Home » Open thread 12/7/2024

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Open thread 12/7/2024 — 40 Comments

  1. AOC takes first step in bid for President in 2028

    Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Friday officially launched her bid to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, pitting the millennial progressive star against a more senior panel member, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., as Democrats gear up for a second Trump administration.

    Polishing up her ‘Creds’ for a possible Presidential run in 2028 – committee leadership role is a bona fide starter for her if she wins…

  2. the definition of insanity,

    when did they install the altar, I didn’t see it in the snippet of video

  3. Stupid CBS interviewer of Macron, seeking to understand, yes, understand (a tougher!) Macron’s determination to restore Notre Dame cathedral in secular France. Nothing about the huge challenges of restoration to its original state, whether political, architectural, or structural. For example, there are no oak trees left anywhere in Europe with trunks large enough to yield 12 inch wide planks to reproduce the cathedral’s roof. None!

    Pointless, truly. But he is black, so is 99% correct and righteous, always.

  4. it is the mark of incuriousity, the white reporter would not know to ask the question either,

  5. So nobody seems to care it’s December 7th. Not a peep anywhere on any news sites. And very surprisingly, nobody here at Neo’s mentions it except for SHIREHOME…..

    We were in Paris in 2019 just a few months after the fire. It was very unsettling to see Notre Dame. While it’s a french icon, in some ways the cathedral belongs to all the of western world.

  6. after 21 years and the fall of mubarak and kaddafi I don’t find those sentiments encouraging, look who’s the head of the so called rebels, I don’t have an answer,

  7. As only Pearl Harbor Day, this day would be quite momentous enough; yet here before our eyes we see the utter transformation of the Middle East speeding along with the fall of every one of the Ayatollah’s Israel-adjacent proxies and allies (looking at you, you bugging out Russkies). It’s astonishing, really, where the perils we saw for Israel merely one year ago have been soundly diminished in detail in the period of a few months just passed.

    What remains? The defeat of the coup against Bibi, the return of Donald Trump in 44 days, the anniilation of the Iranian nuclear weapons program sites, and finally, the rising of the Iranian peoples to throw off their chains.

    The world thereafter will be something to behold. Perhaps even free of backward international institutions established in the wake of V-J day, but heretofore culpable of restraining human flourishing across the globe.

    Well, we can hope, anyhow.

  8. hezbollah was largely the assad regime’s janizarries, foreign merc, and as such much of the enforcement mechanism was made moot, somewhat similar to iraq, the Allawites are a minority in Iraq, presiding over the Sunnis, they were empowered by the French and then the Soviets,

  9. The repairs to the cathedral are, no doubt, worthy of attention. I must note, however, that I’m deeply disturbed to find no acknowledgement on this or several other blogs that I regularly visit of the real significance of December 7th, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

  10. The fall of the Assad regime may temporarily benefit Israel, but long-term, it’s trading one set of jihadis for another. Goodby Russia and Iran, hello Turkey.

  11. and Qatar, who is the regional partner, and behind which ever constellations of groups will be constituted,

  12. I always notice Pearl Harbor Day. But I doubt that many Americans younger than boomers do. It was the very recent past in our world, and many of our fathers, like mine and his two brothers, had fought in the war.

  13. Remember Pearl Harbor. The lessons to be learned from that day are, unfortunately, often forgotten. As noted in this article.
    https://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2024/12/07/the-lessons-from-the-pearl-harbor-attack-are-still-being-learned-n4934920#google_vignette

    “Gingrich believes the lessons of Pearl Harbor “are that even the best intelligence can be misread, people’s hopes can outweigh their common sense, and bureaucratic cultures can ignore inconvenient signals.” Yep. Eternal vigilance is the motto. But it’s very hard to apply over long stretches of years.

    I agree with Kate. The Syrian upset of Assad only changes one set of jihadis for another. Makes Iran’s aims more difficult, but not necessarily any better for the West.

  14. physicsguy (12:29 pm) said: “So nobody seems to care it’s December 7th. Not a peep anywhere on any news sites.”

    December 7th is ancient history. Even September 11th is so-o-o 20th century, never mind that it was at the outset of the 21st century [2001].

    The calendar date to remember is January 6th! *January 6th!!* JANUARY 6TH!!!!!

    / S A R C A S M

    Like Mac (3:06 pm) (“I always notice Pearl Harbor Day”), *I*’m aware. Every year.

    No worries, we’re out there, all right.

  15. It warms my heart to see Trump in prominent attendance of the reopening of Notre Dame. The so-called President Biden is somewhere else “due to scheduling conflicts” the WH Press Secretary informs us, though Jill Biden managed to appear. Joe is supposed to be Catholic.

    https://twitchy.com/dougp/2024/12/07/there-are-questions-about-the-biden-whos-not-in-france-as-trump-takes-over-role-of-world-leader-n2404813

    Notre Dame is a powerful symbol of Western Civilization and Christianity. Though not yet President, Trump is hitting the right notes on what he represents.

  16. Well, the media and the left certainly don’t want anyone to remember 9/11/2001 and to them the only days from WW2 are August 6 and August 9, 1945. So of course December 7, 1941 must be removed from memory.

  17. I once met someone who was at Hickam Field on the Day of Infamy.

    Twas the night before Christmas 1969. Man had walked on the moon that July. We had just the week before moved into a new house that we had built. This meant I also had just changed to a new school for the sixth time in six years. The house was on the first fairway of a new golf course. Ours was one of only four houses so far completed although eight or ten others were under construction. The house had been designed by my father. You entered the front door onto a t-shaped bridge under a cathedral ceiling. We had put up a magnificent two-story Christmas tree. It was so cool. I of course, had already tested the playability of this area with several drops of a small LEGO Apollo Command Module descending under triple Kleenex and thread parachutes to successful splashdowns on the shag carpet below.

    This is only time we ever had non-family for dinner at Christmas Eve. The guest was a bird colonel and his family. The colonel was someone my father worked with at SAC HQ. He was at least 10-12 years older than my father but had his kids later in life so his two boys were just a couple of years older than me. At dinner the colonel related how he had been a young enlisted aircrewman on a B-17 and had been caught in the Japanese bombing of the giant Hale Makai aircrew barracks. He spent most of the attack in a ditch in his underwear.

    It had been snowing all day and after dinner his boys and I went out. Across the street was still undeveloped hardwood forest. It was a soft gentle snow that blanketed landscape. We soon encountered a red fox that proceeded to play hide and seek with us. When we would be about to give up, he would suddenly appear up ahead posed on a snow covered fallen log as if to say “Here I am boys.”

    A week later the new course club house was finally finished and had the first event, a New Years Eve Gala. The following morning the three-story club house was destroyed in a spectacular fire. Strangely, one of the two buildings of the apartments we lived in while the house was built also burned on that New Years Day.

    It was a memorable Christmas.

  18. I see all of these court sentences in which part of the sentence for committing some crime includes restitution and/or a fine of thousands of dollars.

    Thing is, most of those adjudged guilty don’t strike me as being “savers,” and most look like they don’t even have “a pot to piss in.”

    There has to be a more effective punishment than sentencing broke criminals to pay money that don’t have, likely will never earn or have, and will never fork over if they do.

  19. Testing testing – new Lenovo Tab M9 (9″ MTK). A steal @ $89___so far. 8.48 x 5.38 x 0.31 inches and 0.75lbs. Apple mini iPad is less than an inch shorter and about as wide, with a better display. My Galaxy A15 5G phone is like 2500 x 1600 approx. So is sharper than this, but the 1340 x 800 seems fine to me…$89 it’s great!

    Yeah, I’m way behind on this smartphone and tablets stuff…have avoided small tech for too long. Surprised that more people don’t like the 8″+ range of tablets…Apple’s mini iPad is like $499++ but apparently not enough of a market for Samsung to produce any thing below 10″ now. This will help me learn the smartphone better also. Great size for me…I use the rubber tipped Stylus Pens for texting, and texting and typing this comment is so much easier than on the phone…that A15 5G is a pretty big phone @ about 6.75 x 3.25 inches. Oh, just found the Thingies for html Formatting with. Bluetooth mouse and keyboard work with it also…tho I may not be able to switch left & right buttons on mouse…weird?! OK – end ‘n send…

  20. PhysicsGuy: ” nobody seems to care it’s December 7th. Not a peep anywhere on any news sites.”
    Well Fox News had a few segments on the Pearl Harbor attack, through out the day.
    One included a short interview with a black veteran survivor. Very moving.

    I always remember to note it, and honor those there.

  21. Islander here. We never forget. And for some strange reason, neither does nature. The weather is the same almost every December 7th. Today was no exception. A still, cool and beautiful fall morning – the knowledge of how everything changed in a flash – it’s a very moving link to the past.

  22. For those who are interested, here’s an update on the political situation in Korea.

    According to “The Korea Times,” the goverment is still in a state of chaos (https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/12/356_387943.html).

    Here are the first two paragraphs from the newspaper’s most recent article:

    “The National Assembly’s scrapped vote to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol is increasing uncertainties in the nation’s politics and society rather than subduing the confusion stemming from his short-lived martial law.

    The ruling party is promising Yoon’s early resignation and exclusion from his duties but without details or a specific timeline, while the opposition bloc is calling such plans unconstitutional and pledging to keep seeking impeachment until it is passed.”

    In previous comments, I’ve already noted that China is the main beneficiary of the chaos. The next Korean president, as well as a large majority in the National Assembly, will almost certainly be from far-left parties. For many years to come, conservative parties’ candidates will be branded as martial law supporters. Korean voters will respond with anger, shame, and fear; consequently, their governments will be pro-North Korean, pro-Chinese, and anti-American. It’s also likely that they’ll be strongly anti-Japanese. In other words, this is a very significant change in regional politics, and it will probably last a long time.

  23. The next Korean president, as well as a large majority in the National Assembly, will almost certainly be from far-left parties.
    ==
    Not true.

  24. Open Thread Sunday – Russian War on Ukraine: Hardware

    Russian Equipment Reserves (2024) – Production, Losses & Storage Depletion – Perun

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzR8BacYS6U

    Timestamps:

    00:00:00 — Opening Words
    00:00:50 — What Am I Talking About?
    00:03:14 — The Russian Equipment Model
    00:05:46 — Assumptions And Adjustments
    00:07:45 — IFVs
    00:17:15 — MT-LB & BTR
    00:28:16 — SPGs
    00:37:30 — Towed Artillery
    00:50:52 — Rocket Artillery
    00:54:01 — Complicating Factors
    00:55:31 — Trends And Implications
    01:00:15 — Channel Update

  25. Trump calls for immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

    Interesting, he wore a yellow tie with his blue suit while meeting with Zelensky in France. He then changed into his signature red tie for the Notre Dame ceremonies.

    If Ukraine wants to signal it’s resolve, they need to lower the mobilization age to 18. That would allow them to actually draft enough men to eventually allow them to go on offense. There manpower shortages are hampering holding defensive positions where the average soldier age is around 45. That might work manning a trench– but will hinder there ability to go on offense.

  26. Last night my computer Frankenstein (AKA – ‘Frank‘) went down. ‘New’ computer made from older ones. ASUS PRIME H310I-PLUS mini-ITX MoBo. Intel® Core™ i9-9900 Processor. Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 120 AIO CPU Liquid Cooler. 16GBs (8×2) memory kit. 500W ATX PSU. ICY DOCK ExpressCage MB732SPO-B. GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC 4GB GDDR5 (GV-N105TOC-4GD) GPU – all squeezed into a Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini-ITX PC Case. The PSU (power supply unit) sits right over the CPU (processor), so getting a fan cooler powerful enough to keep the CPU cool was not easy with an Intel i9-9900 processor—hence I used a Liquid Cooler, mainly to test how to install them and see how they worked. CPU has a Thermal Design Power (TDP) @ 65W, but I can’t recall if it came with a stock cooler in 2019—probably not, but am not sure. Am done with Liquid Coolers anyway, maybe they’re great for games, but I would put a Noctua cooler against any Liquid Coolers, and the Noctua lasts forever. My Liquid Cooler didn’t last that long, IMHO. ‘Frank’ was used for the TV and media library, and I may just buy a long HDMI Cable and hook TV to ‘Rose’ if I don’t already have one. Was already done with the small form factor mini-ITX stuff, so may either do a customized change to the PSU, and use a spare fan cooler I have—or just move ‘Frank’ to a shed.

    OK—some pleasant news about my new Lenovo Tab M9 (9″ MTK) tablet. Great device!!! Paid $89.99 for it but price at Lenovo is now $98.99, and higher elsewhere. The NOOK 9″ Lenovo Tablet at Barnes & Noble is $149.99, and the same as mine…I know because finding a case with stand took several days, since most cases were made for a 2023 version of the 9” tablet. Purchased their NOOK 9″ Lenovo Tablet Clear Case with two-way kickstand @ $24.99 plus tax ‘n shipping it came to 33 and change. JEEZ!?! So many low priced nice cases for the 2023 version. Anyway, these tablets (all sizes) have to be cutting in on the Chromebook market. Will see how long they last…this has 3 years of updates coming, so will be delighted if it lasts that long.

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