the United States did not intend that the Convention, as adhered to, would be self-executing”. The asylum statute, section 208 of the INA, is one part of the United States’ “implementing legislation” for the Protocol and Convention (“statutory withholding” under section 241(b)(3) of the INA is another component), and Congress can amend that provision as it sees fit.
Asylum is an exception to congressional limits on alien admissions to the United States, but because Biden’s asylum policies have no limiting principle that would control illegal entries, that exception is swallowing the rule, and taking border security with it.”
I think this is the first time I’ve already known something you posted!
That connection has always tickled my funny-bone.
And yes, I was a Monkees fan; in fact, I preferred them to the Beatles.
So sue me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlqCfesfoYs
Rufus writes, “It is absurd, but under Federalism if the U.S. government acts absurdly in this instance that is its prerogative.”
No, it isn’t strictly Federal prerogative.
We are revisiting the Andrew Jackson era Nullification Crisis terrain, where the boundaries of Union of State delegated powers and the compact between them and the Federal government are I’ll-defined. THIS is unsettled ground. However, whereas the first happened over new tariffs, the present Crisis concerns the outrageous REFUSAL of the Executive to follow the codified and settled laws.
Actually, there are at least two questions needing answer in the Texas and States’ conflict with the Feds.
First, is the Constitutional one: is there a Tenth Amendment stake in the performance of Federal government’s Constitutional and legal duties?
But the core reduces to two things (SEE page 8) that are judicial and administrative matters: documented persecution, and expectations of future persecution.
The Obamunists have simply contrived to circumvent and overwhelm the law! (And on this ground, failure to execute the laws faithfully, FJB needs impeachment, conviction, and trash removal from orffice. While this is a separate matter, the animus decidedly overlaps. And therefore an election year is ideal for deciding a political outcome.)
On both these grounds, I seriously doubt that more than single percentages of Illegals can qualify as refugees.
Mind you, I have closely observed Illegal migrants at the Mexico side of the border with Arizona last month, as well as groups by the dozen at Sky Harbor Airport awaiting transport in November.
And since I have Southern border hopped a lot in the past five years, my most recent was the most overstuffed with illegals, cued up in great numbers by tent and tarpaulins. The most ever!
It is a crisis. And people are galvanising against the traitor Dems. “GIVE ‘EM HELL!” I say.
huxley,
If you enjoyed “Elephant Parts” I highly recommend Nesmith’s, “Tapeheads.” I think I saw it in an actual theater when it was released. Regardless, I have seen it many times since and the soundtrack was one of the first CD’s I owned. A lot of good music on the soundtrack, but one of the songs used for some incidental music is “Surfer’s Love Call,” by Bo Diddley. I was a fan of Bo Diddley for his unique style (and guitars), but had no idea he recorded a surf album in 1963 until hearing it on Nesmith’s soundtrack.
Thanks for the link to the Australian program (or programme) with Nesbit and Dolenz. Very enjoyable.
Nesmith mentions his music video, “Rio” went nowhere in the U.S. but took off immediately in Australia, and he had no idea why. I wonder if it had something to do with Aussie hero, Peter Allen, and his success with the song, “I Go to Rio?”
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Israel Update, Mike and Gadi chat-up the news, “The Israeli-American Plan to Overthrow Netanyahu” edition: https://rumble.com/v490k40-the-israeli-american-plan-to-overthrow-pm-netanyahu.html
Totally legit not
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/democratic-ag-tries-ban-pro-lifers-gun-makers-federal-court-emergency-appeal
Details from the last thread
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2817412/real-reason-senate-border-deal-coll
I remember the Monkeys. They weren’t that bad, a band created for a TV show. Individually they were fairly good musicians.
A lot better than most of todays musicians.
Yes they werent terrible they just werent the beattles snl then dialed it up for the ruttles
I think we covered this before
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2024/01/25/myburgh-south-africas-biblical-misquote-at-the-hague-has-nazi-roots/
Some more cheerful news to brighten up your day.
A British military general is warning that Britain had better get ready for a war with Russia in the next several years.
A leaked report from the Germany Ministry of Defense says that Russia may attack NATO nations in 2024 and that Germany best get ready for this.
Swedish officials warned that Sweden had best get ready for a war with Russia.
Make what you will of these reports, but for me the real tell tale is that Sweden and Finland have recently joined NATO, and Poland is building up its military to be the largest in Europe.
Recall that Sweden had been a neutral nation for 200 years, and so had Finland since the end of WWII.
Poland joined NATO soon after the USSR fell apart.
It’s informative to see how many former Warsaw Pact nations joined NATO upon the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.
If Russia is allowed to prevail in Ukraine, IMHO, it is a slam dunk they will turn their attention onto the Baltic States, all of which border Russia or their close ally, Belarus.
Report based on what, i thought Russia was down for the count
I’ve watched this guy’s videos before, and his observations are generally pretty interesting.
He (understandably) decries the ubiquity of autotune / pitch monitoring software. I agree with him — it really “medicrotizes” voices. He’s five a couple of videos on old recordings that are remastered using autotune. Ugh. I think one of the recordings he analyzed was of a Journey tune with Steve Perry. It was interesting to see / hear how the “imperfections” of Perry’s voice adds depth to the recording. It wasn’t just that autotune / pitch monitoring levels a lot of vibrato — it makes it artificially “smooth.” And for lack of a better description, to me, it sounded unctuous.
The recording was MUCH better pre-remastered.
https://www.steynonline.com/14045/the-end-is-nigh
A leaked report from the Germany Ministry of Defense says that Russia may attack NATO nations in 2024 and that Germany best get ready for this.
–John Tyler
Peter Zeihan smiles.
See map titled “Russia’s Desired Bortders:
https://zeihan.com/a-ukraine-war-and-the-end-of-russia-repost/
Michael Nesmith recorded Nine Times Blue on his Magnetic South LP, Michael Nesmith and the First National Band. It’s a hidden gem showcasing his songwriting talent.
Monkees: fun band, emphasis on fun not ground breaking rock, that exceeded expectations. Took a lot of good songs and made them their own. eg, I’m a Believer by Neil Diamond.
I did not know that
My first thought is how could Russia take the rest of Europe when they haven’t been able to take Ukraine? But I suppose a mad man, not thinking clearly Putin might think he could do a Strategic drive around the west of Ukraine with Belarusian help.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/01/25/germany-green-party-foreign-minister-once-again-stranded-by-government-executive-jet-failures/
RE: Ya know all of this crazy UFO stuff, well, I saw a video about this yesterday, and the supposed 10 foot tall wraith like aliens at a Mall in Miami just registered.
My question is, why would many dozens, some reported 100 squad cars (see one aerial view below) be called in to deal with something which was totally illusory, a few spooked shoppers, but nothing other than that? *
* See https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/01/KS-aliens-op.jpg?strip=all&quality=100&w=1920&h=1080&crop=1
Another possible explanation for all of the threatening stories about Russia – perhaps Ukraine has just about played out the string and is about to capitulate. Maybe this is a last-gasp effort to increase international commitment to Ukraine before it falls or has to negotiate a peace? Another form of the “fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here” argument?
I’m with Jon baker in that I find it difficult to believe that Russia would try to invade a NATO country after having such a difficult time in Ukraine. Grinding out an ugly victory against Ukraine is one thing. Expecting to defeat NATO in a head-on fight is something entirely different.
“…crazy…”
Well at least we now know why the Houthis (and their counterparts in Iraq and Iran) are targeting Americans…
“US warned Iran before Islamic State attack that killed more than 80 people: Report;
“Iran initially blamed Israel and the United States for the attack, which killed 94 people.”—
https://justthenews.com/government/security/us-warned-iran-islamic-state-attack-killed-over-80-people-report
Can’t make this stuff up…
The navarro conviction is also the process is the punishment
brinster,
Have you seen Nesmith’s, “Elephant Parts” or, “Tape Heads?”
They were both great and somewhat groundbreaking in their day, especially, “Elephant Parts.” Nesmith was very creative and clever.
Bauxite on January 25, 2024 at 1:07 pm said:
Another possible explanation for all of the threatening stories about Russia – perhaps Ukraine has just about played out the string and is about to capitulate. Maybe this is a last-gasp effort to increase international commitment to Ukraine before it falls or has to negotiate a peace? Another form of the “fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here” argument?
I agree with this. I would be more inclined to believe Ukraine if they were less entwined with US politicians of both parties.
I obviously think that the UFO Phenomena is real, and that the Secrecy faction within the government has done a masterful job of engineering in a coverup lasting, at this point, some 80 years or more–fear of being ridiculed, loss of job or prestige, or even worse, are all powerful persuaders.
As with many other events–not just UFOs–the media has been the government’s partner in all this, either by just not reporting events involving UFOs or, if forced to report them–say, when dozens or hundreds of people have witnessed an event–reporting/characterizing the event with a tone of dismissal or ridicule, claiming such UFO incidents to be nonsense, and, by the tone and substace of their coverage, letting readers know that the people reporting witnessing these incidents are either crazy, easily fooled, or dim-witted.
Keeping this history in mind, this recent incident at the Mall in Miami makes me wonder, just how many other UFO/NHI incidents throughout the past decades might actually have been real, but were covered up–just not even reported, and/or buried under a ton of ridicule?
Thus, what we have are two different Realities, existing side by side.
One in which UFOs NHIs, and a lot of other supposedly “anomalous” evens are just not possible or real.
Then, the other Reality, one in which all of these supposedly anomalous things are actually real.
I happen to think that we are seeing the slow revelation that that second Reality is actually the true one.
Re: Zeihan / Russia’s Desired Borders
Desiring something and having the means to take it aren’t the same thing. Zeihan hmself didn’t believe Russia would have this much trouble in Ukraine. Though since that war began, Zeihan has always considered it a possibility that Ukraine could fold anytime. I do too. In the meantime, props to the White-and-Blue.
If Ukraine does fold, is it out of the question that Russia invade a NATO state? (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland or Romania, as I reckon it.)’
Zeihan’s reasoning is that Russia has historically been invaded from the west through the geographically open plains on its western border. Demographically, this is Russia’s last chance to close those easy access areas and safeguard itself from future invasions.
This theory hits Zeihan’s sweet spot of demography and geography. I’m not so sure, myself.
I find the NATO solidarity with Ukraine somewhat surprising. Not that it’s unreasonable but the Europeans have long seemed feckless.
P.S. Wouldn’t most of us want to live in a world of essentially un-threatening, “normal,” pretty predictable Reality–with comforting and protecting “consensus reality” walls all around us, there to and prevent “unreality” and chaos from breaking in–versus a Reality which is not just humdrum “normal,” but a Reality which is much more threatening, and dangerous, much wider in scope and complexity, and more mysterious, more mutable and unsettling, and a Reality in which there are really things which do go “bump in the night”?
THe producer (i met) hated them… or grew to hate them…
he hated they thought they were real musicians
(neal young auditioned to be a monkey, but his teeth were too crooked
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/when-neil-young-met-the-monkees/ )
anyway
the producer decided to do it differently next time
next time he put a group together, it too had hit songs
but he didn’t have to argue with the “stars” as they were a cartoons
they were called “The Archies” hit song was “Sugar”
who was this?
Don Kirshner
There are many audition groups…
one I personally worked with was called R-Angels
(I did mostly A-List so they were always on me to take pics)
R Angels were one of the many girl groups to emerge in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s, amidst The Spice Girls’ success. Signed to Motown Records and made up of four young women named Gina, Vonnie, Dorothy & Lian, they released two singles, “I Need To Know” & “Left To Right”
and then there was the group that got signed that never existed!!!
BOSTON
Boston’s debut album was initially rejected because band founder Tom Scholz had recorded and produced it entirely in his basement. In order to appease/fool the label, Scholz hired someone to pretend to produce the album while he rerecorded and reproduced the same album from his basement again.
[The UFO cover is really a guitar upside down]
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on another note, today in ballet–
Jiang Qing was ordered to stay out of politics, and she did so until the 1960s when she openly criticized traditional Chinese opera and the bourgeois influences in Chinese arts and literature. In 1966, Mao made her first deputy head of the Cultural Revolution and gave her far-reaching powers over China’s intellectual and cultural life. The Cultural Revolution was Mao’s attempt to revolutionize Chinese society, and Jiang proved adept at manipulating the media and the young radicals known as the Red Guards. The movement was characterized by terror and purges in which hundreds of thousands were killed and millions suffered.
In the late 1960s, the Cultural Revolution waned, and Jiang faded from the public eye. However, after her husband’s death in 1976, she and three other radicals who had come to power in the revolution were singled out as the “Gang of Four.” Jiang was arrested and in 1977 expelled from the Communist Party. Three years later, the Gang of Four were put on trial. Jiang was held responsible for provoking the turmoil and bloodshed of the revolution, but she denied the charges and denounced China’s leaders. She was found guilty and sentenced to die. On January 25, 1983, exactly two years after she was condemned, the Chinese government commuted her sentence to life imprisonment. In 1991, she died in prison of an apparent suicide.
There are tons of oddities, like Bad Company from the band Bad Company on the album Bad Company
I would be more inclined to trust the benign altutistic motives of Russia if they hadn’t been waging wars by proxie and actual war against their neighbors since 2008, weren’t allied with Iran, North Korea, and committed to everturning international stability. But thats just me.
From above:
Guess what his mother invented!!
Single mother Bette Nesmith Graham struggled to financially support her son on her meager secretarial salary while trying to overcome a technological learning curve that could very well have cost Nesmith Graham her job
His mother, Bette Claire Graham, invented Liquid Paper, which she sold to Gillette in 1979 for $47.5 million. A year later, Nesmith inherited her fortune when she died. His inheritance financed Nesmith’s “Elephant Parts,” the innovative video that won the first video Grammy Award
We make them rich by dropping sanctions on iran by kneecapping our energy supply the trained chimps on dei i think they see their odds pretty well
So were buying discount russian oil from india how is that helpful
Artful Dodger,
…“Neil Young auditioned to be a monkey, but his teeth were too crooked”
Neil did session work with the Monkeys but I’m pretty sure it was Steven Stills who auditioned along with his imperfect teeth.
That was an amazing time for music. Young musicians flooding into LA in the hopes of being discovered. The Hollywood Hills above Sunset, Laurel Canyon, were abuzz with the
sounds of music. The Byrds, (one of the first to make it), CSN&Y, Mama’s and Papa’s, the Doors, Frank Zappa and the Mothers, Jerry Garcia, the Beachboys, and of course Joni Mitchell all lived in proximity to each other. Even Brits like the Stones and the Beatles sat in on it. The Monkeys were buddies with them all.
All of this happening even before the scene shifted to SF for the summer of love. The Sunset Strip riots where LA police came down hard on young people helped push things North. I was on the younger side of things, 72 now, but I feel so blessed to have experienced those times and that great music.
Snow on pine @148pm,
In my personal experience people are more reluctant to discuss the supernatural than UFOs. It’s not unusual when I’ve been on a lakeshore at night, or sitting around a fire and someone will bring up strange lights they’ve seen in the sky, seeming to move unlike any known human powered craft. I’ve never seen any of these people ridiculed. Others present go “hmmm,” or offer their own story of a similar circumstance.
But even amongst my very close friends I don’t know which ones have seen ghosts, or sensed a deceased loved ones presence or had a supernatural religious experience (hearing a voice, seeing/sensing an angel, etc.).
BTW, Buffalo Springfield’s anthem, “For What It’s Worth” commemorated the Sunset Riots.
Snow on Pine @2:10pm,
Years before I sat for my driver’s license exam I read a fairly detailed book on how internal combustion engines work, and how cars “go” (distributor caps, differentials, positraction axels, manual and automatic transmissions, carburetors [I’m old]). I imagine less than 40% of people on the roads in the U.S. (other countries are much more rigorous) know their cars’ inner workings in a detailed manner.
How does your home’s refrigerator work? Heater? Cooktop? Television set? The computer you’re reading this on? I imagine you, and many others here, know all or most of these things, but how many of your fellow humans do?
I’m not wired like that, but it seems most humans are very comfortable using extremely complex things with no idea of what they are made of, or why they do what they do. They navigate amazingly complex things with only cursory, surface knowledge of what is happening “under the hood.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/adam-schiff-gets-huffy-during-debate-after-republican-calls-him-liar-who-was-censured
Nesmith was a very interesting guy. 2019 interview with him and Micky Dolenz, from Australian TV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R39x-5p4Zjc
My favorite song of his is “Different Drum”. Stone Poneys version.
ArtfldgrsShadow @3:16pm,
“Elephant Parts” wasn’t an innovative video; it was a movie with a plot that allowed for multiple, embedded music videos within its structure. Sort of like a video version of one of those Broadway musicals about a doo-wop group that’s an excuse to work in a lot of song and dance numbers.
ArtfldgrsShadow,
Regarding “The Monkees,” I know you know this, but there is no shortage of rock groups who made real money and are/were barely musicians. And there is no shortage of extremely talented rock musicians who couldn’t make a living in music and ended up getting a “day” job. Lack of musical experience/talent was one of the essential components of early Punk. The Talking Heads met at art school (they were visual artists). I think only one of them had played an instrument prior.
And, like your Boston story, there are quite a few similar stories of talented musicians recording songs and/or albums on their own using multi-track technology and then scrambling to find additional, live musicians to tour with after signing a record deal.
Don Kirshner hated the Monkees because they wouldn’t settle for being puppets. Hence, “The Archies” cartoon show. Kirshner would never lose control of those characters.
The Monkees weren’t seasoned music pros at the beginning but they became good and even damn good. They certainly could harmonize and I think Dolenz had one of the great male pop voices of the 60s. By the end of their show, they were writing their own songs and playing their own instruments, though the results were not so popular as their first two albums.
Keep in mind that the Monkees weren’t the only group faking their instruments. They were backed by the legendary Wrecking Crew just as many other LA pop bands in the day such as Jan and Dean, the Association, Sonny & Cher, the Mamas and the Papas, the 5th Dimension, Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra, the Byrds and the Beach Boys.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(music)
Mike Nesmith went on creating moderately successful albums and videos. Mickey Dolenz went on to a career producing/directing/acting film, video and TV, plus some music. Davey Jones had a long career as a singer and actor until he died in 2012. Peter Tork mostly had TV acting roles, aside from Monkees’ reunions.
Wiki tells me that Nesmith and Tork never really liked each other. Nonetheless, Nesmith was broken up by Tork’s death.
When I was assistant manager at Tulagi in Boulder Co. Nesmith and his band had a 5-day stint at the place. They played Western swing and suchlike. I remember “Five-o’clock in the Texas Morning” with a beautiful steel guitar. Nesmith was a nice guy, very personable and modest. After hours we would sit around drinking 3.2 beer and gabbing.
I saw The Association live in concert three times and they all played their instruments, and played them very well. No wrecking crew needed, they sounded great, their harmonies were great — just like their recordings. Not like the Beach Boys whom I also saw live in their heyday, or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, neither band was able to carry a tune (singing). I mean, they were really bad, flat and out of tune.
Concerning UFOs, I for one am not above making fun of people who “believe” in them.
IrishOtter49:
Re: Nesmith — What a great story! I like to think Nesmith is a decent fellow.
As to the Association — On the Wrecking Crew documentary there is a section on an Association song, forgotten, which has an intricate guitar riff played by a Crew member, but the Association lead guitar just could not hit live.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(2008_film)
If you are into 60s pop, it’s an essential document.
IrishOtter:
And of course my beloved Bee Gees usually sounded even BETTER in concert than in the studio, and they already sounded plenty good in the studio. They also played instruments – Barry rhythm guitar and Mo bass and keyboards. Robin could play instruments, too, but chose not to do so except when composing; he apparently preferred to concentrate on his singing. The Bee Gees paid their dues, performing live in three-part harmony even as young children. They were pros.
Sarah Hoyt is sunlighting her nighttime job at Instapundit. She’s been keeping watch on the accelerating rush of states and then Republican Governor’s taking Texas’ side against the BidenKKKrat traitors!
Breath-taking unanimity.
https://instapundit.com/628641/#disqus_thread
BREAKUNG NEWS UPDATE:
Avatar
Jeff M.
19 minutes ago
According to Fox, the Biden administration has given TX until tomorrow to allow BP agents access to remove the razor wire. I can’t find anything about what they said they’d do if TX doesn’t comply.
UPDATE
WTFDYTYA?
40 minutes ago
No Democrat governors yet, but RFK Jr. has come out in support of it.
Rufus T. Firefly—
Am just now viewing Whitley Strieber interviewing ex-CIA operations officer Jim Semivan, who had a 30 year career at the Agency, and who has also had his close encounters with NHIs.
When discussing the issue of why the government doesn’t disclose what it knows about UFOs and NHIs, Semivan said that he was told by some very senior and knowledgeable individuals that the truth was not being disclosed because it was both extremely complicated, and also horrific.
This akin to what Lou Elizondo has hinted at in one statement, with him saying that, if people knew what he knew about UFOs, it would make them very “somber,” and moreover, that we will have to reevaluate our understanding of our place in the Universe, and our belief that we are apex predators, and at the top of the food chain.
P. S.—
Semivan also pointed out the absurd and trickster behavior of these NHIs, which haven’t actually helped the human race by, say, preventing wars, massacres, disease outbreaks, etc., and that they appear to just be “messing with us.”
Moreover, that these entities/forces appear not to be able to be fit within our ideas of good and evil; they just do whatever they want to do.
Trump statement supporting Texas, today.
“Texas has rightly invoked the Invasion Clause of the Constitution, and must be given full support to repel the Invasion. We encourage all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of Illegals, and to remove them back across the Border. All Americans should support the commonsense measures by Texas authorities to protect the Safety, Security, and Sovereignty of Texas, and of the American people.”
Robert F Kennedy’s statement on X, supporting Texas gets a story on The Hill
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4430092-rfk-jr-praises-texas-border-battle-biden/
The story at The Hill adds Nikki Haley to the Amen chorus: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley also spoke out in support of Abbott on Thursday and called Biden’s position “absolutely ridiculous.”
One commenter adds the Democrat Governor of Right-leaning Kentucky.
But the only documentation for this claim links to a new story about Bashear thanking his State’s National Guard for serving Texas at the border last year
https://spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisville/news/2023/10/26/beshear-kentucky-national-guard-
Thus, I judge this claim a “Maybe”.
Unicorns are not vegans or herbivores? An Ex-CIA critter said so? As credible as those 51 senior intelligence officials.
“ Moreover, that these entities/forces appear not to be able to be fit within our ideas of good and evil; they just do whatever they want to do.”
So democrats then eh?
Regarding Texas and “immigration,”
I have read almost no actual law on the subject, other than the Constitution, but it seems the debate has to come down to nomenclature. Are the people crossing the border “invaders” or “refugees?” Texas states the former, immigration overseen by the Biden administration, states the latter.
If they are invaders the Federal government needs to protect the states and the state governments have the right to protect their citizens.
If they are refugees the Federal government should follow whatever process or policies are in place. But if it doesn’t there isn’t much the states can do to make it. And, as we saw with the Trump administration and the Biden administration, Executive orders and the stroke of a pen can quickly and legally change how and where refugees are processed.
I don’t see how Texas will win a court battle insisting these are invaders if the Federal government insists they are refugees following existing procedures*.**
*And yes, I know “existing procedures” include shelter within the U.S. while asylum seekers await their hearings, that can be up to 7 years in the future.
**It’s sort of like Nebraska deciding we are at war with Lichtenstein and insisting it has the right to keep any Lichtensteinians (Lichtensteiners?) currently in Nebraska in state run interment camps. Well, Congress declares war and if Congress hasn’t declared war against Lichtenstein we cannot be at war with Lichtenstein. How can Texas declare the people crossing its border are not refugees. I personally believe the vast majority do not qualify for refugee status, but they have a right to a hearing under current law, and those hearing dates are in the future and the Biden administration states they can shelter within our borders until they have their hearing. If that’s the case, and it is, Texas does not have the ability to define them as “invaders” and force the Federal government to treat them as such.
Re Rufus-
The claim that young single men from Africa, Asia, and much of Latin America, are ALL refugees is absurd.
But that corruption and confusion spread by Democrats is what these weasels have done for a long, long time.
.
Ace of Spades has a good evening roundup of the score of State support for Texas today:
January 25, 2024
Showdown In Texas: The Texas Military Department Says It Will “Hold the Line”
Boy it sure is important to Democrats to open the borders to millions of new illegal voters.
I guess that’s just because they can reliably count on 81 million “Americans” voting for them every election, huh? You know, like they got last time?
Right?
The Texas Military Department says it will continue to “hold the line in Shelby Park” in their efforts to “deter and prevent unlawful entry into the State of Texas.” Under Operation Lone Star orders from Governor Greg Abbott, the Texas National Guard’s actions continue despite a second demand letter from the Department of Homeland Security to release control of the park seized by the State earlier this month.
Governor Abbott pledged to continue deploying razor wire along the Rio Grande border with Mexico:
“We remain resolute in our actions to secure our border, preserve the rule of law, and protect the sovereignty of our State,” TMD officials wrote in a post on X.
Shortly after DHS officials issued a second letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton demanding accesses to Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, a defiant Governor Abbott posted, “We will continue to deploy this razor wire to repel illegal immigration.”
MORE AT THE LINK
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/408053.php
John Daniel Davidson @johnddavidson [replying to Charlie Kirk?]
This is correct as far as it goes, but a lot of commentators are missing that
we have left the realm of the strictly legal and are in the realm of the political now.
________________________
TAKE THIS IN AGAIN:
“we have left the realm of the strictly legal and are in the realm of the political now.“
THIS IS TRUE, AND SERIOUS, BUT FINALLY EMPOWERS The People, AGAINST THE DC GRIDLOCK.
And therefore, needed and necessary,
TJ,
I agree it’s absurd, but who defines the term? I am not versed in the law or precedent, but I can’t imagine any law cedes the definition of “refugee” to the states or gives them jurisdiction over handling refugees. As you see with my example of Lichtensteinonians (Lichtensteinishers?), it would be chaos to allow states to determine whom we are at war with or which citizens can request asylum based on which criteria.
It is absurd, but under Federalism if the U.S. government acts absurdly in this instance that is its prerogative.
You probably disagreed with Maine and Colorado declaring Donald Trump an insurrectionist and removing his name from their states’ ballots, right? What if all the Democrat run states decide that orange-skinned real estate barons who had television shows are not U.S. citizens? Like asylum, our Constitution does not leave such global decisions to the states.
Nesmith’s Monkees gig was only the start of a successful career in entertainment. Among other projects, he created a show for Nickelodeon called PopClips which consisted entirely of music videos, and which later was modified by Time Warner into the MTV network franchise. He always seemed to me to be the kind of great guy to drink beer with. He was one of the few musicians that mastered the 12-string electric guitar.
Am I the only one who finds the goings-on in Texas exciting?
“There are five main consequences DHS can impose on illegal entrants: (1) prosecution for “improper entry” under section 275 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA); (2) detention, mandated by section 235(b) of the INA for all illegal migrants at the border and ports; (3) “expedited removal” under section 235(b)(1) of the INA; (4) placement in removal proceedings under section 240 of the INA; and (5) return back across the border to await removal proceedings, under section 235(b)(2)(C) of the INA.
Notwithstanding that “consequences” language in the latest Border Patrol Strategy, the administration has largely refused to impose any of those consequences on illegal migrants. Prosecutions dropped during the pandemic, Biden paused, and Mayorkas then ended, section 235(b)(2)(C) returns (“Remain in Mexico”), nearly all illegal migrants are released, and just 15 percent of the (nearly 189,000) aliens apprehended at the Southwest border in October were subject to expedited removal.
The administration is putting released illegal migrants into removal proceedings, but only as a vehicle to permit those aliens to apply for asylum. Consequently, the dockets of the nation’s 659 immigration judges were burdened with more than 851,000 pending cases as of the third quarter of FY 2023.”
“As for our “longstanding international obligations”, the United States is a signatory to the 1967 Protocol to the 1951 Refugee Convention, but every other nation in the Western Hemisphere save Cuba and Guyana has acceded to one or both of those agreements, too, and illegal migrants can seek protection in any of them. Most come here because the economic conditions are better in the United States.
And, as DOJ explained in 1991: “The language of the Protocol by which the United States adhered to the Refugee Convention demonstrates that the United States did not intend that the Convention, as adhered to, would be self-executing”. The asylum statute, section 208 of the INA, is one part of the United States’ “implementing legislation” for the Protocol and Convention (“statutory withholding” under section 241(b)(3) of the INA is another component), and Congress can amend that provision as it sees fit.
Asylum is an exception to congressional limits on alien admissions to the United States, but because Biden’s asylum policies have no limiting principle that would control illegal entries, that exception is swallowing the rule, and taking border security with it.”
https://cis.org/Arthur/Bidens-Border-Policies-Have-No-Limiting-Principle-Control-Illegal-Entries
6 Questions Every Democrat Must Answer
(from American Free News Network)
https://afnn.us/2024/01/23/6-questions-every-democrat-must-answer/
Am I the only one who finds the goings-on in Texas exciting?
IrishOtter49:
In a Fort Sumter kinda way.
Rufus:
BTW, one may watch Nesmith’s “Elephant Parts” for free:
–Michael Nesmith, “Elephant Parts” (1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUr_23ha6vs
I don’t think I saw this. Or if I did, I was too stoned to remember. Very Monty Pythonesque. Nesmith truly had a creative brain.
The French film parody at 8:25 is quite good.
Fooey, Fooey and Fizzy!
Followed by the skit for “Elvis Drugs” narrated by a 12 year-old girl.
Are your parents taking their drugs? Sometimes when they get old, they forget. But that’s when they need them the most!
Contrary to current belief, I found 70s-80s weed much stronger, subjectively anyway, than the stuff sold in dispensaries today. Sad!
@ Artfldgr > Nesmith’s “mother, Bette Claire Graham, invented Liquid Paper,”
I think this is the first time I’ve already known something you posted!
That connection has always tickled my funny-bone.
And yes, I was a Monkees fan; in fact, I preferred them to the Beatles.
So sue me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlqCfesfoYs
Rufus writes, “It is absurd, but under Federalism if the U.S. government acts absurdly in this instance that is its prerogative.”
No, it isn’t strictly Federal prerogative.
We are revisiting the Andrew Jackson era Nullification Crisis terrain, where the boundaries of Union of State delegated powers and the compact between them and the Federal government are I’ll-defined. THIS is unsettled ground. However, whereas the first happened over new tariffs, the present Crisis concerns the outrageous REFUSAL of the Executive to follow the codified and settled laws.
Actually, there are at least two questions needing answer in the Texas and States’ conflict with the Feds.
First, is the Constitutional one: is there a Tenth Amendment stake in the performance of Federal government’s Constitutional and legal duties?
Second, for the “Refugee”, there are definitions and details in the US Citizen and Immigration Services training handbook resting on US Code.
https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/foia/Refugee_Definition_LP_RAIO.pdf
But the core reduces to two things (SEE page 8) that are judicial and administrative matters: documented persecution, and expectations of future persecution.
The Obamunists have simply contrived to circumvent and overwhelm the law! (And on this ground, failure to execute the laws faithfully, FJB needs impeachment, conviction, and trash removal from orffice. While this is a separate matter, the animus decidedly overlaps. And therefore an election year is ideal for deciding a political outcome.)
On both these grounds, I seriously doubt that more than single percentages of Illegals can qualify as refugees.
Mind you, I have closely observed Illegal migrants at the Mexico side of the border with Arizona last month, as well as groups by the dozen at Sky Harbor Airport awaiting transport in November.
And since I have Southern border hopped a lot in the past five years, my most recent was the most overstuffed with illegals, cued up in great numbers by tent and tarpaulins. The most ever!
It is a crisis. And people are galvanising against the traitor Dems. “GIVE ‘EM HELL!” I say.
huxley,
If you enjoyed “Elephant Parts” I highly recommend Nesmith’s, “Tapeheads.” I think I saw it in an actual theater when it was released. Regardless, I have seen it many times since and the soundtrack was one of the first CD’s I owned. A lot of good music on the soundtrack, but one of the songs used for some incidental music is “Surfer’s Love Call,” by Bo Diddley. I was a fan of Bo Diddley for his unique style (and guitars), but had no idea he recorded a surf album in 1963 until hearing it on Nesmith’s soundtrack.
You Nesmith fans may appreciate this video Nesmith filmed to encourage movie theaters to exhibit the film: https://youtu.be/Xlkrd5XXgz0?si=_-YA6DKGpIQHXG2n
Hubert,
Thanks for the link to the Australian program (or programme) with Nesbit and Dolenz. Very enjoyable.
Nesmith mentions his music video, “Rio” went nowhere in the U.S. but took off immediately in Australia, and he had no idea why. I wonder if it had something to do with Aussie hero, Peter Allen, and his success with the song, “I Go to Rio?”