Home » Open thread 4/15/23

Comments

Open thread 4/15/23 — 43 Comments

  1. Wow, I’m almost tall enough to be a basketball star. But maybe there were some other issues.

  2. Mac McClung, the short white kid who won the NBA dunk contest this year, has been an internet sensation since his high school years in SW Va. Without the internet videos over the years, he never would have been signed to the temporary league contract to enable him to compete in this year’s contest.

    My son’s travel team played his in a tournament about 8 years ago, but he didn’t make the trip that weekend.

  3. I read a lot of science fiction, and I noticed that in the new book I am reading the author had the male protagonist just casually mention his “husband,” and that made me realize that instead of such same sex marriages/relationships being very rare in the SF I read, more and more SF has the protagonist in a same sex marriage/relationship.

    So, the full court press for the LGBTQIA+ agenda looks like it has even forced some (could it eventually turn out to be most?) SF authors to bend the knee and to “normalize” such relationships.

  4. The document leak story is an interesting example of a problem that conservatives have had for decades. The liberal press defines the facts, sets the agenda and determines what issues and stories are important. Conservative pundits then engage to discuss and argue. The playing field, the game, the rules, and the officials are already determined by the left before conservatives even show up.

    The ‘official’ version of the story may not be accurate. [Yes, I’m shocked, shocked.} Yet, I’ve seen some conservative pundits who have written their takes on what it all means using the official version as their starting point. Now we are seeing a lot of push back against that version.

    We have way too many people opining and way too few doing journalism.

  5. RE: The recent classified intelligence leak by a 21 year old Airman First Class.

    Ex-CIA officer Larry Johnson, who appears to be knowledgeable, says that this airman–who according to him, would never have had access by himself and without higher in person supervision to a SCIF where this sort of classified information would be kept–is a patsy, and that this frameup is a way for higher ups to assure that this information gets to the public, in service of some agenda they have.*

    * See https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/04/14/former_cia_officer_larry_johnson_this_is_a_controlled_leak_to_prepare_the_public_for_crash_landing_of__us_foreign_policy.html

    See also https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/the-21-year-old-leaker-something-is-not-right/

    and https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2023/04/14/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-alleged-pentagon-leaks/

  6. I really encourage y’all to read the Cashill article on the nasty hit on Weldon by corrupt Clinton operatives.

    Some questions that it highlights:

    — are the Bushes bad guys or patsies? This same question applies to people like Ryan, Romney, McCain, Barr and McConnell.

    — on the Dem side. What motivates a Berger and the rest of the corrupt Clinton aides like Carville, Podesta, et al? Money? Prominence, fame? Fear, are they blackmailed?

    — or are they simply leftist believers like all the rest — that morality is simply whatever advances the cause or defeats the enemy? That Democrats are incapable of sin and Republicans incapable of moral good? By definition.

    I am finding myself puzzled by motivations more and more these days. I know cognitive dissonance, group think, tribalism and all that play a huge part. But lefties have pushed the boundaries and frontiers of crazy and corrupt in ways that I never thought ordinary Democrat voters could possibly support. I am beginning to wonder if there is any line that is “too far”.

    Note — I had a related thought last week. Was the most effective branding/marketing effort in American history the relentless campaign to demonize conservatives as evil (racist, sexist, fascist, etc.)?

  7. A question for history buffs — how does the John Adams who defended the British soldiers charged with murder for the Boston massacre become the president who signed the Alien and Sedition Acts?

    Is it simply the corrupting influence of power?

    And of course, how do Adams and Jefferson go from working on the Declaration of Independence together to political war of a particularly ugly kind a quarter of century later to becoming close friends and supporters of each other another quarter of a century later. Again, does it all come down to the corrupting influence of ambition and power?

    I suppose we are all, even the best of us, simply flawed, foolish, vain, ignorant, sinful and sometimes stupid. And when formed into committees and governments, the sum of us is even worse.

    Pogo got it right. We have met the enemy and he is us.

  8. Snow, it has invaded Brit Murder Mysteries. Several years ago I got the first book in a new series by Ann Cleeves (she writes the “Vera” and the “Shetland series – both very good). I started reading it and the main character, a Police DCI turns out to be Gay. I returned the book and did a not complimentary review. I don’t have a problem with Gay’s and Lesbians but I don’t like it shoved in my face. Same with all the TV shows now.

  9. @Snow, etc….. Without yet reading the items you linked (my defense for restating information), I also had problems about an Airman first-class having access to the leaked documents. I saw in one story where he entered service in 2019, so he has 3+ years in service, was age 21 now, and held the rank of A1c, an E-3. I thought this a lot of years to reach that lofty rank, one that is sometimes conferred upon people immediately upon completing basic training. (Source: Military Rank website) The jump to Airman first class was described as almost automatic after 10 months at Airman (E2), barring discipline issues.

    Now I see where there are rumblings of a plea deal possibly being prepared. So I do see a foundation for any version of this story becoming the identification of a dispensable person to take the fall.

  10. Another Mike—My experience was that you don’t just rocket up to A1c straight out of boot camp.

    There is a process—working you way up the promotion ladder, time in grade requirements, various tests that you have to be graded on and pass.

    So while going from E-1 to E-3 is pretty much assured if you don’t screw up, the progression should take about 3 or so years of a 4 year enlistment.

  11. [Could their goal be, just to wreck The USA for awhile?]

    In my view- the USA, under President Obama, + then under President Biden, is a pretty, unhappy place to be in.

    Could that have been the goal of these two people?

    Did they take the terrible…and false, opinion of, “The US is too powerful, and it is morally bad”, and then decide to, as President:

    1) reduce The USA’s military power…by wrecking it, and

    2) reduce The USA’s economic power…by wrecking it, and

    3) reduce The US people’s desire, to- make big goals…and to become great leaders, [by wrecking their view of The USA, by telling The US people that their nation is very, very, morally bad?]

    Could Obama’s + Biden’s goal be that simple…to just [wreck the USA’s military power, + economic power], and to wreck The US people’s opinions of their nation, for awhile?

    From what I’ve read, Obama and Biden seem to have a low opinion of The US, because those two believe: The US “wasn’t perfect to everyone, in all of its history”.

    Could Obama’s + Biden’s goal be- to punish The US, by becoming the US President- and then 1) crushing The USA’s military power, and then 2) crushing The USA’s economic power, for a handful of years?

  12. RE: The recent classified intelligence leak by a 21 year old Airman First Class.

    Snow on Pine:

    Mike K might be too modest to take a bow, but he speculated early on that the big leak was intentional.

    I thought to ask him for more detail, then got busy.

  13. TR–If that dangerous course of action was what Obama and Biden decided to take, what was to prevent such a decline to just continue downward–gathering momentum–after they left office?

    Or, did/do they care?

    What about our enemies?

    Did they happen to think that perhaps doing so much damage might make our enemies decide that now–at a time of great U.S. weakness–was the perfect time to launch major attacks against the U.S.?

    Or, did/do they care, expecting that they themselves would be insulated from any consequences if the U.S. was in a continuing downward spiral, or if there were such attacks?

  14. Snow on Pine,
    I can’t speak for the Air Force, but when I joined the Navy, I signed up for what was known as the “Six Year Obligated Service” program. As the title states, it obligated you to six years of active duty service, rather than the usual four. The main benefit of the program was guaranteed training in a certain field such as nuclear power or advanced electronics. But another benefit was that you obtained the rank of E3 upon graduation from the 9 week basic training, and the rank of E4 (Third Class Petty Officer) upon graduating from A-school. Eligibility depended on your scores on the ASVAB test. I am fairly certain that all of the services had something similar.

  15. I absolutely abhor the pro-ball leagues and haven’t followed the NBA in years, but I doubt a “Spud” would get a tryout in 2023.

    My memory is even John Stockton wasn’t huge…and he’d struggle to get drafted today.

    The giants rule the earth.

  16. Man of Myth strikes again….
    “Congressman Jerry Nadler: Rising NYC crime only an illusion”—
    https://nypost.com/2023/04/15/democrats-to-participate-in-ny-judiciary-committee-hearing/
    Key grafs:
    ‘ The Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat wants everyone to know that surging Big Apple crime is only an illusion manufactured by the party’s political enemies….
    ‘ “We will show the essentially fraudulent nature of what [committee chair] Jim Jordan and company are claiming about the crime rates in New York and compared to other cities, including Republican-led cities,” Nadler told The Post.
    ‘ “And we will talk about how this whole hearing is part of Jim Jordan and the Republicans’ general attempts to obstruct justice and to attack the DA in Manhattan and to obstruct justice in the Trump case…’

  17. Open Thread Sunday: Russo-Ukrainian war

    Putin. Soros. Russia. Nazi’s. Lets call the whole thing off.

    Russian Hybrid Warfare & Ukraine: Propaganda, cyberwarfare & hybrid war methods – Perun

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUBTyAZg5OA

    Timestamps:

    Timestamps:
    00:00:00 — Open
    00:01:37 — What Am I Talking About
    00:03:03 — Sponsor: Ground News
    00:04:09 — The Great Power Challenge
    00:08:20 — Competition & Western Conception
    00:13:51 — Russian Hybrid Warfare
    00:22:13 — Cyberwarfare
    00:26:09 — Proxy Use
    00:29:43 — Ambiguity & Kinetic Operations
    00:34:09 — Information Warfare
    00:51:43 — Designing Hybrid Campaign
    01:00:00 — Hybrid Warfare In Ua
    01:08:21 — Countering Hybrid Warfare
    01:12:40 — Conclusions
    01:13:36 — Channel Update

  18. Sure has.
    And it segues rather nicely with this:
    “Georgia firefighters contain massive fire at resin plant after nearby residents ordered to evacuate”—
    https://www.foxnews.com/us/georgia-county-issues-evacuation-order-area-around-plastic-resin-plant-after-massive-fire-breaks-out
    – – – – – – – – –
    Meanwhile, “Biden” is giving us all another fascinating—scintilating!—lesson in how to take apart a country….
    “Biden’s executive order makes regulators even less accountable”—
    https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3950633-bidens-executive-order-makes-regulators-even-less-accountable/
    Opening grafs:
    “Last week, while Washington and the media were consumed [IOW DISTRACTED] with former President Trump’s indictment, White House progressives focused on policy.
    “President Biden issued an executive order to make the largest alterations to America’s regulatory system in years. Biden had already reversed Trump’s deregulatory efforts. Now he’s implementing system-level changes to make progressive policies permanent.
    Transparency and disclosure will take a hit, with fewer rules receiving cost-benefit analysis. And regulatory review will abandon objective analysis in favor of motivated reasoning, to salute rather than supervise progressive overreach in areas such as climate change and environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. [Emphasis mine; Barry M.]…
    “The practical effect is less transparency. Regulations not officially deemed significant may still be crippling to the people bearing their burdens.
    “Less than 1 percent of the over 3,000 new regulations annually get any cost analysis from OIRA. Doubling the economic significance threshold would further reduce oversight. The government at least gives the public information on how much it taxes and spends. It should do the same for its regulations.

    Even more troubling is the apparent change in OIRA’s mission. Biden’s executive order states that OIRA’s “regulatory analysis should facilitate agency efforts to develop regulations that serve the public interest,” which effectively changes OIRA’s role from supervisor to cheerleader
    – – – – – – – – –
    And where would we be without one of “Biden” favorite prevaricators??
    “Redfield warned Fauci not to ‘give terrorists recipe’ to modify bird flu to kill 5%-50% of infected;
    “NIH-funded scientists published instructions for making such a pathogen cross the “species barrier” to humans, recounted former CDC Director Robert Redfield.”—
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/health/redfield-warned-fauci-not-give-terrorists-recipe-modify-bird-flu-kill-5-50

  19. Bulls fan. Went to my first game in 1972. Then the Jordan era. Probably watched 90% of those games.

    Now its so far in the rearview mirror. Nothing will compare to those Knicks/Pistons vs Bulls series. I’m good.

    I personally met one pro NBA player. Jordan. Go figure. Shell station near his home.

  20. boot55555,

    I’ve met a lot of pro athletes including some in the NBA (I was drafted by the Pirates and played minor league baseball in their organization. Also coached college football at Tennessee. Obviously, lots of pro athletes met along the way.)

    The most interesting meetings were in Italy when I was coaching American football there. In 1990 I met Bob McAdoo, a former NBA MVP, in the Malpensa international airport when he asked to borrow my newspaper. He invited me to a game the next weekend in Milan. After the game we went to dinner with the team and sat with another player on his team, Mike D’Antoni. Mike had played a few years in the league before playing in Italy. He went on to become the head coach of five NBA teams — Nuggets, Suns, Knicks, Lakers, and Rockets. It was a fun conversation. I really liked them both.

    A few years later I met Clemons Johnson in the McDonalds near the train station in Bologna, Italy. He was a part-time starter on the Sixers team that won the NBA title in 1983. Funny guy.

    As a former Davidson hoops player, I’ve met Steph Curry a few times. He seems to be a genuinely nice person.

  21. }}} [Could their goal be, just to wreck The USA for awhile?]

    “Could it be”? It’s certainly exactly that.

    PostModern Liberalism is all about the destruction of Western Civilization. It is a suicidal meme driven by the self-loathing of those who support it. And the USA is the primary target as the prime example of all that is right with Western Civilization, despite its indisputable flaws as a nation.

    Look closely at PostModernism as a concept — in every form, it attacks, one way or another, the primary and secondary underpinnings of what has made Western Civilization such a success, and made it possible for there to be 7.5 BILLION people with a hope for some success for their children if not for themselves.

    For the most part, PML attacks the primary twin underpinnings of Western Civ:
    1 — the Inheritance of Greek Thought and Ideal
    2 — the Judeo-Christian ethos

    It also, via Marxism, attacks one of the secondary underpinnings, Capitalism and Meritocracy. When classical Marxism failed abysmally, particularly with the collapse of the USSR, they re-invented it as “Social Marxism”, with class-envy being promoted by “inequity” rather than “inequality”. If you aren’t in a good situation, clearly, it’s not YOUR fault, it’s the system.

    That Capitalism makes everyone richer by increasing the size of the pie is lost on these fools. That many live lives of wealth unimaginable by the richest Americans in 1900 is also lost on them.

    The very important fact — that the percent of the world’s population which lives in “extreme poverty” — an actual, quantifiable percentage of the population — has dropped from over 30% in 1990 to under 10% as of 2010, and continued downwards? Why should anyone know this? Because it was Capitalism that did this. Meanwhile — Marxism — socialism, communism, whatever — took Venezuela, one of the most resource-rich nations of the world in 2000, with an enterprising and industrious people — down to the point of poverty where they were eating dogs and spoiled meat. Yeah, give us all more of the latter, by all means. SMH.

    Mark my words — the end-result of PostModern Liberalism will be the destruction of all civilization as we know it. Either there will be a clash and they will be destroyed and discredited, or it will not be pretty.

  22. Thanks, OBloodyHell.

    I was wondering if something like that was happening.

    I have a friend who was a Cold War, US Army, Tank crewman, + was a professional [social worker, I think.]

    He is very much into USA values, USA capitalism, + Judeo-Christian philosophy, + maybe also John Wayne films.

    His view of America / The USA is:

    “If you don’t like being in The USA, try living ANYWHERE else!”

    I think his philosophy about The USA works very well.

  23. Elon Musk to Tucker Carlson:

    Elon: The degree to which various government agencies effectively had full access to everything that was going on on Twitter blew my mind. I was not aware of that.

    Tucker: Would that include people’s DMs?

    Elon: Uh, yes.

    I’m not a techie or on Twitter, but this sounds to me like Matrix (root level) access.

  24. @Banned Lizard:Optics cleanup on aisle Kyiv

    Wow, wait till you learn about what Germany was doing in 1945. Maybe Russia should invade Germany too.

    Seriously what the fuck, Banned Lizard? Ukraine doesn’t have to be populated by saints and angels, it’s still wrong for Russia to invade it and annex chunks of it.

    And if it’s less of a crime to attack people for for honoring unsavory people from the past, what does that imply about Russia? Because when it comes to naming things after bad guys who killed millions of people in service of an evil ideology, Russia is literally 10,000 times worse.

    Your little drive-by here is one of the most succinct examples of how stupid and corrupt online discourse is. You’re throwing mud at one “side” because you think it somehow makes the other “side” look better if you do.

  25. because this war is about destroying what still works about this country and the west, in general, its about the end of nuclear power, about bugs for food, about world war trans, thats the point, of the exercise,

  26. the us and uk govts backed bandera, who kiled 50,000 in the Voydjina region, those forces held off the Soviets and the Polish collaborators for 4 years,

    ironically the uk deported many Russians back to Stalin, who simply opposed him Macmillan who would become PM and Alexander,
    (it was a subtext of the first brosnan bond film)

  27. And Miguel, don’t forget our precious bodily fluids.

    Because Russia had to invade Ukraine to stop all those other evils.

    Otay, senor.

  28. I’m weighing all sides, of the matter, but lets not pretend the ones waging this conflict care anything about honor or justice or any such thing, there are precious few honorable men and women in charge of this government, or any of the ones in western europe

  29. hybrid warfare is a tactic but not a strategy, this is the pitch that gerasimov gave to putin, now shoigu is actually too stupid to know any better (he would be the fat cadet in the untouchables) gerasimov knows better, this is why the kyev offensive went pearshaped, have we stopped pretending that bakhmut is a slaughterhouse,
    along with all the other zachista targets,

    as it happens, my kinsman was a victim of the deep state’s mandarin allen dulles, 62 years ago, when he disposed of the brigade on giron beach, much like the hungarians were displaced in budapest, etc etc,

  30. @miguel: because this war is about destroying what still works about this country and the west

    I’m familiar with your thinking and commentary in multiple places under various handles. I think your heart is in the right place.

    Letting Putin invade and annex chunks of Ukraine does nothing whatever to retard the destruction of the West.

    I know there are bad people backing the support for Ukraine, as well as lot of good people who I think are mistaken. But that bad people want to help Ukraine doesn’t make Russia right, or Putin a good guy, or even a bad guy who’s on our side.

    Putin is on no one’s side but his own and the war in Ukraine is something out of the 18th century that doesn’t make a lick of sense. He will never get anything out of Ukraine that will make up for what it’s cost him.

    For the people who want to see Russia permanently weakened, letting Russian flies conquer Ukrainian flypaper is probably the quickest, if costliest in lives, way to go about it.

    If you really believe that Russia is some kind of bulwark against the forces destroying the West from within, you shouldn’t want Putin to weaken and discredit Russia by doing something as stupid and evil as trying to assimilate Ukraine by force.

  31. you ask why doesn’t the gop do x, why don’t certain business leaders do y, why will they throw the book at this punkc clerk because its not in their short term interest to do this, why was this election stolen, why are there show trials in new york and atlanta and dc, why is every part of this country that works ‘mutilated, bend and torn up’

    the foundations for our disolution, were set many years ago, often with soviet designs, gramsci in the cultural sphere, spinelli, in the entrails of the eu,

  32. “world war trans”

    Another gem that succinctly describes a piece of reality, and another reason I love this blog.

    As for Ukraine’s Nazi past, it’s more the Nazi present that gives some of us pause. Then there’s the Hunter no-show job. The latter and numerous other Biden perversions, corruptions, etc, could be dealt with here in the USA. If not, we’ll start with the outer perimeter (Ukraine) and work our way in to the crown of Pedo Joe’s forehead. It’d be so much simpler to deal with it at the source. Oh well…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>