Open thread 5/14/24
We had many of these when I was growing up. And I still don’t like electric can openers and never use one:
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
We had many of these when I was growing up. And I still don’t like electric can openers and never use one:
Russia on the brink as Vladimir Putin’s men slaughtered during worst day of the war so far
https://www.nysun.com/article/amateur-gunsmith-sentenced-to-ten-years-for-assembling-firearms-with-legally-purchased-parts-in-brooklyn-apartment?
Sorry Neo, we have had an electric an opener for decades and I would not be without it. However, stuck in a drawer is a manual opener. When the power goes out we still need a way to open canned goods for food. We had a two burner Coleman camping stove as a backup, but we now have an in ground propane tank and a gas cooktop as well as the grill connected, so cooking that opened canned good is a breeze without electricity.
Oh really
https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1790155461615858109
Possums could wait to vote for her
Remember she is the fan of cop killers and terrorists
The ring often wears out
It was the genius of invention for good or ill
From the people who “voice[d] confidence” in China’s Covid info….
“WHO voices confidence in Hamas stats”—
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/2024-05-14/live-updates-801090
Compare with:
U.N. Cuts Gaza Death Toll Figures by Half, Confirming Hamas Is Lying About Casualties
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/u-n-cuts-gaza-death-toll-figures-by-half-confirming-hamas-is-lying-about-casualties/
H/T Instapundit
…and…
“…Biden Plans to ‘Sign Away’ Powers to WHO”—
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/gordon-chang-joe-biden-who/2024/05/14/id/1164614/
File under: “Soumission” across the board.
Tablet, “The Gates of Gaza”: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/gates-of-gaza
A synoptic view of the wider strategic situation. If we seek to face up to facts, this article ought not to be missed.
I (older millennial) inherited my grandma’s Hoosier a decade ago and use it daily. The built-in flour sifter is kept stocked, the spice rack with original glass jars is kept full. It is still an astonishingly useful kitchen tool for someone who loves to bake.
When I moved it into my first house and opened the drawers for the first time, it was full of the smells of my grandparents’ house. What power a scent has to transport us back in time: in a flash, I was young again, helping my grandma make blueberry pie for dessert. I closed the drawers quickly to try to keep the scent for a little longer. Now the scent has faded, but it still holds their memories; I think of them every time I use it.
Oxo makes a well-designed and durable hand egg beater.
Phew…That Tablet piece is a cold-sober wake-up call…
…However, its sub-title…
…should be changed to
This has been stated, if not internalized for some time now, and it’s truth, more obvious now than ever before, makes a dreadful reality even more dreadful…but they say that “the Truth will set you free.”…
My grandmother had the manual egg-beater, my mom had that and the meat grinder. I actually have a Hoosier cabinet, a flour sifter, manual can opener and butter molds, so – not all that much in the past, as kitchens go.
Israel Update, “The New Battlefield: Star Wars vs Mad Max” (55:48): https://youtu.be/X3ZIW3IxA-M?si=wNz7u9S1D1KcyjHd
So apart from a chat around the news, Mike and Gadi will apparently discuss Mike’s Tablet article. Apparently, I say, because I haven’t watched it yet, but set off to do so now.
Regarding rotary foams.
Is there such a thing as a linear foam? I guess you can go to the sea shore and see a lineal foam; that is a line on the land, but not the same thing as a land line.
But is it a rotary foam a cellular foam? Don’t get wrapped around that axle!
Actually all foams are cellular, open or closed cell is the diff. And then there are foam ear plugs …..
Oh never mind
Yes a relatively small force which included ap stringers and civilians overwhelmed a border post
Flopping Aces dishes on the question, “Will illegal aliens be voting in 2024 election?” YES.
They will (and are instructed) claim “yes” if asked, but no one will be able to check because it is against Federal law to do so. And AG Garland, who needs impeachment and removal, will ensure that good questions about eligibility to vote will be quashed.
Are they permitted to vote? No. Will they? Yes. It’s shockingly easy for them to vote. Sen. Mike Lee:
Congressional Democrats insist that the SAVE Act—which requires proof of citizenship to establish eligibility to vote in federal elections—is unnecessary because federal law (18 USC § 611) already prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections. Those making this argument ignore a glaring problem: the government officials who register voters and conduct federal elections aren’t allowed to require proof of citizenship. It’s therefore shockingly easy for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, leaving our elections dangerously vulnerable to foreign interference. Anyone—even an illegal alien or other non-citizen—can register to vote in federal elections, just by checking a box and signing a form. This is all on the honor system. No proof of citizenship is required.
(emphases mine)
“Believe it or not, there is no downside to this“ Democrat fraud scheme. No penalties to be imposed.
https://floppingaces.net/2024/05/14/2024-will-be-the-single-most-corrupt-presidential-election-in-history/
My car insurance premium went up 32% in one year. No accidents. Thanks, Biden!
I continue to use my grandmother’s hand mixer, flour sifter, and meat grinder. I well remember the bread box (and cookie jar!), and milk deliveries in glass bottles (with the cream at the top). I do not use electric can openers, although the arthritis in my hands is telling me that it might be time to invest in one.
But then, I’m the guy who doesn’t have a microwave.
Here’s the gut he h, as Flopping Aces skewers Democrats repeating “It’s illegal! ad nauseum…:
18 U.S. CODE § 611 – VOTING BY ALIENS
(a)It shall be unlawful for any alien to vote in any election held solely or in part for the purpose of electing a candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, or Resident Commissioner, unless—
(1) the election is held partly for some other purpose;
…
(3) the alien reasonably believed at the time of voting in violation of such subsection that he or she was a citizen of the United States.
==============
Thus, at the above LINK we see a notice by some NGO in Matamoros, Mexico, telling Illegal border crossers to claim their mere BELIEF in being a citizen of the US and voting.
Didn’t Uncle Joe (or other apparatchik) not say so?
What recourse do we have? Given that it will be an “election” Joe Stalin would love?
The donkeys don’t need them to vote, after all they might not vote right. They need numbers to cover the made up vote. When True the Vote finds 50 people registered at one PO Box, elections are a joke.
I have an awesome hand-operated smooth edge can opener that removes the whole lid rather than cutting it. No sharp edges!
Fortifying democracy with gleem
Many of us who bought or inherited rural vacation properties will be familiar with or have items such as those shown in the video. More particularly, those early 20th Century kitchen appliances.
Some, like the green and white oven range shown at 59 seconds are dual fuel; meaning either wood/coal or natural gas, as you can see from the right hand side of the range top. That is probably a Kalamazoo, like ours, too.
The Amish still make wood or coal cook stoves, and until a dozen or so years ago so did the Knox Stove Works in Tennessee. They had the ” MEAL MASTER, a modernized version of the latest late 1940s design, in “attractive contemporary colors” of ivory, avacado, and tan. Haha
https://images.offerup.com/RU9GwSCrRBFMdPKySzWNLTf32dg=/1440×1920/cdce/cdcee703f23e4de992ff901afffed563.jpg
People who consider themselves preppers might consider having not only the most modern devices available, but if facilities allow, the ” latest” pre 1950s mechanical technology set up somewhere.
Got rid of our very old Servel propane fridge though. Started leaking and was too expensive to replace for a couple weeks a year cabin use. Not ours but type,
https://d3h6k4kfl8m9p0.cloudfront.net/stories/2-y8Im4dwv4UZAzEf9lk6Q.jpg
Turns out that the used ones from vacation trailers were even a hassle to come by. The Swedes quit making them and the Brazilians make the Dometic for RVs not as stand alones, so far as I know
The Chinese make a cheap one apparently.
https://www.gas-refrigerators.com/index.php?route=common/home
I think old technology, even domestic technology is pretty interesting.
One thing the guy forgot was Granny’s rolling cabnet mounted National Enameling and Stamping COturkey roaster.
https://www.nesco.com/our-story/
I have suddenly gotten this powerful urge to go deer hunting for some reason.
The only one of those I don’t remember from the 50s is the first. By then, no one had a wood or coal kitchen stove. It was the NY suburbs, so that might matter.
But all the others were in use.
Gosh! Just learned what a Hoosier cabinet is.
Is this a great site or what?
– – – – – – – – – – – –
And yet another phenomenal “Tablet Magazine” article, describing with tremendous wit and tack-hard wisdom the absolute PERVERSITY of privileging victimhood…especially, given their history and their current challenges, for Jews.
On a roll, as they say…
“The Jewish Oyster Problem;
“The idea that Jewish virtue is rooted in Jewish powerlessness is both deeply selfish and remarkably stupid”—
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/jewish-oyster-problem
I suspect car insurance rates are also being influenced by rampant car theft. Close to a million cars stolen each year in the US.
When I lived in Waco you would see these caravans of passenger trucks towing cars south on I-35.
Does anyone run the VINs before they cross the southern border? I doubt it.
Jabotinsky learned that lesson on the streets of Odessa, and carried it forward to Begin, He formed the Betar which became the Irgun, because the Brits stood in the way of their return to Israel, Orde Wingate helped form the Palmach for similar reasons, he was the nephew of one of the Army commanders that took Jerusalem in the first war, ironically the foolish Herbert Samuels chose Haj Amin
might as well have chosen Haman himself, to be the head of the Al Quds committee,
Bibi’s father who was the leading inquisition historian knew better,David Cornwell Le Carre, has the villain taunt Charlie with the words of Begin, as if to say ‘why does he fight’ of course they leave out the fact his family was slaughtered back in Poland, you see this incomprehension in Thomas Harris’s Black Sunday, and Simon st
James Balfour conspiracy, because Nakbah you understand,
The idea that coal or wood stoves tasted better because… ‘reasons’, is amusing.
This whole video is filled with nostalgia that few actually feel, I think.
If people loved making their own bread, or grinding their own meat, or shaping/making their own butter, they would just DO it… there is nothing stopping anyone from doing this kind of thing today.
As for milk delivery, it was convenient, but part of that was:
a — milk did not keep as long back then, as it was often not pasteurized
b — many did not have a refrigerator, which could keep it for weeks
It was also quite labor intensive, as you had one person driving around everywhere to do it.
Though interestingly, Wingate started his tour of duty in Palestine as, like most British officers, an Arabophile…
Several years later, when his Judeophilia became too much of a “problem”—Changer!— he was sent packing by the British back to England.
(Christopher Sykes—Sir Mark’s son—wrote an impressive biography of Wingate, who became a friend.)
as johnny carson, would say, ‘I did not know that’
now the Foreign Office’s different branches often have different agendas,
Lawrence was for Sheikh Hussein and Philby and his boss Percy Cox was for Ibn Saud, in the end who won the match,
Freakin’ Israelis are now attacking schools….
Trigger Warning: Too terrible. Read no further….
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/389936
+ Related:
UN Uber Service…
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/389949
(I guess ambulances were unavailable…)
+ Bonus:
…Wherein Bari Weiss—somehow—becomes a “Nazi”(!)…
https://instapundit.com/647391/
That’s the point where theft of your rights, your liberty, your country and your life becomes so brazen and in your face, that you have to really, really, calculate hard as to just what status your woke neighbors have in relation to you.
We once had an exercise vaguely like this during my senior year in high school.
It took place at a ski lodge weekend for a hundred or so college prep English class students. Supposedly, all intelligent and mature. That is why they allowed the then novel experiment of a mixed minimally supervised experiment. We all had to sign an honor pledge too. That however did not stop girls fron coming to our bunk rooms. Yeah that way. Not the other way around. Yeah mature boys and girls together. Sharing the same lodge if not the same rooms.
Anyway, after a day of skiing, the evening lodge exercise started out as a kind of game with monopoly money, the students being divided into several, perhaps seven, groups.
There was a basic governance and commodity exchange set up, but alliances and voting blocks could be formed and the basic law changed.with sufficient votes. I think it was suposed to run an hour as a mini economy, and then the script profits for the cookies and potato chips sold would be counted and group success assessed.
Almost instantly however, instead of trading, one group began to solicit voting alliances by promissing privileges and shared out spoils. This process apparently began with no outside prompting whatsoever. Someone just realized they could “win” by subverting the whole process, and they then decided to do it.
After one or two groups were bribed to join, most others quickly yielded, until there was only ours. They then voted to confiscate all our credits/money and were in the process across the “lobby” hall of assigning some to collect.
As they were doing so a Spanish exchange student in our group began to go round to the others and begged them to give her the money. She came up to me, and I said, no and they will not take it. Pleading with me to keep playing the game I handed her my “money” too, and she popped over to a couch and stashed it under the cushion she sat on.
The collectors came across the great hall of the timber lodge from the area which was demarcated their home, and began trying to collect. Playing the game, we showed them that we individuals had no money left.
Then a couple spotted her sitting quietly on the couch. They approached, and she smiled and showed them empty hands. They told her to get up. She said no. One reached for her arm and began tugging and he ended up being shoved down. At that point the teachers ran up to me, and waved the game off.
And these were well educated, solidly middle class kids who had had civics, and whose childhoods probably included religious training, but who had internalized no fu#king sense of moral restraint or respect for the rules or for the persons of others at all.
When some Democrat strategist is caught on camera boasting of cheating, engaging in vote fraud, and of an intention to continue, yeah he may be boasting, but he is not lying.
They better wake up to what they are doing.
When I was a child, we lived in the country and had a coal stove. It was my job to keep the coal skuttle full and remove the ashes. I was so glad when we moved into town and had a gas stove.
Actually, Edwin Samuel (Herbert Samuel’s eldest son), claimed in an autobiography that T.E. Lawrence specifically said to him during a meeting between the two:
“Arabia for the Arabs; Palestine for the Jews.”
(…but yes, Lawrence’s “Arabs” were, in fact, the Husseinis.)
Wonder if they’ll have to do a remake of “Lawrence of Arabia”…
lawrence was dreamer, or as Alec Guinness I think says to him, a dam fool like stanhope or doughty, the last admired the Wahhabi ascetism, it’s curious his travel guide was published 50 years later,
Karmi, there is a problem with using enemy casualties as a measure of how a war is progressing. 1,700 yesterday, 1,400 today– according to Ukraine. All time highs.
How many Ukrainians were killed/wounded in these battles during the same period? We don’t know because Ukraine doesn’t release the numbers.
During the Vietnam war, every night the networks reported on the number of enemy Viet Cong/NVA casualties. We may have killed a million enemy fighters.
take afghanistan, if one were to look at the official figures, the advantage was 16-1 in our favor, head to head with Taliban, with local forces there was nearly parity,
You have a point: relatively few I am sure feel a nostalgia for the 1890s or 1920’s. Some, but not many, would enjoy the challenge for awhile at least.
A considerably few more however may and do seem to think that the midcentury- as they conceive of it and as worthwhile expression has survived the winnowing – is deserving of some recapture or recapitulation consideration.
Apart from computing power and medicine and some conveniences and efficiencies, 1962 tech at its best, could probably provide large numbers of workaday people with an acceptable and enjoyable standard of living. Just in terms of mere techne’.
Now this will obviously not apply to our medicated fatasses lounging in their recliners dressed in sweat clothes on formerly treasured holidays, as they watch HBO reruns and professional sports with Satanic lunatics performing at halftime.
But others who don’t feel that all things considered they would just as soon be dead, might find the effort itself adds a kind of value and ennoblement.
But perhaps I have not been doing myself any favors by watching those YouTube cop videos with their drugged and drunk entitled maniacs of all 57 genders.
I wonder if an apparent plurality of Americans were that degenerated in the past, and that it was only their institutionalization and early death by misadventure which spared most of us any awareness of their existences.
Zeus and Hephaistos battle it out — Zeus looks to be the winner: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C0w-KlRNs88
The donkeys don’t need them to vote, after all they might not vote right. They need numbers to cover the made up vote. — Chases Eagles
Exactly. They need ballots and enough registered bots. How the ballots get into the system is irrelevant, since courts are still resistant to allowing true signature verification. Without that a ballot is a vote, period. As long as the remedy to a challenge is a recount, nothing will change.
For those that want to dive into the weeds about a war with Russia:
OK, I didn’t watch the video. No one here has mentioned a Church Key. That too might be handy to have. Open bottles, punch holes in lids of cans.
Smith Brothers Farms delivers milk to a cooler on your porch in King County WA.
https://www.smithbrothersfarms.com/
Brain E:
Who exactly decided to start a war with Russia, not that it matters, and it seems that Russia did not plan on an attritional war on Ukraine.
Answer. Vlad started
war on Ukraine, and envisioned to be over in weeks.
Why would anyone plan to fight a war on terms that favor your adversary? Ask Napolean or that Corporal how the attritional war with Russia worked out.
Passing thoughts, time to read the linked article.
Russia of 2024 isn’t the USSR of the last century, nor is Ukraine, Verdun speaking of attritional battles.
But time will tell.
Brain E:
How did Ukraine inflict 480000 casualties on Russia in two years (and change)? Attrition in Bakhmut, and Avdiivka are two examples. But it turns out the Vlad will kill an entire generation or two of Russians to destroy Ukraine. Reasons.
How did Russians finally get Ukraine to cede those death traps (of Russians) by flattening fortified positions with arty and/or glide bombs (Fire Kills, see Petain). In Avdiivka after isolationists starved Ukrainians of necessary munitions and SAMs (including Manpads).
Thats what farm stores used to do
In those glass bottles
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2024/05/14/iran-repeats-lie-anti-nuclear-fatwa-after-lawmaker-boasts-already-nukes/
How did we get here? Western Ukrainians, with the help of the West, staged a revolution– which deposed the President that had been placed in office by Eastern Ukrainians.
The west was very proud of their revolution. The government that came after the revolution was not the same government that existed before the revolution.
They ignored their laws and made up laws to achieve the desired results.
Russia took advantage of that.
Were western Ukrainians so naive they thought there would be no consequences to their revolution?
Re: Milk deliveries
I miss the Charles Chips van which used to come around with a big cylindrical tin of the best potato chips I ever had. I especially liked the somewhat burnt ones.
The delivery model stopped being economical in the 70s. Charles Chips had a rough history of being bought by companies which then went out of business.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Chips
Charles Chips is now a mail-order business selling chips at boutique prices of $2/oz on Amazon.
Heigh-ho. Halcyon days.
Re: Wood stoves, old-fashioned cooking
There are a ton of guys out there smoking their own meat, cheese, and fish, barbecuing like black belts, and going to insane lengths to bake the perfect pizza in fancy, sometimes custom, ovens.
_________________________
Wherever you go the best cooks are men. On Mars the best cooks are going to be men. That’s a fact.
–Lefty, “Donnie Brasco”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGlHWzOahsI
Brain E trots out the old “blame the victim for the act if the criminal.”
It just never gets old with him. Brian E just can’t accept the concept of civilization it seems.
Power is all that matters, eh, Brain E?
Russia wants. But so does China (Xi land). It wants the East China Sea, tootes fine, bub ?
We had Charles Chips deliveries in suburban DC, and they were damned good alright.
Also used empty CC cans for many years as perfect sized storage vessels for double batches of chocolate chip cookies around Christmas time.
Brain E says the essential part for once:
Russia took advantage of that.
Russia takes advantage of Moldova, Georgia, Crimea. Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland. It’s been the Russian way for hundreds of years.
Brain E can’t see the taiga for the trees
”Russia on the brink as Vladimir Putin’s men slaughtered during worst day of the war so far…Russia lost a staggering 1,740 troops in a single day.”
Don’t get too wrapped up in these numbers. First, these numbers are just estimates, and they’re naturally on the high side. When we’ve been able to collaborate Ukraine’s numbers with sources in Russia, they’ve held up fairly well, but everyone estimates high, even us. It’s the nature of the data.
Second, Ukraine counts troops “eliminated”, not Killed In Action (KIA). “Eliminated” troops are those killed plus those injured seriously enough to be sent home after treatment. It’s what Ukraine cares about, because it’s troops that they don’t have to worry about any more.
While we in the West talk about troop deaths because human life is important to us, most Russians just don’t care. The death toll will have to get *a lot* higher before they do, and we’ll probably never give Ukraine the weapons to kill that many Russians.
What’s important is the number of tanks and artillery destroyed. Sanctions have cut Russian weapons production dramatically, and they’re getting “new” tanks by pulling Soviet-era weapons out of storage. And while their reserves are staggeringly high, they’re not infinite, and they’re burning through them at a ferocious rate. And when they run out, they’ll be out. The Russians can’t fight without armor or artillery. It’s central to everything their military does.
So pay no heed to these “Russia on the brink” stories, because Russia just doesn’t care about the loss of human life. But don’t fret too much about the “Russia took another village” stories either, especially the ones where Russia loses 50 tanks and 300 armored personnel carriers to take a few square kilometers of territory. That’s an exchange Ukraine will take every day of the week.
It’s a war of attrition now, and that’s something the Ukrainians have shown to be really good at.
Mkent
Yeah, I know, and always enjoy your input and most excellent analysis of the war there. However, the Ukrainians are such hard fighters—fighting for both their lives & freedom, that I will always accept their numbers on Russian dead, and probably post about it in joy. 😉 I do enjoy seeing lots of dead Russian soldiers – and even your point about the ‘ “Eliminated” troops are those killed plus those injured seriously enough to be sent home..’ ones injured so bad that they get sent home rather than back to the front is enjoyable, IMHO. Imagine how bad a Russian soldier has to be injured in order *NOT* to be sent back to the front!?!
Neo said,
Did anyone ask why? I can understand not using or wishing to bother with the size or placement of one, but is that what is meant?
We have an old inherited, yet like new one from the 1960s up at the farmhouse, and it turns out that the knife sharpening device works just fine on run of the mill carbon steel blades.
You won’t use it on your Wustof carving or grill set, but for the jumble of hack-away kitchen sink knives every household probably accumulates and where electricity is available, it’s fine for reforming a very blunt or damaged edge. In fact, it is one of the best rough sharpeners I have used, and I have used it on several hunting knives which obviously get some rough field use. Don’t even need to hone if you are in a rush.
And I have used a lot – a lot – of different knife sharpeners powered and otherwise, and none were especially impressive or quicker in comparison.
So dig your mother’s old power can opener out of that bottom drawer and try using the added feature on some inexpensive knives.
I use a rotary egg beater all the time, couldn’t get along without it for baking, whipping egg whites and whipped cream. I hope they still exist if I ever have to replace mine. Of course, it’s from a yard sale!
LP:
Here’s a post I wrote in 2012 about searching for a rotary egg beater.
I sometimes joke that my father was the milkman. (If you don’t get the joke, think about it.)
That was his job when I was born – driving that unique looking truck around, delivering full bottles of milk and picking up empties.
He didn’t go back to that job when he returned from the Pacific.
Not my way to make an interesting factual piece. The voice-over on the video was speeded up, toneless and droning. And the yellow highlights on individual words in the captions made it unwatchable. Apart from that, it was interesting!