Landscape with a Hunter – Valaam Island, Ivan Shishkin, 1867
Former Malaysian PM Mahathir faces anti-graft probe Couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke..
Open Thread – Weekend 18 March 2023
- Open Thread – Anzac Day 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 22 April 2024
- Open Thread – Weekend 21 April 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 18 April 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 15 April 2024
Amazing cleaned up WW1 footage on ABC .In full colour.
Series indeed, Bruce- JR, “Rommel? / Gunner Who?” is in there too
Columbia Switches To Online Classes So Jewish Students Can Participate From The Attics Where They Are Hiding https://babylonbee.com/news/columbia-switches-to-online-classes-so-jewish-students-can-participate-from-the-attics-where-they-are-hiding I usually…
The other day the ASIO or AFP chief doughnut eater said that there had been Christian terrorism in Australia. Can…
What’s wrong with that?
Is anyone here game to put up their hand as a [gasp] White Supremacist?
Felt in the mood for some Tom Petty, hit the youtube. But alas, the local cockies decided to do Wagner above. Ear splitting, relentless.
Will just have to wait until the sun goes down.
Main costs are housing, energy and health. Extent you spend is optional but there is a bottom line lower limit. American drug store cornucopias show that cheaper pharmaceuticals replace costly doctor’s visits. Same here I suspect. Housing and energy are definitely the biggest drains with the highest levels of inflation. They are also very inflexible. You have to pay them, although you can try to minimise their costs; in the short term though most people are locked in. Another ‘indispensable’ high cost is communications, and for some, either running a car or paying fares to get to work.
If you have children, factor in so much more that is hard to skimp on.
People take a second job for cash, take in boarders, sell things on eBay; avoiding tax on all of these where possible. They also rely on family help instead of paid services, including for loans, use hand-me-downs and look for cheaper options of all food and other requirements.
Jeebus. It has been very humid though.
56% of liberal white women aged 18-29 have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.
Laugh if you must, I did.
Seriously, though, what have they got to look forward to?
10 years as a Sex Symbol, then a slow decline for, say, 75 years till they look like Granny Clampett?
Bolt, to his credit, is unflinching.
Forgot to mention too – more and more people simply steal. From supermarkets at automatic check-outs and by other ‘shoplifting’. And by opportunistically taking anything left lying around.
And then there’s applying for handouts. Charities are overwhelmed.
Told you it’s contagious. They catch looniness from each other.
Dalrymple 2017 ‘Swansea’ Pinot Noir.
Very, very nice.
Darker fruit flavour, but not identifiable as either plum or berries. I like this because it is more to ponder over.
Soft but sustained oak tannins on the cheeks.
Tomorrow’s Coco Pops will certainly be an epicurean adventure.
Doc
There’s no way to tell which comes first. It’s a real chicken and egg.
My great uncle served in New Guinea in 1944 – 45. He wrote in his diary that the policy of shooting Japanese who were attempting to surrender using the airdropped leaflets, is yielding the results one would expect. Is that a war crime?
I’d be really surprised if the Fed doesn’t ease monetary policy quick smart now. WSJ reporting up to 200 small US banks are in trouble. Fed has begun lending dollars to a dollar short world – ie. other central banks.
There’s going to be a few Aussies investigated for “war crimes” then, if you go back far enough:
That is my point, Topender. I feel very strongly about this. The intervention in Middle Eastern countries such as Afghanistan to ensure a stable regime was a big ask in adhering to strict post Nuremburg rules in a country in which the enemy was feasibly in every house, in every village. In the fog of war – and even in the clear air of war – enemies and friends are hard to distinguish, and mistakes may cost a soldier’s life.
Yes. It’s also stupid.
Tom, the defence of the bloke who was shot that he had two children is clearly crap. All the soldier had to say in his defence is that he believed the bloke was a combatant, as similar ppl had turned out to be in the past. That would be good enough for me and, I should hope, the high court. I agree that prosecuting SAS ppl for war crimes looks political, but all the same, I’m not willing to start from the assumption that all our soldiers are pure and incapable of murder without justification.
Bolt, to his credit, is unflinching.
And then he has that morose never Trumper sheridan on who vomits 5 minutes of sheer crap about Trump being indicted. “He’s probably guilty” intones the basset faced cretin about Stormy.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
UBS has been backstopped by about CHF 9 billion from the Swiss National bank for buying Credit Suisse. UBS is down 14%
Couple of things.
Tony Tardio, all he does is read the news on 3AW. That’s all. So put a line through him.
Just watched the start of NRL 360 and they had a bit of Sattler on. FMD the story Paul Kent regaled about him in the 1970 decider is something to behold.
Broke his jaw early, played 77 minutes with it busted. Won’t ever happen again.
After the match, the press wanted to speak with Sattler, him being captain. He was trying to set his jaw so it looked presentable. Goes out to the press pack, he goes to speak and his jaw dropped alarmingly.
That’s phucking tough. Or stupid. Or both.
Couple of other things, Pesutto is spineless and along with Perrotet will leave the Liberals as stinking carrion ready to be picked over for at least a decade.
And monty still carries water for degenerate perverts. And has yet to denounce that ‘trans woman’ from his own side.
Bathhouse Nazis seems to be more common lately too.
Jeebus. It has been very humid though
Chortle
The promise of a couple of points of meth is all it takes to get them onto the streets in those fetching uniforms.
And who will rescue UBS? Swiss can run a regular bank, but not a toxic entity full of bad & risky trades which is what UBS will become once CS takeover is done. Hopefully at some point the swiss voters wake up and resist having the toxic trades dumped on them to pay billions (for nothing) …
Knuckle Draggersays:
March 20, 2023 at 6:56 pm
I wonder if they now intend to reach back through the ages and revoke the VCs given to our forefathers for what was then termed “bravery”under duress?
They’re compelled to, surely. They can start with Albert ‘I got the buggers, Sir’ Jacka, and see how they go after that.
In 1916, in France, Jacka had taken some prisoners, but was isolated form his own lines by a German counter-attack. If he had released the prisoners, and tried to get back to his own lines, the Germans could have picked up abandoned weapons and shot him. So he shot them first, then fought his way back to the Australian lines.
IIRC, for other actions around that time, he received an MC.
Gold finishes the day over $3007.71/oz
Meanwhile Kroges and the Nooklear Milkman are busy trying to out stupid each other regarding the Deeming woman.
Dr BG – the Aussies lost many men to “surrendering” Japanese, who especially liked to conceal a hand grenade with the pin pulled out. After a while the guys decided not to take chances.
Well done to TaliDan for banning the antifa infiltrators’ main tactic.
Thank you Knuckle Dragger and Top Ender for your news from up north.
Makes me think how lucky we are to not live in those places where there is seemingly no hope.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bearesays:
March 20, 2023 at 7:15 pm
Forgot to mention too – more and more people simply steal. From supermarkets at automatic check-outs and by other ‘shoplifting’. And by opportunistically taking anything left lying around.
And then there’s applying for handouts. Charities are overwhelmed.
And it is not unknown for some to register with more than one charity, so collecting multiple handouts.
Kind of appropriate for Moira to have the surname Deeming.
There’s been a set of assumptions straight out of the woke playbook used to assess her.
Regarding the charged SAS trooper.
Never heard of his case or that incident before. However saw a news clip this evening which showed footage of an incident which appears to have been the one for which he has been charged. Man on the ground in a wheat field not firing but not 100% clear if armed.
Reminded me of the shooting after guys got out of the helicopter. This footage showed less of what happened prior but again I was left thinking why they kept the footage that could be used against them in the future.
Unfortunately they do not appear to have had any concept that such incidents might catch them out years later. No doubt such shootings at the time were investigated and cleared but without access to the footage. They just assumed everything was covered as a war zone.
I definitely support the SAS but I despair that they kept footage that showed some incidents very hard to defend in a court of law. They certainly would contradict evidence they would have given in Afghanistan not long after the shooting.
Black Ball
And monty still carries water for degenerate perverts. And has yet to denounce that ‘trans woman’ from his own side.
m0nty=fa has yet to provide a definition of “Woman”. It all seems to be too hard for a brilliant BEc (Fail), BJ’ism (who cares).
And it is not unknown for some to register with more than one charity, so collecting multiple handouts.
Your M.O., eh SpongeBob?
Oh God.
The Vatican in South Australia.
Bruce of Ncl
Dr BG – the Aussies lost many men to “surrendering” Japanese, who especially liked to conceal a hand grenade with the pin pulled out. After a while the guys decided not to take chances.
That started as early as Milne Bay in August 1942, when wounded or supposedly dead Japanese picked up weapons when left to be collected by the medical staff, and shot their captors in the back as they advanced further.
Also, the obvious evidence of Japanese atrocities (torturing Australians and Papuans to death, cannibalism) there and on the Kokoda Trail did not encourage tender feelings.
Kind of appropriate for Moira to have the surname Deeming.
There’s been a set of assumptions straight out of the woke playbook used to assess her.
The DeemSter is pretty Woke herself.
While on Melton Council, she moved several times [unsuccessfully] for council to build separate Trans lavatories.
One former Liberal staffer described her Upper House preselection last year as Katherine Deves 2.0.
Is she a Lezzo?
They’re Box Office poison out in Voterland, you know?
Fair enough. I’d do the same.
Likewise the presumption of guilty intentions of many an apparently non military bloke in a war zone. Also, going and asking the relatives of combatants and assuming that the answers are truthful is manifestly idiotic or deliberately malicious. I get all that.
All the same, I’d like to be able to trust our side to be the good guys. I’m not convinced either way.
Absolutely!
I’ve read that some of the Japanese who ‘surrendered’ came with booby traps prepared, but is that any more deceitful than dropping false hope to desperate men?
It certainly tarnished the the righteous image of ‘the bronzed Aussie soldier’ a tad.
Building separate Trans Loos is not a bad idea. At least the ladies is kept for women.
From a gruinaid reporting on the incident…
Despite Mr Pesutto saying it was the involvement of neo-Nazis that prompted action, others within the party said her expulsion would be viewed as a result of her stance on transgender rights.
They warned it risked alienating some of the party’s base.
The Lib party base is cocks in frocks? Dykes on Bikes? Toddlers in transition?
Has anyone told Menzies?
“At least the ladies is kept for women.”
But therein lies the rub, they don’t want that. They want to invade our spaces.
“At least the ladies is kept for women.”
But therein lies the rub, they don’t want that. They want to invade our spaces.
It’s a broad church.
Precisely.
Dr BG – the Aussies lost many men to “surrendering” Japanese, who especially liked to conceal a hand grenade with the pin pulled out. After a while the guys decided not to take chances.
There is nothing “fair” about war. Stop trying to pretend there is.
BTW, watched a Youtube vid the other night on 75 Squadron RAAF defence of Port Moresby in 1942.
Introduced by Geoffrey Robertson but don’t let that put you off. Recommended.
“The Lib party base is cocks in frocks? Dykes on Bikes? Toddlers in transition?
And various assorted fetishists and furries.
To be honest, watching Pussoto on Credlin, I felt embarrassed for him. He’s a weasel.
I’m glad Bolt and Latham have mended fences. I wonder if they reconnected at Cardinal Pell’s funeral (both attended). If so, that would be nice, I’m sure Cardinal Pell is looking down from heaven smiling.
I see Ms. Keen-Minshull has asked for a public apology or she’ll sue for defamation in regard to the Nazi slurs.
Some important learnings headed his way.
At huge cost to the Aussie taxpayer for a tiny percent of the population. But I doubt that there’s any alternative, although the trans will be furious that we’ve removed their reason to be furious.
And while we’re at it, might as well establish trans only sporting events so that all those brave athletes can compete against similarly matched competitors, instead of puny women. And with the number of trans kids soaring, drag hag story hour can be exclusively for all those kiddies: no boring cissies allowed.
H/T Kaysee from Dash Cat.
Another good point of having separate Tans Loos is there’s little cleaning and maintenance required as there’s bugger all Trans people around in reality.
I see Ms. Keen-Minshull has asked for a public apology or she’ll sue for defamation in regard to the Nazi slurs.
That would be lovely. I’ll tell my mate, a defamation specialist, to get in touch with her.
This is the introduction to my Lethality in Combat, sans footnotes:
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
John Stuart Mill – English economist & philosopher (1806 – 1873)
Chapter 1. Lethality in Combat – a study of the true nature of battle
This book was written for a number of reasons. The first is that it seeks to illustrate the truth of combat. It sets out to destroy several myths, and to understand the true nature of lethal behaviour in war.
It also seeks to counter an attitude that seems to have developed amongst some people that lethal behaviour in battle is somehow wrong. Joanna Bourke, for example, in An Intimate History of Killing, said that she aimed to “put killing back into military history” , and presents to her readers her disgust that armies and soldiers have undergone a “monstrous and multifarious celebration of violence”. Of course they did, and they still should – if they want to survive and to win. The whole point of warfare is be lethal, and that means the training for combat must concentrate on making people into killers. Indeed, what Burke condemns, in a “celebration of violence” is to be applauded, for only by being enthusiastic about their task can those placed in the actuality of combat survive.
The studies of SLA Marshall in World War II suggested that troops have an aversion to taking life. As a result, a more positive attitude towards being lethal was introduced in many armed forces, with more aggression worked into initial training; dehumanising of the enemy to make better targeting, and greater firepower introduced into the battlefield. Marshall may well be right in that soldiers may begin their combat experience with aversion. But that must be changed, and usually is changed, to make those charged with dealing in death more capable. Successful soldiers in battle are killers, and they must be determined to kill.
Warfare is about exterminating the enemy. It is unpleasant for some, and for others it probably is the ultimate “high”. Nevertheless, it is sometimes necessary for countries to go to war. And when they do, it is foolish to go into combat with too many restrictions: the idea is to win, with as minimal a cost to your side as possible. But films such as Platoon portray the infantry soldier in a negative light: he is sinning; he is doing bad things; he is to be condemned. It has become fashionable to attack those who go too far, such as Lieutenant Calley in Vietnam, without considering what sort of constraints and demands were placed on those soldiers, and what system allowed them to do what are undeniably bad things. The aggression unleashed by modern warriors is debated by people sitting at home, who have the wars of today beamed into their lounge rooms, and who find it easy and fashionable to criticise their own soldiers for firing at retreating Iraqi troops. Political parties and the United Nations insist on placing foolish Rules of Engagement on the soldier in combat. A “Green” political party announces that it will save money by getting rid of the “offensive” capabilities of a country’s armed force. A soldier is charged with “kicking an enemy corpse” after combat. Another is branded a murderer on the front page of national newspapers for ensuring that a wounded non-uniformed guerilla is actually dead by shooting him when he stirs. British soldiers on duty in Iraq cynically suggest they need a solicitor with them before they shoot back at any Iraqi who attacks them.
Bourke presents us with instances such as “In 1955 two senior American officers directed that ‘the killing of an individual enemy with a rifle, grenade, bayonet – yes, even the bare hands – is the mission of the Army’”. Her tone suggests that sort of behaviour is wrong; worthy of condemnation, evil, and to be outlawed. This book suggests a dichotomous alternative – that it is correct, to be practised with eagerness, and carried out efficiently. That is what soldiers are for, and that is what they fight for – to survive and to win. The reader must suspend their aversion and horror to examine and understand the true face of battle.
This book looks at infantry fighting, tactical aviation combat, and submarine attacks on shipping, and argues:
• That while warriors may be initially reluctant to engage in taking life, once combat is joined and the first fatality inflicted, they are more lethal than we usually suppose;
• Many engage in inflicting death with ferocity, and that indeed to be effective, soldiers need to be “enthusiastic warriors”;
• That while public revulsion at the trade of the soldier is a facet of first battles, as the civilian defendants are targeted they become more sympathetic to the soldier’s creed and necessary behaviour in battle;
• Many soldiers fail to take surrender, and prisoners are often shot out of hand rather than taken. This is often unavoidable, and sometimes even military necessity;
• The dead enemy are often mistreated, and this may well be normal behaviour;
• If combatants can possibly be confused with civilians, then civilians are routinely despatched;
• Such scenarios are part of all tactical combat, and further examples are given from the areas of aviation and submarine warfare;
• Such scenarios are part of normal battle, and cannot be easily discarded, without psychological disadvantage to those who avoid the truth of battle;
• That given such lethality, the concept of “rules of war” are questionable;
• That if these behaviours normally occur, then most warriors engage in war crimes;
• That if this condition is unavoidable, then the concept of tactical war crimes is flawed.
The work is a request for a change in the conventions and rules of warfare. It is not encouragement for ferocious combat without some semblance of rules or pity, but to correct what the author perceives are inconsistencies and illogicalities.
Shakespeare gave us the line “Cry ‘Havoc’, and let slip the dogs of war”. We need to reevaluate our understanding of what happens when the dogs of war are let off the leash. If we want lethality from warriors, then we will also have to understand the human nature of the warriors that we let go: they will kill with ferocity, and the genie cannot be put back in the bottle.
-o-o-O-o-o-
“Some important learnings headed his way.”
Teachable moment.
Jumping to conclusions without even identifying who the Black Shorts are.
Well done political leaders.
Despite Mr Pesutto saying it was the involvement of neo-Nazis that prompted action, others within the party said her expulsion would be viewed as a result of her stance on transgender rights.
Moira Deeming is as Woke as they get, that’s the turnoff for the Liberal Party base.
Where those rights stop for her is Womens Toilets and she wants everyone to know about it.
The woman is an embarrassment, whoever was behind her preselection [David Davis?] needs a boot up the arse.
Pesutto is what happens when you convince yourself that betraying your supporters are a viable political strategy.
They’ve been doing it since 1975 but a line was crossed in 2015 imo.
There’s no soaring numbers of Trans kids.
There’s a lot of teen female psychosis going on and very few boys except the gay ones who’ve been told that they should be medically mutated into a facsimile of a woman instead of just being a gay guy.
Richard Cranium
While on Melton Council, she moved several times [unsuccessfully] for council to build separate Trans lavatories.
One former Liberal staffer described her Upper House preselection last year as Katherine Deves 2.0.
“One former Liberal staffer”. Is that like “sources say”? Is that the usual standard of “evidence” that you accept?
Idiot, Labor shill.
Excellent article about the Iraq debacle. One good thing is that it seemed to end the Bush dynasty.
Economic catallaxians,
can anyone understand what this bird is explaining?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y67IP6XTPc&t=2833s
It’s supposedly a rationale for how non-linear relationships between wealth and production can result in a poverty trap, but I don’t understand what the diagram means and how she justifies the horizontal moves from one day’s work to the next day’s wealth.
“Some important learnings headed his way.”
Yes please. Lawyers need to be called in. I watched him on Credlin and quite frankly, he’s a embarrassment and a complete and utter f*ckwit. Worse than Matthew Guy.
I think Deeming is supporting women’s rights and not trans rights. Her push to have trans toilets I take as support for women.
However pretty sure activist and perhaps fake trans would still want to use women’s toilets even if trans toilets available. To them using women’s toilets makes them female even if still have a penis.
rosiesays:
March 20, 2023 at 8:30 pm
Jumping to conclusions without even identifying who the Black Shorts are.
Well done political leaders.
Seems pretty certain that at least some of the police present know exactly who they are.
What Calley did in Vietnam was wrong.
I understand that soldiers have to be trained to kill, but they can reasonably be expected to kill some people and not others. Just shrugging your shoulders when they kill women and children isn’t good enough. I’d have more sympathy if they killed their officers. The officers are a bigger personal threat.
Ah, yes…Mill; yet another of those damned liberals.
Quite so, Gez. What I should have said is: the soaring Munchausen by proxy single mothers who are desperately craving approval and relevance by mutilating their children.
Seems pretty certain that at least some of the police present know exactly who they are.
Pretty obvious it’s a Spook production, Cletus.
Deeming was dressed in black, giving a speech on the steps, flanked by masked spooks dressed in black and banners proclaiming
Death To Cletus, but it’s okay because she’s just a stupid dope.
Is that it?
I’ve read accounts of that war, which condemned Calley and his men but drew a veil over, for example, the murder of six thousand South Vietnamese civilians after the fall of Hue, in the 1968 Tet offensive.
The Calley massacre
Lieutenant William Calley, the US Army 2nd Lieutenant officer who was held responsible for the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, put his experience into his own words after his trial. The account is significant.
Calley’s troops were sniped at from Vietnamese villages, but they hardly made any contact with the enemy. They searched hamlets; found friendly villagers, but then found Vietcong flags. Calley was constantly asked what his unit’s body count was. They took reprisals for being sniped at, burning villages down. He interrogated civilians for the locations of the VC, and got nowhere.
Calley took a VC prisoner; sent him to the military police, who got nothing out of him, and Calley took the same prisoner again three weeks later. On querying this with the MPs he was told: “…So why didn’t you go and shoot him? I can’t,” the MP said. “I’m at headquarters with the Geneva people on me.” The MP complained about having to house and feed prisoners, and accept their word that they were not VC. He finished up by advising Calley to shoot his prisoners if he didn’t want to see them released.
This frustration was commented upon by Second Lieutenant Robert Ransom Jr, an infantry platoon commander in Vietnam. He noted that:
…more than once we have captured or killed people with weapons whom we recognized as one of those smiling faces we had picked up and released earlier. It’s maddening because we know damn well that they’re dinks but we can’t do anything to them until we catch them with a weapon or actually shooting at us.
Despite these sort of difficult situations for himself and his men, Calley did not execute “suspected VC” or civilians in the field. He says however, that: “Everyone said eliminate them. I never met someone who didn’t say it”. Then his troops lost a squad leader to a booby trap set in a village; killed an injured Vietnamese woman in reprisal, and then planned their response. According to the court-martial record, Captain Medina told the preliminary briefing that the women and children would be out of the hamlet and all they could expect to encounter would be the opposition. The soldiers were to explode brick homes, set fire to thatch homes, shoot livestock, poison wells, and destroy the enemy. The soldiers, approximately 75 in number, would be supported in their assault by gunship pilots.
Medina later said he did not give any instructions as to what to do with women and children in the village. Some soldiers agreed with that recollection, others thought that he had ordered them to kill every person in the village. It does seem that Medina intentionally gave the impression that everyone in My Lai would be their enemy. As we have seen, women, children, and old people in Vietnam sometimes could be.
On 16 March, 1968, when landing from helicopters, the troops took ground fire. They began killing civilians; at first one by one in different ways, and in different areas; then more, and then many together in a ravine. Several soldiers testified they killed the civilians: in one case the witness said he regarded them as Viet Cong, and added during testimony, that he still did. Calley was in tactical command on the spot, and it seems he took part in the shooting of around 500 civilians, executed by single shots; and bursts of automatic gunfire. By lunchtime, there was no-one left alive.
With the operation over, Calley and his men returned to normal operations. In Calley’s account, there was developing a casual attitude towards death, and the general feeling was to
…kill every man, woman and child in South Vietnam. GIs said to use napalm, or low-yield atomic bombs…or to line up along the China sea and say, “Prepare to shake hands with your ancestors. We are rolling through….a GI became a quick philosopher and would say, “God, if I go and kill everyone here, I could leave”.
Some while later, after two of the men present had complained of the actions, Calley was transported back to the United States and tried. He was found guilty, and served a period – under three years – in an Army prison, and was then released. He is still alive, and works in his father’s jewelry business.
During the trial, and after it, he received considerable support from around America, which included letters from numerous veterans. This was for a variety of reasons, perhaps partly because in Richard Holmes’ words, with the advent of television beaming the conflict into lounger-rooms “War has become moving wallpaper, and its familiar pattern no longer horrifies us” , but also because, in summing up many arguments, such procedures were acknowledged as being the norm. In His Own Story, Calley recounted that he had received around “5000” letters during the period of his trial. He listed some of the statements in which some recounted events similar to the massacre:
I served in Korea from June 1953 to August 1954. I heard of many similar incidents.
I’m a retired marine. I spent twenty years in the service of God and Country. I was in two operations in Korea where women and children were killed.
In 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946 I was a first lieutenant with 45th Infantry Division. I was witness to many incidents similar to the one you’re being held for.
I served in combat in the German war. My fellow soldiers and I did on occasion kill enemy soldiers, civilians and children. Marquess of Queensbury rules do not prevail in war.
During my duty in Africa we were under orders to shoot the Arabs to keep them from taking our clothes.
I was given the order to seal a cave where a mother and her eleven or twelve children were holed up. This took place in 1944 on the island of Ie Shima.
On Okinawa, I saw men throw grenades on old men and women, figuring what the hell – they’re the enemy…
Many years ago I had a platoon, and we went through the villages as you and your people had to.
Calley recounted that he was amazed that he had been charged when it was common practice to target civilians:
I couldn’t understand it. An investigation of Mylai. Why not Operation Golden Fleece? Or Operation Norfolk? Or Operation Dragon Valley? Or why not Saigon itself? We had killed hundreds of men, women and children there in February and March, 1968: in Tet…simply read it in Stars and Stripes. Or the New York Times.
His allegation that such massacres were carried out is supported by others. Cherokee Paul McDonald said of his Vietnam experience: “Both sides had their My Lais – ours were rare and highly publicized, theirs were continuous throughout the war and after and largely dismissed, ignored, defended, or rationalised by brave intellectuals.”
David Hackworth, who commanded Tiger Force, although not in the period covered by The Toledo Blade, supported this scenario:
“Vietnam was an atrocity from the get-go,” Hackworth said in a recent telephone interview. “It was that kind of war, a frontless war of great frustration. It was out of hand very early. There were hundreds of My Lais. You got your card punched by the numbers of bodies you counted.
The US Army today refers to these incidents as “misconduct stress behaviour” and notes without ironical inflexion that: “…overstressed human beings with loaded weapons are inherently dangerous”. Its Handbook gives examples of such frustration in the field and also orders:
Commission of murder and other atrocities against noncombatants must be reported as a war crime and punished if responsibility is established. This must be done even though we may pity the overstressed soldier as well as the victims.
A central point of this work though is that if infantry are placed in a situation where civilians may be identified as combatants, then those soldiers will doubtless make mistakes and kill civilians who are not combatants. The politicians – and behind them the people – who make the decisions to send warriors into such situations need to accept their part of this responsibility.
: the soaring Munchausen by proxy single mothers who are desperately craving approval and relevance by mutilating their children.
That’s not quite right either.
The figures from America show 99% of those seeking Gender reassignment are teenage girls, probably with some genetic disorder which means they won’t be having kids anyway.
Male to Female sex change is essentially an impossibility that results in a grisly death, though it’s still occasionally attempted.
Anyone heard of Group Captain Catherine McGregor lately? She’s been quiet.
At least it’s got them off the Ritalin.
Taylor Sheridan, the writer of Yellowstone and its tough as nails precursors, also wrote the Siccaro movies, arguably the best of their kind. The guy certainly doesn’t bother with sentiment.
Calley was in tactical command on the spot, and it seems he took part in the shooting of around 500 civilians, executed by single shots; and bursts of automatic gunfire. By lunchtime, there was no-one left alive.
This part is incorrect.
Lt. Calley was not on the scene that day, the order was given by another Lieutenant, who was KIA a coupla days later.
Calley was a Scapegoat.
This account also fails to mention that the murdering G.I.s were all Black soldiers
Berka
It is about smoothing income. The vertical to horizontal moves are income shifting in one period.
I know she’s well credentialed but it is too blackboard-ey for me.
Read the Elsevier Handbook on Developmental Economics. Hard data, not theoretical models.
“Hello, I’m Mister Ed”
A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mr. Ed.
Go right to the source and ask the horse
He’ll give you the answer that you’ll endorse.
He’s always on a steady course.
Talk to Mr. Ed.
People yakkity yak a streak and waste your time of day
But Mister Ed will never speak unless he has something to say.
A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And this one’ll talk ’til his voice is hoarse.
You never heard of a talking horse?
Well listen to this.
I am Mister Ed.
h/t Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
Have you finished the days moisturising Groogs? And got a few packets of silica gel for Mother.
Also missing from Calley’s account [which is understandable, since he wasn’t present], were the Rapes and Pack Rapes committed by the Black Troops.
They never do or will.
Ed, I’m not going to talk to you about this. Saying ridiculous things like Calley was not present on the day is just trying to get a rise. If you want to start throwing your new version of any story into a debate then you need sources.
Calley got Life, Nixon Pardoned him the following day.
Basically, it was a shitshow.
Nixon was sitting on stats that showed massive Black criminality, he’d fudged the 1970 Census Data by including the Hispanic category for the first time, which lowered the Black population numbers, but also his some Black Crime stats among the hispanic category.
The last thing he wanted was for the Calley Trial to canvass the appalling brutality of Black troops during American involvement in
the Vietnam War.
Ed, I’m not going to talk to you about this.
Good idea.
By the way, where are your sources, and how accurate are they, since they failed to mention a couple of very controversial aspects?
These slurs from the lib leader in victoristan, the filth and various media scum against the ladies protesting trannies are going to end up in court.
Top Ender says:
March 20, 2023 at 8:28 pm
This is the introduction to my Lethality in Combat, sans footnotes:
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.
The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
John Stuart Mill – English economist & philosopher (1806 – 1873)
Chapter 1. Lethality in Combat – a study of the true nature of battle
People Sleep Peacefully in Their Beds at Night Only Because Rough Men Stand Ready to Do Violence on Their Behal
Thanks to the work of Garson O’Toole, the famous Quote Investigator, and other experts listed in the blog post for this episode, here’s a chronological look at what happened, and how the quote came to be “Orwell-ized.”
Let’s start with Kipling. The basic ideas behind this quote started with him.
Parts of Kipling’s 1890 poem entitled “Tommy” (referring to “Tommy Atkins,” the British slang for a common soldier) were about the all-too-common late-Victorian habit of making fun of common soldiers. In working-class lingo, Kipling wrote that people were:
O makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep.
Fifty-ish years later, George Orwell wrote an essay that referred to this Kipling poem. There, Orwell wrote:
A humanitarian is always a hypocrite, and Kipling’s understanding of this is perhaps the central secret of his power to create telling phrases. It would be difficult to hit off the one-eyed pacifism of the English in fewer words than in the phrase, ‘making mock of uniforms that guard you while you sleep’.
He sees clearly that men can only be highly civilized while other men, inevitably less civilized, are there to guard and feed them.
(Collected Essays of George Orwell, 1942.)
Although he used the concept in other pieces during World War II, what I just quoted is as close as Orwell got to the wording of the quote we’re looking at today.
Then, in 1963, John Le Carré’s novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, included the central character, “Control” (for those in the know about Le Carré’s work). In one particularly reflective moment, Control justified Cold War spying by saying to a colleague:
Thus we do disagreeable things, but we are defensive. That, I think, is still fair. We do disagreeable things so that ordinary people here and elsewhere can sleep safely in their beds at night. (p. 19)
It’s not clear whether Le Carré’s “Control” was deliberately invoking Kipling. But it’s highly probable that the Orwell version of the Kipling idea was well known enough that Le Carré could slide it into his character’s dialog easily, and be relatively confident his readers would know and understand the provenance.
As far as the experts can determine, the phrase was next uttered in the US Congress in 1967. Representative L. Mendel Rivers from South Carolina said:
I wish some way could be found to get into the heads of those who carry out pacifist and so-called anti-Vietnam demonstrations the truth of George Orwell’s words about pacifism in our time:
“One can only abjure violence because others are prepared to endure violence on their behalf.”
But the crucial attribution was made by right-wing columnist, Richard Grenier. In 1993, he wrote:
When the country is in danger, the military’s mission is to wreak destruction upon the enemy. It’s a harsh and bloody business, but that’s what the military’s for. As George Orwell pointed out, people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
This is a paraphrase of the two quotations I gave from Orwell earlier, and Grenier didn’t put it in quotation marks so he probably meant it as a summation of Orwell’s thoughts.
From there, the Grenier version of the quote was repeated in the National Review in 1997. And then, that famous (and, in my Buzzkill opinion, too-highly-regarded) George Will used the Grenier version in his newspaper column in 1998. Will wrote:
Remember George Orwell’s unminced words: “We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.” (Chicago Sun-Times, 21 Nov 1998)
Ironically, Orwell’s ideas had indeed been minced by various people up to and including Grenier. But once George Will says it, it’s more or less set in stone, especially by those who consider him some sort of sage. So, to “quote” Groucho Marx (or was it Mark Twain, or maybe Yogi Berra?), from there we were off to the races. The quote was used again and again during the War on Terror in the early 21st century (when it was also wrongly attributed to Churchill), and it’s been with us as accepted wisdom ever since and repeated ad nauseum.
My conclusion, therefore, is the same as Garson O’Toole’s: the concept was certainly Orwell’s, but the phrasing was Richard Grenier’s. Is this pedantry, or is the distinction between the two important?
there may not be where you are, but there is around here
I see Ed is spraying flatus from his gob.
And there it is- Ed-Mong being a racist turd. Again.
Designed to be linked to some lefty nest of internet clippings to show “ this site is racist”
Also
The little fact photographic evidence shows you are a lying liar lying lyingly doesn’t embarrass you?
You dipshit tard
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/mylai-massacre-evidence/
Ed Casesays:
March 20, 2023 at 8:50 pm
Seems pretty certain that at least some of the police present know exactly who they are.
Pretty obvious it’s a Spook production, Cletus.
Deeming was dressed in black, giving a speech on the steps, flanked by masked spooks dressed in black and banners proclaiming
Death To Cletus, but it’s okay because she’s just a stupid dope.
Is that it?
Are you on drugs?
And where is your evidence of Curtin’s alleged treachery?
The figures from America show 99% of those seeking Gender reassignment are teenage girls, probably with some genetic disorder which means they won’t be having kids anyway.
Dr Richard Cranium diagnoses genetic disorders from thousands of kilometres away. He’s a genius, just ask him, he’ll tell you.
“These slurs from the lib leader in victoristan, the filth and various media scum against the ladies protesting trannies are going to end up in court.”
I really, truly ruly hope so.
These slurs from the lib leader in victoristan, the filth and various media scum against the ladies protesting trannies are going to end up in court.
About as likely as sightings of the Loch Ness monster.
Only one masked black shirt has gotta come forward with the story of who paid him and it’s all over.
Top Endersays:
March 20, 2023 at 9:14 pm
Ed, I’m not going to talk to you about this. Saying ridiculous things like Calley was not present on the day is just trying to get a rise. If you want to start throwing your new version of any story into a debate then you need sources.
Dick Ed don’t do sources. He does fiction.
Richard Cranium
Only one masked black shirt has gotta come forward with the story of who paid him and it’s all over.
Exxxxxcelllllent! Dick Ed has discovered why the police simply escorted them away, rather than arresting them.
Rationalised by brave intellectuals.
Here’s my rationalisation – if an enemy deliberately seeds women, children and other noncombatants within their ranks, and then counts on their opposition going into combat half-hearted knowing that, and those noncombatants are killed in the process:
It’s on the enemy. Not the opposition that kill them. The enemy.
The End.
About as likely as sightings of the Loch Ness monster.
Ah yes, the Loch Ness precedent. What a fu.king legal scholar you are crotchless.
Only one masked black shirt has gotta come forward with the story of who paid him and it’s all over.
About as likely as you having sex with Nessie.
NSW Law society all in for the screech:
Systemic racism has been prominent in the history of our country, and the impact of some of its laws, both historical and current, on different groups, in particular First Nations people, has been severe.
What infantry are taught:
Nowhere in there is anything about holding conferences mid-assault to determine who is what, or pressing reset buttons (hello all Call of Duty fans). The goal is:
1. See above;
2. Ensuring the people you are with survive; and
3. Ensuring you survive.
In that order. If there is doubt, they don’t get out.
John Stuart Mill, as quoted by TE at 8.30:
mUnter!
Get in here!
Wonder how much pro bono work this woman has done, representing the bashed women and abused children, in places like Bourke and Wilcannia.
+100
The Vic liberal leader that spouted off is too stupid for politics if he did it outside of parliament.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11880805/Only-people-high-IQ-spot-odd-letter-tricky-brain-teaser-21-seconds.html
Ok I am a bit slow – 1 sec
Lol, yeah it’s really hard. Even my dog would take about two whole seconds to spot the “odd letter out”
Re Lord of the rings.
Genuine question.
Not having seen the movie nor read the books, is it worth my time to do either at this stage of life (61)?
P says:
March 20, 2023 at 3:17 pm
Stupid warmongers.
If that happens, and it’s not just being belligerent for no reason, there just maybe, that Poland seizes to exist once and for all.
I don’t wish that on any nation but can’t understand the polish behavior in this conflict.
They can win territory if UKR is defeated.
No personal interest in this conflict, but baiting the Bear is a dangerous past time.
He is wrong again, so, what’s new?
Rape & capital punishment in NSW
FWIW, I have done neither at my time of life, and I’m 67.
I’ve not read the books. Tried to watch each of the three movies. Fell asleep in the cinema within a half hour or so of the movie beginning.
Couldn’t name a single character. Have no idea of the plot.
The muzzies don’t wear uniforms and hide behind other muzzies. So how do you tell innocent muzzies.
This is why the Geneva Accords afford no protection to un-uniformed combatants. Captured on the battlefield such combatants can be summarily executed.
The purpose of this is the protection of genuine civilian non combatants. If the ADF rules of engagement rule out executing un-uniformed combatants then they are putting genuine civilians at serious risk of being killed where insurgents mingle with the population.
Label the individual loos offered to Disabled people as also available for Trans. They’d shriek of course, for they don’t see being trans for what it is – a mental disability. Too bad. Better than having your daughter having to fend off some male creep peering at her tampon string in a change room.
Separate them. Off course they won’t like it. As Cassie and others have said, it defeats their purpose to be seen as separate from real women.
As was the Viet Cong officer, captured during the Tet Offensive of 1968, and shot out of hand by a senior South Vietnamese police officer.
OMG, just watched two five-minute clips on “salute-gate”
Channel 10 daytime TV, & Das Projekt.
Takeaways:
The ladies speaking at “Let Women Speak” are “Anti-trans protesters” who are associates of out-&-proud Nazis.
The Trannys & the Groomers are “Counter protesters”
The blokes in generic black, marching badly, & giving a couple of Roman salutes are “Neo-Nazis” who “spread hate & violence”
Or the opposite of what each of those groups actually did on the weekend.
alvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity says:
March 20, 2023 at 10:17 pm
Ok I am a bit slow – 1 sec
Lol, yeah it’s really hard. Even my dog would take about two whole seconds to spot the “odd letter out”
I think in my case Colour Blindness helped, as the X stood out like a Dog’s Hind Leg!
I follow Tony Tardio on twitter, didn’t know he was a newsreader.
Iirc his number one issue is bike paths.
He’s an idiot.
Jay Powell kicked over a log, now everything’s crawling out
The Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the Swiss National Bank announced tonight that the U.S. is going to loosen access to dollars for the rest of the world’s central banks, a repeat of a move made in 2009, also aimed at shoring up flagging confidence in the banking system.
It does feel like the contagion inside the system could be easier to contain than in 2008, because of how thoroughly the housing bubble and mortgage-backed securities had seeped into everything then. The toxicity this time seems to come from even simpler types of fraud, but it remains to be seen how pervasive it is.
Jay Powell hiking interest rates the past year is increasingly looking like a guy in the backyard kicking over a log, not prepared for everything crawling underneath. Think of quantitative easing and the loose money of the last decade as the rotting wood that hid and nourished a perfect ecosystem of corruption.
If we look at the banks that have failed so far, we see a few common threads emerging, with fraud and Ponzi-like thinking at the heart of them. The question now will be how much of this toxic stuff there is tucked away inside other banks. If it’s largely isolated to the shadier side of the finance industry, the backstopping by the globe’s central banks might be enough to contain it. We’ll see.
Pretty sure all but a handful of the grandpas (or in my case father) who served in WWII are dead.
I’m only concerned that completely unreliable witnesses aka Afghani guerillas and their families are given any credence.
Especially if there is compensation attached.
A FURTHER PERSPECTIVE
Arresting Trump
Trump’s real crime is that he challenged and undermined the established political order.
“With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone. In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for who has committed it,
it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. It is in this realm — in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense, that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies.
It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political views, or being personally obnoxious to or in the way of the prosecutor himself.”
(Emphasis added)
— Attorney General Robert Jackson’s address to the Second Annual Conference of United States Attorneys, April 1940
“Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.”
— Lavrentiy Beria, Chief of Soviet Secret Police under Joseph Stalin
On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump will be arrested by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Reportedly, the charges will pertain to alleged hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels which purportedly violated campaign finance laws. Alvin Bragg, the Soros-funded progressive District Attorney, has yet to explain the legal theory underlying the charges. But, given his alarming and astounding demolition of Manhattan’s criminal justice system, it will no doubt be a counterintuitive and inventive interpretation of the law.
No matter what charges are brought, it is clear that this prosecution will be just one more tawdry political hit job. Compared to the Hillary Clinton-concocted Trump-Russia collusion smear, the FBI’s Operation Crossfire Hurricane, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, the two baseless impeachments voted by the House Democrats, and multiple tax audits, Bragg’s case — whatever its theory — would seem to be, in the immortal words of The Godfather II’s Hyman Roth, “small potatoes.”
But, however overreaching and flimsy his case may be, Bragg will have succeeded where others have failed. Charging Trump in an overwhelmingly progressive venue all but guarantees his conviction. The accolades and political rewards for Bragg will be incalculable.
Similarly, down in Atlanta, Fani Willis, the Democrat District Attorney of Fulton County, is reportedly sitting on a grand jury report concerning possible criminal charges against Trump for his interactions with state officials about the 2020 presidential election.
Imagine that. A candidate complaining to responsible officials about the conduct and outcome of an election. It seems that we are about to be told that such behavior is criminal.
Silly? Of course. But, in today’s woke and nakedly politicized world of criminal justice, any pretext will do as long as it can be used to harm those who challenge or offend the party in power.
So, when the media and the political establishment explode with joy and rapture as Trump is arrested, fingerprinted, mugshot and taken before a judge, keep in focus what is really happening.
His will be the first presidential arrest in American history, and, as such, it will mark a tragic and dangerous turning point on this nation’s descent into tyranny.
For Trump’s real crime was that he challenged and undermined the established political order. Against all odds, he conducted a hostile takeover of the Republican Party and drew to its banner millions of middle and working class voters. He gave those previously ignored and disenfranchised citizens a voice and acted on their behalf regardless of the consequences to the political and business interests of the Washington establishment. It is for that the Uniparty — Democrat and Republican alike — has hounded him and sought his destruction.
Trump has the resources and courage to withstand the onslaught. But the harsh lesson to others is clear.
To those who in the future may wish to challenge the power of the permanent political class, heed well what it is doing to Trump. This is the Uniparty’s playbook, and here’s its message: the vast wealth, emoluments, privileges, and power of government belong to us, and, if you get in our way, we will destroy you.
You mean the Viet Cong who had just murdered the entire family of one of General’s deputies?
A potential Trump indictment is a sideshow gift to the Biden family
By Miranda Devine
If Democrats really wanted Donald Trump to fade away, as they claim, then they would stop persecuting him.
Maybe they are so blinded by hatred that they can’t see that every time they use the heavy hand of the law against the former president, they just cement his status as MAGA martyr.
Or maybe they are so terrified of running against Ron DeSantis in 2024, that they actually want to martyr Trump to ensure he wins the Republican presidential primary ready for a repeat contest with Joe Biden.
In that scenario, Democratic prosecutors in New York and Georgia, and a partisan DOJ, play the role of picadors in a bullfight who soften up the bull with a thousand cuts before the decrepit old matador staggers out to finish him off.
Whether or not Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg really is about to arrest Trump this week, as has been reported, over trumped-up hush-money charges relating to a one-time assignation 17 years ago with porn star Stormy Daniels, Friday’s leak from the court could not have come at a better time for Biden.
The story that the first former president in American history would be charged with a crime, fingerprinted, put in a holding cell and maybe even perp-walked to humiliate him before the world is a dream come true for salivating Trump-haters.
Welcome WH distraction
But, more significantly, the story took the spotlight off the bombshell bank records released the previous day by the House oversight committee, showing $1,065,000 had been funneled from a Chinese energy company, through Biden intimate Rob Walker, to four immediate family members of Joe Biden: his son Hunter, brother James, and Hallie Biden, the widow of his late son Beau, who also is Hunter’s former lover.
Also listed as a recipient of the Chinese money, which was doled out to the four Bidens in regular small increments between March 6 and May 18, 2017, was an as-yet unidentified family member, listed only on bank wires as “Biden.”
Comer’s team has subpoenaed further bank records and is expected to reveal the identity of that mystery person this week.
In anyone’s language, that is a huge story.
Even The New York Times had to cover it, although with a typical “Republicans pounce” angle, and “balanced” by a story about an “investigation” by House Democrats into a supposedly missing gift to Trump from the Japanese Prime Minister of a $3,000 golf driver and $500 putter.
But the golf clubs are thin gruel against the impending exposure of the Biden family’s foreign influence peddling scheme, with then-VP Biden at its center.
So for the Democrats’ spin machine, it was time for a Trump scandal, always their tactic in a “break glass in case of emergency” moment like this, guaranteed to distract media attention, and keep voters in the dark about the real scandal swirling around Biden.
Enter Bragg, the Soros-funded, soft-on-crime DA who has been talking about Trump being indicted on something or other since at least 2019, and who made “Get Trump” a part of his election campaign.
His case is a joke. The allegation is that Trump falsified business records by concealing a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels which was made by his estranged former lawyer Michael Cohen in 2016.
Everything rests on the word of Cohen, a convicted perjurer, who testified before Bragg’s grand jury for three hours last Monday, and then again on Wednesday. Before that he had been in for interviews with the DA’s office at least 19 times.
But on Monday the grand jury will hear testimony from Bob Costello, a former legal adviser to Cohen before they fell out, who has acted for Trump’s some time lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and is a former supervisor with the Southern District of New York.
Costello will cite evidence contained in the 2020 book “The Fixers: The Bottom-Feeders, Crooked Lawyers, Gossipmongers, and Porn Stars Who Created the 45th President” that Cohen keeps changing his story about the Stormy Daniels payments and can’t be trusted.
Costello knows because he was an on-record source for the book and Cohen granted him a waiver of their attorney-client privilege to reveal what he had told him about his troubles when the feds first came knocking — and it’s nothing like what he’s saying now.
When prosecutors were told about the book Friday, they knew nothing about it, says a source, which doesn’t say much for their due diligence.
LOTR is a very long fantasy novel, written as mentioned with Catholic themes.
If you don’t enjoy fantasy it probably isn’t your cup of tea.
I first read them when I was 18, and have purposely never finished the book so for the rest of my life I will always have something to look forward to.
I’ve never watched or read the DA Vinci Code or Fifty Shades.
Nor do I intend to.
Which probably covers the execution of the Viet Cong murderer.
Biden is vilifying efforts to protect children
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! — Isaiah 5:20
I had thought that President Biden could not sink any lower than his bitter, Third Reich-style speech on Sept. 1, 2022, at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. That’s when he projected himself as a sweet angel of light while labeling MAGA Republicans as “extremist” and a “threat to democracy.”
But Mr. Biden outdid himself last Monday on “The Daily Show.” He came out for sexually mutilating children, disparaging those who would stand in the way of such horrors. As Dave Barry would say, I’m not making this up.
The self-professed devout Roman Catholic president, who backs abortion up to partial-birth infanticide, was lashing Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state legislature for acting to protect children from medical and educational quacks.
“What’s going on in Florida is, as my mother would say, ‘close to sinful,’” Mr. Biden told show host Kal Penn. “It’s just terrible what they’re doing.”
I don’t think that word “sinful” means what he thinks it means.
A proposed Florida law (HB 1421) backed by Mr. DeSantis would bar doctors from giving minors puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones. It would ban cutting off girl’s breasts and castrating boys. It would prohibit penalties against health providers who decline to do such procedures.
Research shows that drug and hormone treatments pose serious health hazards to both males and females. And, far from preventing suicide, as the transgender lobby claims, surgeries often increase the incidence.
Mr. Biden defended gender transition by saying, “It’s not like a kid wakes up one morning and says, ‘You know, I decided I want to become a man’ or ‘I want to become a woman. I mean, what are they thinking about here? They’re human beings. They love, they have feelings, they have inclinations. It’s cruel.”
Hear that? It’s “cruel” to protect children from being drugged and mutilated before they have a clue about who they will eventually become.
The prefrontal cortex of the brain, which governs decision making and delayed gratification, does not fully mature until the mid-20s. It’s why we don’t let schools dispense an aspirin without a parent’s or doctor’s approval or let 15-year-olds vote, buy beer or sign contracts.
Upwards of 90% of gender-confused youth recover their natural sexuality by their late teens – unless they are waylaid by the trans cult, which is capturing a shocking number of young girls. Testimonies from “de-transitioners” who regret their sex change surgeries are heartbreaking. Mr. Biden would do well to hear them out.
Last year, Mr. DeSantis signed the “Parental Rights in Education” law, which the media mislabeled the“Don’t Say Gay Bill.” The statute, which became famous after Disney’s CEO attacked it, prohibits exposing schoolchildren to sexual lessons before the fourth grade and requires “age appropriate” materials from then on.
On the Daily Show, Mr. Biden said that the way to respond to Florida is to pass federal legislation “like we did with same-sex marriage. You mess with that, you’re breaking the law and you’re going to be held accountable.”
Wonder how Mr. Biden is going to hold God “accountable” for creating males and females and natural marriage? Maybe he will shake his fist upward.
“Have you not read that He Who made them in the first place made them man and woman?” Jesus said, quoting Genesis. “‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will live with his wife. The two will become one’” (Matthew 19, 4-5).
In his bizarre Philadelphia speech, Mr. Biden actually lamented, “Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal.” That’s rich, coming from a guy whose Democratic Party is assaulting every societal norm under the sun.
In the final paragraph of that speech, Mr. Biden invoked God’s name no less than three times.
Blaise Pascal, the 17th century physicist and Christian philosopher, summed up such effrontery: “Evil is never done so thoroughly or so well as when it is done with a good conscience.”
Pascal also warned against complacency in the face of evil:
“And is it not obvious that, just as it is a crime to disturb the peace when truth reigns, it is also a crime to remain at peace when the truth is being destroyed?”
The Morning Briefing: Democrats’ Daddy Issues With Trump Aren’t Going to Work Out Well for Them
Well, that certainly was an interesting news weekend.
American Democrats are continuing their descent into a Trump-induced madness from which there obviously won’t be any return. They’ve escalated their insane war on Donald Trump to a point that has the potential to backfire in grand fashion.
They really didn’t think this one through. Then again, they haven’t thought any of their Trump tantrums through.
They’re blinded by rage and won’t stop until they get some red meat footage for the 14 viewers who still watch MSNBC and CNN.
Robert writes that the arrest of Trump that was originally planned for Tuesday may no longer be happening:
But now it turns out that the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has Trump in its sights, just may be stepping back from the brink: Business Insider reported Saturday night that Trump’s indictment is “on hold” until one more witness testifies Monday afternoon.
At first, it wasn’t clear who the witness would be, but Matt wrote last night that we now know his identity:
A source with knowledge of the “hush-money” investigation has confirmed to the New York Times that Rudy Giuliani lawyer Robert Costello, a former legal advisor to Michael Cohen, will be appearing before the grand jury on Monday with the sole intention of undermining Cohen’s credibility.
That shouldn’t be difficult to do as Cohen doesn’t have any credibility. It’s not likely that whatever Costello has to say will be enough to change New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s mind — he’s chomping at the bit to get his moment in the media as the guy who finally “got” Trump, no matter how fleeting the victory is.
Since the 2020 presidential election debacle, I’ve written on numerous occasions that the Democrats’ obsession with taking Trump off of the board only makes him stronger. Last December I wrote that, by referring Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, the House J6 Soviet Select Committee on Daddy Issues had opted to weaponize Trump with “political martyrdom.”
I have been consistently referring to the Democrats’ attempts to keep Trump off of the 2024 ballot as preemptive election interference. Catherine writes that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is now looking into whether it is.
Megan wrote a VIP column over the weekend that perfectly described what kind of effect arresting Trump will have. In it, she says that “ship-jumpers” like her will be “back on the Trump Train.” That will no doubt be playing out in large numbers across America. That’s plain to see for everyone but the Democrats:
FBI Whistleblower Claims FBI Is Now a ‘Weaponized Apparatchik’ of the Biden Administration
Via Epoch Times:
There’s a growing divide between the rank-and-file officers of the FBI and upper management, according to FBI agent-turned-whistleblower Steve Friend, and it’s those at the top who are pushing a political agenda…
“There are a lot of agents that sort of share that sentiment and just want to drive the mission forward. Unfortunately, there’s a big disconnect between the rank-and-file and the management class…
“I think there’s an argument to be made that the FBI has now just become a weaponized apparatchik of the presidential administration,” he added, holding that public trust in the agency has diminished largely as a result of the perception of political bias.”
As I have previously documented, it’s incontrovertibly true that the national security apparatus, including the FBI, is now politicized and weaponized against what the intelligence community terms “domestic extremists.”
This amorphic designation — “domestic extremist” — refers to the populist right, anti-establishment grassroots activists who oppose the silent coup that the Deep State has waged against the American people for several decades. It simply means opposition to the growing technocratic tyranny but, of course, is couched in post-9/11 language of “terrorism” and its alleged threat to “national security.”
Where Friend may be wrong is that the intelligence community does not ultimately serve the Biden administration.
Biden is a disposable puppet who will be disposed of in due time when it becomes convenient. His current usefulness is his pliability and directability. He does not make decisions of consequence.
The true usurpers of power occupy the next level above even the elected portion of the executive branch — the proverbial “men behind the curtain,” which includes the likes of George Soros, Bill Gates, and their ilk. They operate across borders and are in the process of rendering the nation-state obsolete.
Let’s look, for example, at the curious case of current Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer invoking the Deep State to threaten the sitting president of the United States (Donald Trump at the time) into cooperating with the program.
Was surfing teh webs, and found a recent ‘interview’ between the Aussie Cossack chap and Mr Bosi. Got seven minutes into two hours of Bosi’s assessments of other candidates in the NSW election. Highlights of those seven minutes:
1. He said Lyle Shelton was a ‘pedo protector’ and an ‘alleged Christian. Naturally, he said he was a true Christian;
2. He said Craig Kelly was unreliable, as although he went to the anti-vax protest he wore bright red shoes whilst doing so;
3. He said all militaries from all nations were ‘fighting a subterranean enemy’; and
4. Then went really long on Q, and all things Q.
Click.
The comments were equally profound, including the usual pedos pedos pedos everywhere being hidden, that fish would be extinct within 24 years and that there were reports of chemtrails all along the eastern seaboard.
The upside was that Bosi was immaculately, and I mean immaculately attired. This was, however, spoiled somewhat by the very obvious Hair In A Can treatment.
Moscow opens criminal case over Putin warrant
Russia’s investigative committee says the ICC prosecutor and judges acted “illegally”
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor and judges who issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin have become the targets of a criminal case, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced on Monday.
In a Telegram post, the committee said that it had opened cases against ICC prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan, as well as judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez.
Khan sent a petition on February 22 to the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber to obtain warrants for the arrest of Putin and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, whom he accused of being responsible for the “illegal deportation of children from Ukraine.” His petition was approved by the aforementioned judges.
Russia’s investigative committee has described the ICC prosecutions as “obviously illegal, since there are no grounds for criminal liability.”
It also pointed to the 1973 UN Protection of Diplomats Convention which grants heads of state absolute immunity from the jurisdiction of foreign countries.
The committee considers Khan’s actions a crime under Russian law for “knowingly bringing an innocent person to criminal liability, combined with unlawfully accusing a person of committing a grave or especially grave crime.” He is also charged with preparing an attack on a representative of a foreign state “with the intention of complicating international relations.”
The three judges are being accused of attacking a foreign state representative as well as attempting a “deliberately unlawful detention.”
Russia has disregarded the ICC warrant as having no legal basis, with ex-president Dmitry Medvedev suggesting it was a sign of the collapse of international law. He also described the ICC as “s**tty and wanted by nobody” and said it had a poor record of holding high-profile suspects accountable, explicit pro-Western bias and had failed to investigate US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Kremlin has officially reacted calmly to the ICC warrant. Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told RIA Novosti on Monday that there are already plenty of “openly hostile manifestations in relation to both our country and our president” and that taking it all “to heart” would not bring anything good.
EU explosives shortage threatens Ukraine – FT
The bloc is struggling to further support Kiev with arms due to a lack of raw materials, sources told the outlet
The EU defense industry’s ability to provide Ukraine with military supplies has been hampered by a deficit of explosives, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing sources.
Several European officials and arms manufacturers told the outlet that the bloc’s military plants are suffering from scarce supplies of gunpowder and TNT, which could delay plans to boost shell production by three years. The sources also complained that this meant the defense industry would be unable to meet the soaring demand “regardless of how much money is thrown at the problem.”
“The fundamental problem is that the European defense industry is not in good shape for large-scale war production,” one German official told the outlet.
These concerns were echoed by Jiri Hynek, who chairs the Defense and Security Industry Association of the Czech Republic. He said, as quoted by the FT, that while building a new artillery factory “is very easy,” it is impossible to produce shells without raw materials.
The official proceeded to point out that “it’s not possible to increase, in a short time, nitrocellulose” production, which is the basic ingredient in gunpowder. “If I want to increase production of gunpowder I need probably three years,” he added.
To remedy the situation, the EU needs to find new sources of supply, according to Italian defense official Gianclaudio Torlizzi. He told the FT that the continent needs to approach countries that it had traditionally stayed away from. “Each European country wants to protect its availability of raw materials,” he explained.
EU officials have repeatedly voiced concerns about their dwindling arms stocks due to the bloc’s support of Ukraine. Last December, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell lamented that years of underinvestment had resulted in military stocks quickly running out. Against this backdrop, several key European officials have urged the bloc to switch over to a “war economy.”
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the New York Times reported that the US and its allies were running out of ammunition for Ukraine, which is burning through thousands of shells each day in the battle for the key Donbass city of Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut in Ukraine). According to the newspaper, Western officials worry that this process is “unsustainable” and could jeopardize Kiev’s planned springtime campaign.
Moscow has been warning Kiev’s Western backers that their military supplies would only prolong the hostilities rather than change the outcome and would make the countries providing such aid direct participants in the conflict.
Ukrainian troops using 19th-?entury arms to defend key city – Telegraph
With modern weapons and ammo in short supply, Kiev’s forces are reportedly dusting off old Maxim guns
Ukrainian forces defending the Donbass town of Artyomovsk, also known as Bakhmut, are relying on Victorian-era Maxim guns, the Telegraph reported on Friday. Despite receiving tens of billions of dollars worth of US and NATO aid, Kiev is reportedly struggling with shortages of arms and ammunition.
“I have seen Maxim machine guns in stationary positions many times,” a Ukrainian soldier told the British newspaper. “Despite their age, it is a rather formidable weapon. The main thing is not to forget to add some water.”
Invented by Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1884, the Maxim gun was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world. Firing a still-respectable 600 rounds per minute, the gun relies on a heavy water jacket around its barrel to prevent overheating. Sitting on iron wheels and weighing around 30 kilos before adding water or ammunition belts, it takes a crew of four people to operate.
Maxims were used by British colonial forces in Africa and by Imperial Russian forces in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. It was already considered obsolete by the First World War, with British forces using the lighter Vickers machine gun in its stead.
Sitting in Ukrainian armories since the country was a part of the Russian Empire, Maxims have been used on the frontline in Donbass since last year. While Ukrainian troops told the Telegraph that the Maxim is “a fairly effective weapon in capable hands,” some of Kiev’s servicemen have complained that they haven’t received newer gear.
“The Russians have artillery, armored vehicles, and their forces are five to six times greater than ours,” a sergeant near Severodonetsk told Radio France Internationale last July. “We only had machine guns and RPGs from 1986. A Degtyarov machine gun from 1943. And the Maxim machine gun from 1933.”
The US alone has sent Ukraine more than $37 billion worth of weapons and ammunition since Russia’s military operation began last February. With Western stockpiles dwindling, however, American advisers are instructing Ukrainian forces to conserve their ammo if they hope to mount a counteroffensive this spring.
Western military officials have also advised Zelensky against hanging on to Artyomovsk, which is nearly encircled by Russian forces at present. Kiev keeps casualty figures under wraps, but US officials believe that “upwards of 100,000 Ukrainian forces” have died since last February, with “many of these losses” taking place in the city, according to a Politico report earlier this week.
Although US officials have written off Artyomovsk as strategically insignificant, it is a vital logistics hub for the Ukrainian military. Control of the town would clear a path for Russian forces to push on towards Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, which sit along the last in a series of fortified lines built by Ukraine since the onset of its conflict with the Donetsk People’s Republic in 2014.
New Fred fellas.
NOTES ON THE TWITTER FILES (19)
In the nineteenth installment of the Twitter Files, Matt Taibbi has posted a 45-part thread. It can be accessed via the first tweet in the thread below.
1.TWITTER FILES #19
The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine
Stanford, the Virality Project, and the Censorship of “True Stories”
In this installment the authorities confront a crisis of disbelief in the teachings of Lord Anthony Fauci. As President Muffley almost says in Dr. Strangelove, “Gentlemen, you can’t disagree here, this is the Covid war room.” Actually, you can’t disagree anywhere. Say this for the authorities. Unlike Vice President Harris, they do not confuse “exasperate” for “exacerbate.” Their mania to suppress divergence from the teachings of Lord Fauci is beyond exasperating.
This installment presents the story of the Virality Project (VP). Miranda Devine gives us a helpful Reader’s Digest version here: “The Virality project, run out of Stanford, is a dedicated censorship operation to protect Fauci and suppress all negative data on COVID-19 vaccine. The mentality is that you are too stupid to be trusted with the truth.”
Taibbi summarizes his findings in tweets 8 and 9. He tells the story in chronological form in the subsequent tweets. As Taibbi suggests, he has opened a window onto the dystopia the authorities are working up for us.
Matt Taibbi
Mar 18, 2023
@mtaibbi
8. – This story is important for two reasons. One, as Orwellian proof-of-concept, the Virality Project was a smash success. Government, academia, and an oligopoly of would-be corporate competitors organized quickly behind a secret, unified effort to control political messaging.
9.Two – , it accelerated the evolution of digital censorship, moving it from judging truth/untruth to a new, scarier model, openly focused on political narrative at the expense of fact.
Gotta wonder about this shortage of modern weapons and explosives for the Ukraine! .. according to the media the ‘west’ is pouring weaponry into Ukraine at an incredible level yet now we getz reports of pre-war machine guns and a lack of explosives ……!
Sooooo, if the “west” is running short of portable, military equipment and “dynamite” type stuff how come this has never happened in the “3rd world” terrorist enclaves?
Never, ever hear ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah .. I meanz USA has soo much excess weaponry that the Taliban was able to re-equip it’s entire military for free with some left over to sell to the “maaates”, and all the other “we-ain’t-happy-with-democracy” groups, aren’t, complaining they isn’t getting enuf supplies of the explodie stuff …..!
Seems “1st world” supply problems could do with some lessons from “3rd world” terrorist logistics experts ….. time for LGB to have a “fireside” how-does-ya-do-it wiv the Mullahs, methinx … FFS!
Compare and contrast the reaction after the Rolfe-Walker skirmish.
“Consequences will flow from this …”
Eyrie:
Link Part 1
Link Part 2
Link Part 3
I think I’Ve done that right, Eyrie. Couldn’t see a part 4.
Delta A:
Relabel the handicapped toilets with ‘ & confused’.
Top Ender:
Every time we went on exercise, I was ‘killed’ and after the sixth time I was unceremoniously dragged off the field as a casualty, that helped me frame my emotions in regard to my chances of survival.
Still unsure of how I would have gone in real life. Hopefully I wouldn’t have disgraced myself. 🙂
Greg Sheridan is so overjoyed by AUKUS and the possibility of WWIII that he wrote an ebulliently grateful column today basically declaring Albanese the greatest Prime Minister in Australian history – possibly set for “several” terms (that is, a 15 to 20-year reign).
The only policy Sheridan cares about now is war. Constant, endless war.
The Saigon Execution.
Old Ozzie:
Guns or butter?
This is the price of the Illegal African Refugee Invasion. There’s not enough money for Home Defence.
They were warned.
Tough Titties, Deutschland.
About ten people at the TERF rally in Hobart today. Many, many more at the trans counter-rally. No Nazis.
Which is what all the other non-Melbourne TERF rallies were like, to be fair.
Oh look, the Jew hating pervert apologist appears.
Using terms like TERF and Transphobia makes ones mind a strong place for the enemies of reason.
Monty, try the sound of ‘normal’ on your tongue.
Anyone dun any diamond painting? .. saw a couple of decent looking pix of it and thought I might like to try it but I’ve never seen a completed one or how much expertise/effort goes into the finished product …..
Let me just rephrase the above…
Jew hating misogynistic pervert apologist.
Because that’s the truth.
Cranky, you are turning into one of my Billy Bass singing fish. I have a wall full of them here at the Cat, every time I come near the motion sensors go off and they start flailing and trilling the same old tired tune.
Don’t become one of them. Or do, if you want to look like a fool.
“Don’t become one of them. Or do, if you want to look like a fool.”
Nah, everyday you come here and look like a fool
Now piss off. You’re a disgrace.
Gabor says:
March 20, 2023 at 10:36 pm
Re Lord of the rings.
I shall leave you with this.
Genuine question.
Not having seen the movie nor read the books, is it worth my time to do either at this stage of life (61)?
Yes, especially the book.
I can only give you everythang, baybee …
I can only give you everythang, baybee … 😕
Nothing changes in the cottage, I tells ya! 🙂