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Roundup — 60 Comments

1. Wyoming voters.

2. It was an old Soviet Empire technique that whenever there was some local rebellion they’d send in troops from another area which had a long standing dispute/hatred of those locals to quickly quell, aka kill and terrorize, the rebels and everyone around them. The troops would look at it as a perk.

3. The country is in the best of hands.

   In late March, the Biden administration sent the results of its 2022 Nuclear Posture Review to Congress in the form of a classified document and with no press briefing. This is unprecedented. All that was released to the public was a less than one page “Fact Sheet,” which spoke almost entirely about the “no first use” issue. Why? Is the Biden administration afraid of offending the tender sensibilities of President Putin, the “butcher” of Moscow and war criminal who must be removed from power? Or is it concerned about the public’s reaction to weakening our nuclear deterrent in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the threat of Russian WMD use?

   There has never been a larger disconnect between an administration’s perception of the nature of Vladimir Putin, the heavily nuclear-armed Russian dictator, and the requirements for nuclear deterrence. Furthermore, the Nuclear Posture Review decisions could negatively impact our credibility with our allies. With the Russians constantly making threats of nuclear war, the Biden administration has cut an already marginal nuclear modernization program.

4. Outlier:

   Oops, thanks, corrected.

   Although I don’t think any amount of money could make Utah voters vote for her, either. I’m pretty sure I’m on solid ground there.

   I had Romney on the brain, I guess.

5. 3): More comments from the FB crew today loudly cheering the DOJ mask appeal. Also saying they are afraid of this “huge” spike showing in cases citing 50%(!!) increases. Cases nationally are showing a bit of an uptick but still at about 4% of the delta peak. Like claiming there’s a new catastrophe emerging because cases went from 2.7 to 4 when a few months ago it was 100.

   I swear these people, at some level, actually get a thrill about any covid case rise.

6. Time for US Senators to be elected by their respective state legislatures, as was originally written into the US Constitution, but was amended in 1913 so that the citizens of each state vote for their US Senate representatives.

   At that time – 1913 – no one could have known that gobs of money from out-of-state interests would transform every race for US Senate into a mini-national election in which out-of-state groups with zero interest in the affairs of a state’s citizens can literally determine the outcome of a state’s Senate race.
   It also allowed US Senators to be beholden primarily to national / federal interests as opposed to their primary obligation; serving the interests of their state’s citizens.

   Along with this, each US Senator and House member should be paid by the state that they represent, as opposed to receiving a salary / benefits from the federal govt.

   I realize Liz Cheney is a member of the US House of Rep. “representing” Wyoming.
   It should be illegal for anyone running for the US house (or US Senate) to receive any donations whatsoever from out of state interests.

   Liz Cheney, like many politicians is a parasitic, arrogant , POS sleaze ball.
   If she wishes to promote certain political views, that’s OK. That’s politics and usually one can find a political party that will accommodate one’s views.

   But to pretend that she is representing the people of Wyoming is outrageous. If she disagrees with the wishes of Wyoming denizens, she should either switch parties and/or move to another state (e.g. NY, CA) and run for office in that new state.

   No wonder politicians are as popular as venomous snakes and plague infested rats.

   I will defer from presenting additional measures that should be taken so as to not give NEO additional work.

7. If I understand correctly, Liz Cheney has received generous donations from her father, George W. Bush, and Bitc* McConnell. I’m going to be amused if Wyoming’s Republican electorate delivers an upraised middle finger to them all.

8. Putin is following in Hitler’s shoes.

   Hitler had his Einsatzgruppen assigned to carry out special murder assignments of “undesirables, ” in conquered regions and he also had his fanatical SS Totenkopf Division (Death’s Head Division), known for it’s brutality and war crimes.

   Yep folks, it’s all NATO’s fault. Putin was forced to act; he had no choice. .
   If not for NATO, Chechen troops would be serving in soup kitchens , doling out hot soup and bread to the poor of Chechnya.

9. physicsguy: “I swear these people, at some level, actually get a thrill about any covid case rise.”

   The “I swear” (a phrase often followed by “If I didn’t know otherwise”) suggests that you find it hard to believe. But I think it’s pretty obvious that they do. It’s not a thrill about covid itself, but about the inflaming of their hatred of the opposition. I’ve been pointing out for many years that there is a pleasure in hating, and it’s especially strong in today’s progressives because they don’t recognize that that’s what they’re doing. As people have often pointed out here, they define themselves as (among other things) the people who do not hate.

10. My understanding is the latest Covid uptick is due to the newish BA.2 variant that currently displacing Omicron. So far it’s been a very gradual uptick over the past few weeks, as opposed to when Omicron hit last Thanksgiving and cases shot up like a rocket. To me this suggests that BA.2 can at least somewhat circumvent the natural immunity garnered from Omicron and early variants, not to mention the vaccines.

    Hospitalizations and deaths haven’t yet started to climb, and they may never.

11. The left, well NPR anyway, breathlessly talks about cases and that people are not getting tested so cases are under reported. Why this focus on cases? Because deaths are way down and trending down.

    It doesn’t matter if you are vaccinated or not you’ve probably had covid. People aren’t stupid and they’re not worried about something that is now as virulent as a bad cold, if you notice it at all!

    Let’s end the masking theater.

12. What? No trial coverage for Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard?

    No, I’m not really interested, although it is a bit of “man bites dog” story with a little Smollett style “Me Too” card playing thrown in (possibly).

13. But to pretend that she is representing the people of Wyoming is outrageous.

    I was stunned that they accepted her to begin with. She tried to mount a primary campaign against Mike Enzi in 2014 but withdrew when it looked like Mr. Enzi would be handing her her ass. She then ran for the open House seat in 2016 and had enough name recognition to win a plurality vote in a Republican primary where she had nine competitors. She, her husband, and her oldest child make use of a vacation property in Jackson Hole as a voting address. This really should not be lawful. Her husband is a partner in a Washington BigLaw firm (one with a ‘government relations’ practice).

    She was born in Wisconsin when her father was a graduate student. The family decamped to Washington in 1968 when her father landed a job as a congressional aide. Her parents lived in Washington from 1968 to 1996, when he was recruited to run Halliburton. The only period of time when they might have had a primary residence elsewhere was in 1977 and 1978, her father having lost his job as White House chief of staff upon Gerald Ford’s departure and laying down marks for a congressional campaign. Her high school diploma was issued by a school in Fairfax County, Va and her tertiary schooling was had in Colorado Springs and Chicago. At the time she was elected to Congress, she’d spent 80% of her life living in metropolitan Washington. Scads of ordinary people live around Washington and dominate it demographically, but the Cheney-Perry clan are very much a part of political Washington, the 2% or so who make American political life so edifying. The honest thing to do in 2014 if she wanted to run for Congress was to decamp to Loudon County, Va and run for the open seat there. That’s the one seat in the greater Washington area where Republicans are competitive. Trouble was that Barbara Comstock, who had represented part of the area in the Virginia legislature, was running. (Barbara Comstock has been part of political Washington on and off for 40 years; unlike Philip Perry, Mr. Comstock is an ordinary bloke, part of vernacular Washington).

14. Let’s end the masking theater.

    Masking is not about health. It’s about power. Winston Smith finally conceded that 2+2=5. We have known all along that masks don’t stop viruses. Somebody posted a reference that suggests they don’t even work for bacteria. I wore masks in surgery for 50 years but I also knew that total joint replacement, which leaves a foreign body behind that, if infected, has to be removed, is done in “space suits” and special “laminar flow rooms” that sterilize air. In spite of these precautions, joint replacements still get infected. There is a whole floor of infected prostheses cases at USC University Hospital.

15. … this “huge” spike showing in cases citing 50%(!!) increases.

    Good one. Dare I say that they expect most citizens to be innumerate?

16. Art Deco: I did not realize that Liz Cheney’s ties to Wyoming are so thin. You’re right, that really should not be allowed. Hope she loses.

17. What? No trial coverage for Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard?

    My wife, who is a Fox News addict, is watching National Geographic to avoid it. I wonder how their ratings are doing?

18. Hopefully all the money flowing from out of state for Cheney will just go to waste. A lot like a Beto O’roark campaign.

19. There are certain deep underlying principles upon which societies are based, here is one called the “Pareto distribution,” something that you have probably not been taught nor, up until now, known about.

    I certainly was not aware of it until I stumbled upon this lecture, and it explains a lot.

    See Jordan Peterson’s five minute lecture explaining it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcEWRykSgwE

20. Snow on Pine,

    I gotta score one for the faculty at the tiny Christian religious college I attended in the mid 1970’s.

    In at least my ‘Philosophy of Science’ and ‘Basic Statistics’ classes the Pareto Distribution – or “80/20 rule” – was discussed. It may have been touched on in other classes.

21. Mike K,

    It’s mostly about power.

    But N95 masks will contain sneezes and coughs and lessen the chance of somebody nearby inhaling infected droplets. Not that you’re supposed to be out in public if you’re sick of course. And conversely, you are less likely to inhale somebody else’s droplets.

    But masks for everybody all the time are essentially useless. Unless you count virtue signalling. And I’m sure that in many ways they are harmful.

22. I did not realize that Liz Cheney’s ties to Wyoming are so thin.

    Her mother grew up there; her father lived there as an adolescent and post adolescent, about 10 years with a notional residency later on. Her father’s family arrived ca. 1955 and lost its last boot on the ground when her grandfather died in 1999, as none of his children settled there. Her mother’s family arrived in two installments, one around 1905 and another around 1933. She has a maternal uncle in Casper who has a daughter in Cody, Wyoming who is in turn of an age to have adolescent / young adult children. That’s about it.

23. I am even less interested in Depp v. Heard than I am in anything to do with Prince Harry, and that’s saying something.

24. One issue of masking is that it MUST WORK, or we’re defenseless. And nobody wants to be defenseless, so masks, therefore, work.
    Plus it’s about power but in different people.

    Is Biden lucid enough to do anything “deliberately” besides the thing that’s right in front of him–sign this, here’s your pudding cup, saw what the teleprompter says–even if the thing leads to harming America? Does he have a goal to harm America or does he do things he’s told to do which harm America while not having, nor wanting, a clue?

25. This just in

    https://babylonbee.com/news/cnn-exceeds-all-expectations-by-lasting-nearly-3-weeks

26. Christopher Rufo has a new piece up at City Journal on the school curriculum at a district near Chicago. It is disgusting. We really will have a revolution.

27. The district near Chicago is Evanston-Skokie, the home of Northwestern University and ground zero for greater Chicago’s Jewish community. School administrators in our time are sicko and they hire sickos to teach. Step one is to shut down the ‘schools of education’.

28. 1) With nothing but as a military history reader I believe nothing in this Ukraine war, but as it’s possible I think yes, many a war has had troops from friendly countries and use them as the ones to do the dirty work.
    2) it’s what the Democrats Propaganda Ministry does
    3) Someday the CDC needs to be cleaned out and ended
    4) good read
    5) she better be toast

29. I am even less interested in Depp v. Heard than I am in anything to do with Prince Harry, and that’s saying something.

    I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of Amber Heard. Johnny Depp I recall as a television actor in one of those programs parodied by Mad Magazine (“21 Junk Heap”) a generation back. I think he later played an odd part in a fantasy film where he had mechanical hands.

    Prince Harry is a cautionary tale about how the royal family mismanages its affairs. Everyone might have been better off if he’d stayed in the military, or, failing that, taken to selling real estate in Nova Scotia. He has an ample supply of 2d and 3d cousins in all branches of his family, so his repair to a divorcée from a family of California flakes is most regrettable.

30. In some states unused campaign donations become the property of the candidate.
    Liz may be getting paid off.

31. So Biden confused Title 42 immigration restrictions with the mask mandate and then walked it back a couple of hours later. They really have to stop him from answering any questions from the press. Or maybe the Easter Bunny should always be there to rescue him. That would be kind of awesome to see the Easter Bunny at state dinners and meetings with foreign dignitaries.

32. Russia’s Chechen troops are mostly if not entirely Muslim, in war Muslims are not known for mercy to the infidel.

    As a now private citizen, can Trump sue?

    Count on it, as long as the Left dominates, masking will remain a useful tool for the Left.

    “America these last 14 months resembles a dystopia.” Victor Davis Hanson

    Apparently, Prof. Hanson either fails to grasp that America’s descent into dystopia is intentional or fears to say so.

    Proposal: a new Constitutional Amendment; political contributions to Congressional candidates are limited to residents of the State or District to which they have declared their candidacy. No outside donors, no corporate contributions, no NGO or PAC contributions.

33. some cross of thx 1138, with perhaps soylent green, they were using pedal power, and of course the secret ingredient, which brings up how food is becoming scarce with fertilizer shortages, and a series of curious fires of distribution centers and warehouses,

    there is a different between kadyrovski, and the other teips, who have been crushed underfoot, this has been true in diaspora enclaves like vienna as well,

34. V. D. Hanson “needs” tips and advice from a humble reader. And courage too, it seems. 🙂

35. Arizona had a similar flood of California money in the last two Senate elections. Unfortunately, the GOP candidate, Martha McSally is a very nice and well informed woman but she was a terrible candidate. I have to wonder who was giving her advice.

36. I tried to find what was driving miss cheney’s animus, then I remembered that before this day job, she was the assistant secretary of state for near east affairs around the time the iraq war started, this around the time that general suleimani became a kingmaker in that country, giving the dedazo or whatever the farsi equivalent is, to each prime minister there, who basically stocked the ministry with shia militia, allowed efps to attack coalition personnel, trump was the only figure who acted affirmatively against suleimani, who was empowered in the anti islamic state campaign, of course al bagdadi could not have succeeded without the heavy hand of maliki who was a iranian catspaw, driving the sunni into the wilderness,

37. this isn’t suspicious at all

    https://t.me/thuletide/2685

38. Prof. Hanson knows very well that America’s dystopia is intentionally created, and has said so at length in multiple columns.

39. Regarding Martha McSally, I’ve read that she’s a fairly incorrigible RINO.
    The thing is, GOP establishment insists we support their candidates. Yet they will fight much harder against our guys than they would ever fight against a Dem.

    One counter-example I’ve seen is the Ric Grenell people in CA. A group of conservative amateurs launched a School Choice initiative. The Grenell people came in late with a similar effort for a slightly different bill. Instead of confusing inter-group warfare, Grenell et. al. gave up their effort and withdrew. The amateurs failed to get enough signatures. But there has been no derision that I’ve seen. The statement from the Grenell side that I saw was to the effect: “This is not the end. School Choice will be back in a future election.” Very respectful and long term oriented.

40. “V. D. Hanson “needs” tips and advice from a humble reader. And courage too, it seems.”

    Truth is no respecter of persons, even children may point it out. Given the central importance of motivation, what use a list of grievances without even mentioning the left’s decades long self-evident motivation?

    Or is it criticism, however constructive, to which you object? No, on reflection, knee jerk personal attacks are your forte. No reasoned objection needed.

    “Prof. Hanson knows very well that America’s dystopia is intentionally created, and has said so at length in multiple columns.” Kate

    Again, given its central importance, why fail to mention it now? Prof. Hanson is far too astute an observer for it to have escaped his attention in his preparation of this article. Which leaves intentionality as motivation. Perhaps Stanford has expressed disapproval? Can you offer an alternative explanation?

41. He doesn’t say everything in every column.

42. Hanson comes at this from the perspective of a classical histories he recognizes all too well republics decaying and falling

43. Geoffrey has a curious concept of truth if you have the time to pin him down and fisk his pronouncements.

    “Splain it to Geoffrey. V.D. Hanson hasn’t missed stating what the problems are, But he (Geoffrey) is grandstanding again and claiming that The Hoover Institution is coercing VDH, That’s where he works Mr. Britain not at Stanford University. Watch out pettifogging to ensue.

    You spin for Vlad has more credibility than this latest one Geoffrey. Speculation regarding VDH’s character isn’t noble, oh Wise One. BS on stilts.

44. Hanson has seen what prog delusions have done in his native california which has become venezuela on the pacific, but has related this is a very academic tone.
    The campaigns east and west of iran have not reached quite the pelopennessian standard something the late kagan pere would have noticed but too close in the american experience

45. Its not unique to californiA

    https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=51221

    Why is every institution being smashed to pieces with relatively little pushback, florida is the most prominent exception

46. The functioning of the roads our primary supply chain and food sources, the psychological wellbeing of children the integrity of our border, is there anything they have not brought to the brink of ruin.

47. I dont begrudge the azov battalion willingness to fight considering what happened to petlura and bandera subsequently but this far away conflict should not monopolize all our attention at the expense of our real and chronic internal problems noted above.

48. Furthermore spencer cox as well mitt romney seem totally enraptured in this zombie culture (to call it woke is to engage this paradigm of marxist false consciousness,) so called black lives matter dont, they arent fighting fascists but everyday citizens the resistance is against the republic

49. Its become almost too easy to point to soros influence on the body politic, its hard to see any way it has been positive in the combination of money men and materiel that has wrought such noxious effects

50. Past being prologue

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/al-qaeda-our-side-how-obamabiden-team-empowered-terrorist-networks-syria

    We dont know where many of these weapons will end up

51. Note all the players that pop up in the piece and their current role in this farce

    The one with the clearest perspective general michael flynn has been banished to the sidelines and was nearly deprived of his liberty

52. Its hard not to see how all the apple polishers like petraeus mccrystal austin milley rise up the slippery pole like the buchanans of fitzgeralds fame and the truth tellers are jeered at, like col hackworth was in an earlier iteration

53. @ miguel > “this isn’t suspicious at all”

    https://t.me/thuletide/2685
    “Nothing to see here, just every food processing plant, pantry, and distribution center in America “randomly” catching fire and exploding within the space of a few weeks.”

    Lots of headlines there – what’s the past history of food plant disasters?
    There are lots of them in America, so maybe it’s just a random bad point, but it’s not good even if not deliberate.

54. @miguel cervantes

    I dont begrudge the azov battalion willingness to fight considering what happened to petlura and bandera subsequently but this far away conflict should not monopolize all our attention at the expense of our real and chronic internal problems noted above.

    Brilliantly well said, and I agree entirely.

    Speaking of, apparently the Capitol Police have an “expanding intelligence” unit. Because their conduct has been oh so reassuring regarding their existing units.

    Dear God in Heaven…

    https://amgreatness.com/2022/04/21/defund-the-capitol-police/

55. It might be interesting to see what happens to the Capitol Police and its “intelligence” unit when control of Congress shifts.

56. @ Kate > “It might be interesting to see what happens to the Capitol Police and its “intelligence” unit when control of Congress shifts.”

    I predict it will be very boring: absolutely nothing.
    The CP seems to have declined (if there was ever a point to decline from) under both Republican and Democrat administrations.

57. UPDATE @ miguel > “this isn’t suspicious at all”

    https://notthebee.com/article/whats-up-with-all-these-food-processing-plants-going-up-in-flames-recently

    Pictures and headline stories – 18 in one year.
    It’s still important to look at the history of food plant disasters to put the number in context, but even if it’s just random coincidence, the consequences are not gonna be good given the current economic situation.

    Links to these tweets:
    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1516947217126506498
    “This is an odd coincidence …
    18 U.S. food processing facilities burned down in the last six months. Azure Standard’s HQ burned down yesterday.”

    Retweets include interesting observations:
    “Insurance cash-in before they go bankrupt from lack of food to process?”

    “Once is a tragedy. Twice, coincidence. Three times is an enemy action! (‘Moscow Rules’.) Four times is enough to get a warrant. (New twist in some tv series, I’ve heard.)”

    https://twitter.com/jasonrantz/status/1517341372851703808
    “Why are so many food processing plants and warehouses catching fire all of a sudden? And as I was sitting in the studio getting ready for the report… a plane crashed at a General Mills food facility in Georgia. I discussed the issue on Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/georgia-plane-crashes-outside-general-mills-plant

58. On the Georgia plane crash:
    The plane reportedly had engine trouble immediately after take-off.
    “The plane took a right-turn, then came straight down into an area of the General Mills plant which is isolated and used for tractor trailer storage. … Investigators are still looking into the exact number of people on the plane, but [PD Captn] Malcom said that there are no survivors.
    …
    The police captain said that many lives were saved because the plane did not directly crash into the plant, as it crashed about 300 feet away from the plant.”

    Tin foil hat production is up.
    Way up.

    Was anyone in the plane at all?
    Could it have been remote piloted, and missed its intended target?

    None of the stories at NTB indicated any casualties, so maybe this was a genuine accident, but losing the transportation vehicles can be as bad as damaging the plant.

    OR maybe whoever is “behind” the outbreak of disasters wanted an escalation and was foiled.

    If you’re gonna go conspiracy theory, then go all the way!

59. Dictatorships frequently have separate military forces. One is the regular army. Another is the party army. That would have been the old NKVD in Russia. Their job is to keep the regular army under control. The SS Battle Police performed some -not all–of the same functions for the Nazis regarding the Wehrmacht. It was later the SS formed their own actual combat units.
    I do recall one history of the Korean War–wish I could find it–saying that it was begun when one big shot’s personal army–“fanatical border constabulary”–did the initial invading, bringing the rest along, perforce, without warning the latter. That’s inconvenient.

60. As suspected: Chechen Warlord and His Forces Declare ‘Victory’ in Mariupol and Shout ‘Allahu Akhbar’
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/04/chechen-warlord-forces-declare-victory-mariupol-shout-allahu-akhbar-video/

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