Mine are coming up, and new bulbs planted this year are too. We had a fair amount of moisture last week, which has helped. Still cool at nights though.
Ah, spring in New England. Mud time. The forsythia, wisteria, and azaleas have already bloomed and faded in this part of Alabama. Now we’re entering the deep green phase.
The Rule of Law–or rather its distorted funhouse reflection, the Ryewl of Lawr (not really my coinage–I extrapolated it from Thomas McGuane’s early novel “The Bushwhacked Piano”, with its contemptuous references to “lawr skyewl”)–is a frequent topic here. So is the uselessness of the establishment GOP.
Well, since it’s open thread, here are some posts on both:
On one side is President Trump and the plain language of Article 2 of our founding document, and the principal members of his cabinet. On the other is the federal judiciary, whose sole constitutionally mandated member in Article 3 is the chief justice of the Supreme Court, all other federal justices and judges having been invented by Congress. The rest of Team 3 consists of the fleets of legal barnacles who feed off the body of the Republic and whose devotion to punctilious adherence to their own largely invented rules and principles is purely self-interested.
“Fleets of legal barnacles”–nice. Bonus: Walsh even embeds Neo’s favorite clip from “A Man for All Seasons”! But: must not challenge or question the Sacred Ryewl of Lawr! Otherwise, where would we be? Well, we’d be here:
And now we’re here again. It’s been instructive to watch friends of mine in the legal profession, with experience at top levels, choose pettifogging and punctiliousness in a time of national existential crisis as the hill on which to die. They conveniently forget that presidents Jefferson and Jackson both chose to ignore Marshall’s ukase, that Lincoln suspended habeas corpus — but kept elections! — during the Civil War and that other presidents have treated the Court with derision when it served their political needs and, in most cases, the needs of the nation.
“Pettifogging and punctiliousness”. I like the cut of this chap Walsh’s jib. He gets it. This is a case of Who-Whom.
“Republicans in Congress are creating voter apathy.” Not sure that’s true yet, but it’s certainly what they do best. And grifting. It’s all about the grifting. Garnished with American flag lapel pins. As Bauxite likes to remind us, the best we can hope for is more red snouts than blue snouts in the D.C. slop trough. So grow up, you stupid Trumpists, and vote Red Snout.
On the out-of-control post-Cold War intelligence community. Benz calls for a new Church Committee, an idea that has surfaced here from time to time. I think we’re past that. After all, we had a Church Committee and look where we are.
The biggest problem the Church Committee created is that it did not prohibit domestic intelligence collection instead it became the how-to manual for domestic collection. Every single alleged 4th amendment violation by the Executive is supported by Congressional or Executive regulations/procedures developed to implement Church Committee reforms. The prior check on the Executive was impeachment. Despite popular belief to the contrary, the Executive took much more care in conducting foreign intelligence/counter-intelligence constitutionally.
the problem with the Church committee was probably too fold, leftists by and large were the targets of many of the ops, so of course like the ones who couldn’t forgive Nixon for uncovering Hiss, who would have been on he fast track to Secretary of State, perhaps President,
also some of the solutions like FISA, that the late Angelo Codevilla, blames himself forbuilding, so a generation later, one negligent judge Royce Lamberth, prevents Moussaouis laptop to be accessed, does that stop 9-11 probably not, fter al two of the hijackers were living in the states under their own name,
the bureau could have discovered them
hence Stellar Wind and Trailblazer the NSA successor programs, of courset there is Acton’s maxim about power,
Crasey: “The biggest problem the Church Committee created is that it did not prohibit domestic intelligence collection instead it became the how-to manual for domestic collection.”
Precisely. And to Miguel’s point about FISA: another example of unintended consequences is FOIA, which gave the federal bureaucracy a new legal framework for stonewalling and nondisclosure. See this article by a former colleague:
It comes down to personnel. There is no law or regulation that cannot be subverted from its original intent through malicious compliance. The only effective way to deal with malign actors in the bureaucracy is to fire them or force them to self-deport (so to speak). Trump and his cabinet members are trying to do that, which is why they are facing massive pushback from the administrative state and its supporters.
Regarding US and British strikes on Yemen.
Wikipedia – to the extent it can be reliable – has a roll up of strikes against Yemen going back to Jan of 2024.
It does seem that some of the conservative statements that Biden was primarily allowing defensive rather than offensive operations against the Houthis to not be entirely true.
From other readings, it seems that what Trump initiated after coming into office is more of an attempt to remove the leadership of the rebels.
And to Om,
Yes there exist in that link reference to British participating in the air strikes, so my earlier statements that the British only did defensive operations against the Houthis was wrong.
However,I still maintain that our allies are woefully unprepared militarily.
Forget whatever ideas you have about tomorrow unless you understand what is going to happen…
They get it
But no account of money will help them also with the enemy
Depopulation
Starts with 78 million boomers
Any idea you have are still born because the default is to ignore this for the 15 years i been warning
We are way past the bomb
For each woman did 40 years that did not have kids another woman had to have 5 to keep population
Once those boomers go
You have no way to stop a maduro or color revolution…
I’m glad i won’t live to see it!!!
I’m sad others will
Not enough people to maintain function!!
Without the numbers of people end cell phones go to 1000s… military can’t function… and your elect n gas n water rely on a purple haired fckup who hates you and don’t care the worse it gets
Perfect..
Cause that’s what people DESERVE for how well they took care of things
Trump mulls $5K ‘baby bonus’ for moms in bid to reverse declining birth rates: report
Birth rates in the US have long been slipping, hitting a new low in 2023 with just under 3.6 million babies born that year.
That’s about 76,000 less than 2022 and the lowest one-year tally since 1979.
[And that’s with 12 million fertile imorts]
Additionally, the ages of women giving birth have started to shift as of late, with the birth rate among teens and younger women dropping while more and more women in their 30s and 40s are having babies.
[Cool.. more downs.. more genetic bads into the pool.. explains a lot as to why e get sicker over time. The eugenicists are right about the problem. Wrong as to the solution]
Mine are coming up, and new bulbs planted this year are too. We had a fair amount of moisture last week, which has helped. Still cool at nights though.
Ah, spring in New England. Mud time. The forsythia, wisteria, and azaleas have already bloomed and faded in this part of Alabama. Now we’re entering the deep green phase.
The Rule of Law–or rather its distorted funhouse reflection, the Ryewl of Lawr (not really my coinage–I extrapolated it from Thomas McGuane’s early novel “The Bushwhacked Piano”, with its contemptuous references to “lawr skyewl”)–is a frequent topic here. So is the uselessness of the establishment GOP.
Well, since it’s open thread, here are some posts on both:
Michael Walsh: https://thisweekatthepipeline.substack.com/p/the-column-which-is-to-be-master
Quote:
“Fleets of legal barnacles”–nice. Bonus: Walsh even embeds Neo’s favorite clip from “A Man for All Seasons”! But: must not challenge or question the Sacred Ryewl of Lawr! Otherwise, where would we be? Well, we’d be here:
“Pettifogging and punctiliousness”. I like the cut of this chap Walsh’s jib. He gets it. This is a case of Who-Whom.
Elon Musk on the same topic:
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1914647643285868571
Yup. Which segues into this:
https://x.com/DC_Draino/status/1914658188420321740
“Republicans in Congress are creating voter apathy.” Not sure that’s true yet, but it’s certainly what they do best. And grifting. It’s all about the grifting. Garnished with American flag lapel pins. As Bauxite likes to remind us, the best we can hope for is more red snouts than blue snouts in the D.C. slop trough. So grow up, you stupid Trumpists, and vote Red Snout.
Finally, this from Mike Benz:
https://x.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1913359078736212179
On the out-of-control post-Cold War intelligence community. Benz calls for a new Church Committee, an idea that has surfaced here from time to time. I think we’re past that. After all, we had a Church Committee and look where we are.
The biggest problem the Church Committee created is that it did not prohibit domestic intelligence collection instead it became the how-to manual for domestic collection. Every single alleged 4th amendment violation by the Executive is supported by Congressional or Executive regulations/procedures developed to implement Church Committee reforms. The prior check on the Executive was impeachment. Despite popular belief to the contrary, the Executive took much more care in conducting foreign intelligence/counter-intelligence constitutionally.
the problem with the Church committee was probably too fold, leftists by and large were the targets of many of the ops, so of course like the ones who couldn’t forgive Nixon for uncovering Hiss, who would have been on he fast track to Secretary of State, perhaps President,
also some of the solutions like FISA, that the late Angelo Codevilla, blames himself forbuilding, so a generation later, one negligent judge Royce Lamberth, prevents Moussaouis laptop to be accessed, does that stop 9-11 probably not, fter al two of the hijackers were living in the states under their own name,
the bureau could have discovered them
hence Stellar Wind and Trailblazer the NSA successor programs, of courset there is Acton’s maxim about power,
further thoughts,
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/memento-mori-tuesday-april-22-2025
why do they keep confessing
https://x.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1914422096769520050
Crasey: “The biggest problem the Church Committee created is that it did not prohibit domestic intelligence collection instead it became the how-to manual for domestic collection.”
Precisely. And to Miguel’s point about FISA: another example of unintended consequences is FOIA, which gave the federal bureaucracy a new legal framework for stonewalling and nondisclosure. See this article by a former colleague:
https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/provenance/vol33/iss2/8/
It comes down to personnel. There is no law or regulation that cannot be subverted from its original intent through malicious compliance. The only effective way to deal with malign actors in the bureaucracy is to fire them or force them to self-deport (so to speak). Trump and his cabinet members are trying to do that, which is why they are facing massive pushback from the administrative state and its supporters.
Regarding US and British strikes on Yemen.
Wikipedia – to the extent it can be reliable – has a roll up of strikes against Yemen going back to Jan of 2024.
It does seem that some of the conservative statements that Biden was primarily allowing defensive rather than offensive operations against the Houthis to not be entirely true.
From other readings, it seems that what Trump initiated after coming into office is more of an attempt to remove the leadership of the rebels.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/US%E2%80%93UK_airstrikes_on_Yemen
And to Om,
Yes there exist in that link reference to British participating in the air strikes, so my earlier statements that the British only did defensive operations against the Houthis was wrong.
However,I still maintain that our allies are woefully unprepared militarily.
Forget whatever ideas you have about tomorrow unless you understand what is going to happen…
They get it
But no account of money will help them also with the enemy
Depopulation
Starts with 78 million boomers
Any idea you have are still born because the default is to ignore this for the 15 years i been warning
We are way past the bomb
For each woman did 40 years that did not have kids another woman had to have 5 to keep population
Once those boomers go
You have no way to stop a maduro or color revolution…
I’m glad i won’t live to see it!!!
I’m sad others will
Not enough people to maintain function!!
Without the numbers of people end cell phones go to 1000s… military can’t function… and your elect n gas n water rely on a purple haired fckup who hates you and don’t care the worse it gets
Perfect..
Cause that’s what people DESERVE for how well they took care of things
Trump mulls $5K ‘baby bonus’ for moms in bid to reverse declining birth rates: report
https://nypost.com/2025/04/22/us-news/trump-mulls-5k-baby-bonuses-in-bid-to-reverse-declining-birth-rates/
Birth rates in the US have long been slipping, hitting a new low in 2023 with just under 3.6 million babies born that year.
That’s about 76,000 less than 2022 and the lowest one-year tally since 1979.
[And that’s with 12 million fertile imorts]
Additionally, the ages of women giving birth have started to shift as of late, with the birth rate among teens and younger women dropping while more and more women in their 30s and 40s are having babies.
[Cool.. more downs.. more genetic bads into the pool.. explains a lot as to why e get sicker over time. The eugenicists are right about the problem. Wrong as to the solution]
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/59899
Look at the chart and understand that many things we enjoy require a large enough population to have…
Now delete or start a new thread
Truth is that what you dint want to hear leads to destruction… you can list the dints we ignore