Reading The News in Pravda, Reprise

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

First of all calm down. No, seriously, calm down.

Before I was aware the walking corpse was giving a speech, my phone went nuts, with people wanting to lay bets on when he’d resign.

We are, of course, in clown world colliding with a dumpster fire while both are carried at the flood, and a UFO is trying to beam the whole mess to Tartarus, so anything is possible. HOWEVER if my experience of reading the news in Pravda means anything? NOTHING will happen.

Nothing will happen. Part of your alarm comes from the fact that you either still want to hold on to some idea of normalcy, or that you’re just too sane and clean to see — much less enjoy — the full spectacle of madness on display.

You have apparently completely forgotten or re-written the spectacle of Biden’s so called 2020 campaign — aka the potemkin campaign — where, rare and controlled though his appearances were, he was… fully as crazy-stupid as he’s now.

There are arguments, in fact, that he’s always been this crazy-stupid. There was a joke in the senate that if Joe Biden got up and said “I have rabbid weasels in my pants” everyone would shrug and go “that’s Joe.” There is also an argument that at least he or his handlers were better at plagiarizing. I’m going to go with “Uh. Okay. But you know, that was probably his secretary, and they’ve been getting dumber and more illiterate on the left, because… well, because fourth generation commies are like that.” And also that his long and distinguished — splortch, giggle — career comes from the fact that yes, they really had that much control of the press.

Ah, I see that having woken up very late (don’t ask. I almost wrote last night’s dream here to give you a flavor of my nights. But staring at the ceiling took 5 hours. And this wasn’t a bad one. And no, I’m not taking melatonin. Because it’s switched to keeping me awake. Though I’ll note that the dreams with that are more amusing than the normal ones. I’m going to take to writing empires in sf. I swear.) the news has caught up with me. Or at least Ace of Spades HQ has.

I won’t do the “I was right” dance. I’ve seen this movie before. I grew up watching the family watching a movie very close to this one. And my mind doesn’t rewrite the horror of 2020 or the horror that is our politics.

To think that “speech” — ululation, screech, whatevs — yesterday was the prelude to a palace coup is to forget the times Joey Malarkey tried to fight SUPPORTIVE factory workers, or called people creative things like Dog Faced Pony Soldier (It sounds better in the original Chinese.) or not to have followed the daily gaffes (which frankly should be a website) or– Yeah, he looks older now. That’s no big surprise since by my internal clock, he’s been placed in power over us …. a thousand years ago or so. But he always sounded demented. Mostly what you hear when Joey opens his mouth is the wind howling around his empty cavern of a skull looking for his three brain cells, then lamenting because said brain cells are too busy with cupidity, greed and concupiscence to notice the hurricane.

You’d also have to forget how Ruth Badder Ginsburg, a terminal cancer patient was the most fittest and smartest woman ever, and swam laps in an Olympic pool at 5 am sharp every morning, before winning foot races against 20 year old fit males, then settling down to read the full 40,000 pages of that day’s proposed Democrat legislation, before sending it all back, annotated and proofread and competing in a triathlon before lunch. All while people with her condition and at her age were doing well to actually wake up and say a couple of words before taking their medication.

You keep trying to rewrite all this to a reality that makes any sense, as though you know, over the last four years the Junta and its sycophants in the media hadn’t proved that they have not even notional contact with reality. As if they had some concept of shame or awareness of lies.

People, this is the post modern left that believes that each person has their own personal reality, and moves around in a bubble of it, something I couldn’t even make work in a fantasy world, carefully constructed. (Though it bears some resemblance to the concept of hell in several fantasy worlds, and possibly in traditional theology.)

They have no shame in saying utterly untrue bullshit, because to them it’s true, and therefore, it’s their personal reality.

Now why Joe went out and made a disgraceful spectacle of himself? Only G-d knows, and even Himself might be scratching his head. If it was Joey’s idea, it was because his pride was aggrieved. Because his pride and self-conceit is at least comparable to Obama’s and maybe just slightly less.

If it was someone else’s idea, my guess is it’s not directed at us at all, but at some internal play and trying to extort some concession from whoever is puppetting Joe.

If they could have replaced him with Kamala — or anyone — they would have done it by now. Why they haven’t is a mystery. Look, yes, Kamala is a deep throat with a dressing of word salad, but she’s at least as competent as Joe, and has a vagina and sort of tans. They wanted her as president. They were writing paeans to her long before she tanked in the primaries.

IF THEY COULD she’d already be president.

So why can’t they? I have no idea. Either there’s dirt on her that dwarfs the deep midden in Biden’s past and family or — indulge me here — he and “doctor Jill” know where bodies are buried. What bodies could be big enough? I don’t know. If I knew I’d blow it wide open. But we’re spoiled for choice, from the Clintons through the Obamas and everything and anything in between. The dirt they keep slinging at the right? they believe it because they’re filthy. And some of that dirt we can’t even comprehend.

However, Joey is not getting replaced, unless he exits feet first. And if he exits feet first it better be natural, or Jill will make sure it all comes out even if it’s phyrric. She likes her position. She worked all her life for this. She’s going to enjoy it.

And while we’re at reading the news in Pravda: Please, I beg you for the love of all that’s holy, stop saying that Obama is manipulating everything behind the scenes. I remember Obama off the teleprompter. At best he can manipulate his toes. And that’s when not high, which I’d guess is fairly rare.

Whoever controlled him is controlling Biden? That’s possible. Probably even. But here’s the thing, from their actions while in power, I’d guess that to be… Iran? And I didn’t know they had anyone competent enough to do that.

Then again perhaps I’m overestimating the competence needed when Pravda stands ready to cover and make up stories out of whole cloth.

Fortunately Pravda is losing influence. Now if we can cure the right’s amnesia, we have a shot.

Oh, and as for Tucker’s interview with Putin: is Tucker a dunce? And do the people who credit Putin’s utterances partake the same kind of stupid, or simply want to think that dictators tell the truth? (Yes, hes’ a dictator.)

He might be nationalist. But then the USSR leaders always were. International communism was always really Russian National Communism with an international face. Which is why all communists, the world over, sang the praises of Russia.

If you believe he doesn’t want to recreate the old USSR I think less of you. And unexplained is why he didn’t play his games when Trump was in power. Yes, he played into the left’s propaganda in that interview and said that he likes Trump better. That’s by way of helping Joey both brand us as traitors and give the left a leg up on the election.

OF COURSE Putin is on the side of the left here. It allows him to run unchecked. Remember the “sanctions” on him just made him richer, and Joey kowtowing to the greens filled Russian coffers. (I’ve been yelling for how long that this was all cooked up with the Junta, to give the left a chance to grift more, and to get Putin what he wanted. Pity about Ukraine, eh?)

Again, calm down. Nothing shocking has happened. Nothing shocking will happen. This is the circus portion of our national entertainment.

Oh, yeah, all of this probably hides something real that’s happening and they don’t want us to see. Likely something truly horrifying.

I’m not going to think about that, because my dreams are already bad enough. But that’s probably all it is.

253 thoughts on “Reading The News in Pravda, Reprise”

  1. We have merely reached the “This Year’s Harvest is Breaking All Records, Comrades” stage of the regime.

    They have already informed us that all our rations are larger and cheaper then ever before.

    The MAGA wreckers and hoarders are the only thing holding us back!

    Liked by 2 people

  3. The Good News is that the Supremes (both lefty and otherwise) appear to dislike Colorado’s game of “removing Trump from the ballot).

    Liked by 2 people

        1. Plus if the states can mess with Federal power, they can mess with the SCOTUS.

          Hawaii just said “Hold my beer, bruh.” with the SCOTUS ruling on the 2nd Admendment.

          Liked by 1 person

    2. Yup. I was fairly confident that even Kagan would be against it. Sotameyer was a “maybe”, but still possible. Jackson was the one that I viewed as most likely to support it, and even she’s apparently making noises against it (though questions during the hearing don’t necessarily indicate the judge’s eventual vote). If the court rejects it unanimously, I will be very pleased.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. I think you’re right. Inertia is, to paraphrase one of the memes going around right now, not just a river in Mexico. The talk radio types are making bank today, but nothing really appears to be changing – Washington is rolling out the usual rhetoric and Kamala was verbosely defending Biden on the news today. I’m surprised her nose didn’t lengthen by a foot.

    Liked by 2 people

      2. He just claimed Mitterand was the president of Germany, so I’d say that there was a good chance it was nothing serious.

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  6. Biden is perfect for them since they can pillage with impunity. The only thing better would be a cardboard cutout since that wouldn’t make as public a spectacle of itself. On the other hand, Trump is their worst nightmare since they don’t have anything on him. They can’t blackmail him and even their made up blackmail isn’t working.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Their not having anything on him was my greatest surprise and makes me wonder if the man is…. an instrument… not of mortal forces.
      Note, I’m not saying he’s good, saintly, etc. Just…. the weapon something that is is using.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. King David was no saint, nor was Sampson. Look where Paul started. There are far more examples of -profoundly- flawed folks serving His plan.

        Willingly or not.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Skenderbeg, Ferdinand III of Castile, Vlad Tepes, Jan III Sobieski, George Washington, none of them were saints in the “perfect, peaceful, without flaw, never got irritated or cross” sense. And look what was accomplished through them.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. A paper in Western Australia is running, “Weekend at Biden’s, ” as their front-page story, with appropriate Photoshopped image from “Weekend at Bernie’s.”

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  7. I think the general plan was to have Kamala take over after just over 2 years of Biden, so she’d have 10 years of being President. But then dr Jill kneecapped her by getting her assigned to “deal” with the border, where the boss man had set the policy’s that needed to be reverted to deal with it. And then all the power cliques saw that and have been trying to get on top since. It’s all different groups fighting each other. No one person that can be held to actually be in charge.

    I’m just wondering how long before Biden has a heart attack? That job has to be stressful even if everyone around him is trying to prop him up like Bernie.

    Liked by 2 people

    2. “I’m just wondering how long before Biden has a heart attack? ”

      Brain aneurysm. He’s already had two that have been admitted to.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Crabs are in general better behaved. Something very strange is going on. Someone LET the Turnip in Chief do that disaster of an interview, nay perhaps even instigated it. He looked like Queeg from the Caine Mutiny except there were no strawberries involved and Joey Sponge Brains had no ball bearings to clack together. We feel vaguely sorry for Queeg but no one feels bad about dissing Joe Biden. Maybe they’ll convince him not to run, but the only way he is leaving the Whitehouse seems to be in a pine box. And if they’d wanted to do that they should have had him withdraw last year. His wife doesn’t want to be married to the second president to resign in disgrace. There is clearly palace intrigue going on but who the principals are and what their goals are is inscrutable to me short they want to remain in power. This would be intriguing even perhaps amusing if it were someone else’s country, not so for this situation.

        Liked by 1 person

        2. And the confusion continues. Many Democrat politicians are praising Joey Sponge brains to the max. Either they didn’t get the memo (possible, Team Dump Biden may want them to go down with the ship) or there’s heavy infighting. I’ve ignored the possibility that they Like Biden. No one likes Biden, heck his wife doesn’t like him and his dogs want to bite him and anyone in range. If he weren’t such a piece of work you’d almost feel bad for him.

          Liked by 1 person

  8. Replace him with whom? I have been arguing that there was no chance they remove Biden since November 2020, and getting told I am insane because he is obviously senile, but the simple truth is that Biden was NO ONE on the left’s first choice at any point in his career. They threw the nomination to him in 2020 because everyone in the Democrat party who had any possible chance of actually winning the nomination had no chance, even with fraud, of winning the election.

    Warren is Himmler in a skirt. Bernie is entirely too open about his socialism/communism to carry anyone except the under 25s and the University professors. Kamala makes Biden look coherent and comes across as truly unpleasant. etc. etc. The Party has moved far to the left of the party membership.

    The people running the party have completely abandoned their core constituencies in the Black community and labor in pursuit of social radicalism. Climate nonsense, childhood sex changes, fully open borders are the core planks of the platform now, and they have 0 support in the blue collar or black constituencies, both of which tend quite traditionalist about social matters.

    Biden has two massive advantages over any other Democrat with even a little name recognition. 1. He is seen as a traditional Dem, pro-labor pro-welfare, but not anti-American (I said SEEN not is). 2. He is 2nd term Wilson, and veggie president’s allow the people behind the throne to run things as they see fit. As long as they can prop him up in front of a microphone and get the media to pretend his senility is a right wing conspiracy theory he is staying the candidate.

    Liked by 3 people

      1. The way he looks now is giving me flashbacks to how my Grandfather looked when he was coming up to the end, or my Mom when she was in hospice care.

        Honestly, I keep opening news sites expecting to see a giant banner headline “Pres Biden dead at {whatever his age is.}”

        Liked by 1 person

        2. I’ve been avoiding watching him on TV for ages, because the memories of my mother’s final years and months just hurt too much. Some people in very high places need to stand trial on charges of elder abuse.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. This. His affect looks dreadfully like the actress on a commercial for a dementia drug, and his behavior is … I’ve seen it before. As you say, anyone else would be up on charges of elder abuse, and rightly so.

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          2. My dad looked better on his last day alive, than Biden does now. But then dad wasn’t deep in dementia or altimeters. Alert to the very end.

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          3. Indeed he reminds me of three gentlemen at my last church that I saw descend into dementia over a period of a couple years. He is in REALLY bad shape, and getting all psyched up about things is likely to set off an aneurysm. As TXRed says his affect is horrible. Being president takes a toll on 50 somethings such that they leave the office looking 70+, he’s 80 plus already.

            Liked by 1 person

  9. I’m still trying to wrap my head around, “He’s not competent to stand trial for mishandling of classified documents, but he’s fully capable of running the nation.”

    WT actual F?!? Do these idiots think(?) that we’re all as stupid as they are???

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Best quote I’ve seen on the speech came, oddly enough, from Paul Begala: “I’m a Biden supporter. After his speech last night I slept like a baby. I woke up every two hours and wet the bed.”

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    2. No, don’t you see, the President doesn’t have to think to run the country; he just has to be capable of repeating what his advisors tell him and signing whatever papers are put before him. As long as Biden’s advisors are well-credentialed technocrats, everything will be fine!

      (Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.)

      Liked by 2 people

      1. “…capable of repeating what his advisors tell him…”

        I think this is what actually and spectacularly did not work last night – he’s been going off the giant prompter regularly with stupid lyin’ Joe stories, which was bad enough, but then recently someone briefed him about the Pallys-via-Mexico plan Foggy Bottom is working with the Egyptians with “don’t say anything about this, sir.” Yesterday the Special Counsel’s report report dropped before his bedtime, and he got so mad about the temerity of the special counsel mentioning his perfect war-hero son Beau that he blew past the frantic staff and performed as shown, blurting out the Gaza-Mexico thing.

        Maybe Frau Doktor Jill was already asleep, or she couldn’t find the tranq dart gun, or something.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I seriously doubt they give him real briefings about anything at all. Much like you don’t tell your four-year-old what you got Daddy for Valentine’s Day and not to tell because it will spoil the surprise.

          Anyone knows you can’t trust a preschooler not to blab.

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        2. Laughing at the dart gun.
          Can we remake Weekend at Bernie’s, crossed with a little Death of Stalin?

          Tell ’em it’s about Wilson, and Hollywood might even produce it.

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    4. It’s showing us that We The People have no say over the government that’s supposedly working for us. The multi tiered justice system has been overtly obvious for years, where no ally of whoever is pulling the strings can be held accountable. Now they’re showing us that our choices of government figureheads are irrelevant as well. I don’t know who’s pulling the strings, but it might be whoever is behind the WEF.

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    5. He’s not competent to be tried for mishandling classified documents, but he’s the one who has control of nuclear weapons. How much dumber can his handlers, or the Democrat party, get?

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  10. Re: Who is pulling the strings

    You’re right; I had forgotten how bad “the Lightbringer” was when not reading from the teleprompter.

    Re: Hiding something worse
    YIKES! (Pulling covers over my head, if only metaphorically.)

    Liked by 1 person

      1. A few mushroom clouds, limited to say DC, London, Berlin, Moscow, Ottawa, Tehran, Brussels, Paris, and Beijing, might not be a bad thing.

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          1. If it is, it shouldn’t be; they’d fit right in with farmers in France, Germany, et al.

            Of course, from our “elite media” we get , [Crickets…]

            Liked by 2 people

          5. It’s a dream. Distances in this country make such an effort EXTREMELY impractical.
            Tractors have a top speed have a top speed of about 20 mph.
            So the maximum radius you can draw from is about 200 miles.
            For DC specifically, half of that is ocean, rivers, and swamps. A good part of the rest is urban sprawl.

            That’s not counting the legal exposure to kangaroo courts determined to put peasants in their place.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Some tractors have a top speed of 20 MPH. A lot can only make 10-15 MPH. Tractors are not built for speed.

              On the other hand, I’d like to see a Ferrari haul a wagon loaded with 6 tons of silage, or pull a 24-foot cultivator all day.

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              1. I took a trailer load of thistles to the transfer station (a quarter mile away) once. The tractor’s nominal top speed is 11 mph, though at full throttle, it’s a couple miles better.

                Handling was sufficiently bad & scary that the first trailer trip was the last one I did with the tractor. On the rare occasion I need a trailerload dumped, it goes behind the truck.

                OTOH, I mowed the grass at church a few times. I could go the half mile mostly on the shoulder, and that was tolerable. Also done much more slowly.

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              1. We got the hell off the East Coast almost 20 years ago. We’re south of Phoenix and about 100 mi NW of Davis-Monthan in Tucson, so with the prevailing winds here (W to SW) until the summer monsoon season we should be OK, even if either is a target, which is unlikely. EMP taking out the grid, OTOH, is a major concern. Pray for rationality.

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  11. The cognitive gymnastics going on with the DoJ saying Sleepy Joe is too addlepated to be tried along with the “Party” saying he’s sharp enough to run the country is staggering. Pravda at its peak couldn’t hope to compare to this malevolent prevarication. This is what happens when you make “journalism” a credentialed university degree.

    Liked by 2 people

  12. The 25th Amendment, section 4, allows the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to inform Congress that the President is unable to perform the duties of his office, whereupon the VP takes over until the President informs Congress that he has recovered.

    Why hasn’t Harris done this? Either she can’t convince a majority of the Cabinet that she’d do a better job than Biden, or she’s worried that Biden would immediately contradict her and create a public embarrassment for the regime … or just being acting President isn’t enough for her, she wants the real thing, not subject to Biden’s whim.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. And the Cabinet has to go along. That’s the other huge sticking point. And who would Congress approve as her VP? An appointed VP has to be cleared by the Senate, just like a supreme Court justice or cabinet appointee.

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        1. Senator Hawley called out Garland, saying that as the report was that crimes were committed but prosecution is not being brought because Biden is not mentally competent to stand trial, Garland must either accept that and push to have the cabinet remove Biden under the 25th Amendment, or his DOJ must prosecuted Biden if they reject the mental incapacity determination in the report.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. My paranoid conspiracy theory is Kamala’s VP would be sold as a “moderate technocrat, with no political ambition. Just a placeholder while we do the election…..just someone who could never be elected, but if he got power….

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    3. I suspect Deep State has enough Kompromat on her that she’s been told that she can only take over if she appoints a chosen VP and the resigns herself and she’s fighting this.

      Either that or she is planning something and trying to rally support and failing. As a diversity hire with, apparently, a truly poisonous personality she probably doesn’t have any actual support, so rallying support is going to be tricky

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      1. Yep. Imagine if you will:

        Kneepads dumped Willie Brown immediately after he gave her the boost into statewide CA politics, yet he kept supporting her and kept quiet until his career ended. Perhaps she kept videos. And perhaps someone in foreign intelligence black-bagged her and got those, and has been transacting with her based on them as kompromat as she moved her way up the political ladder.

        Then someone else penetrated that first foreign intel service and fed the original info and all the later transactions to their people in DC.

        I mean, rumors were it was down to either kneepads or the not-Governor of GA as token female of color VP. They must have picked kneepads because they had more on her.

        Aside: Imagine how furious not-Governor of GA is these days.

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    4. Because under the 25th, the President gets to say, “No. Really. I am fine.” It ultimately goes to both houses of Congress, requiring two thirds of both to remove the
      President.

      That won’t happen. No way. So no one will stick their Schwartz on the anvil to start the process. Because whamwhamwham thank you maam.

      Ain’t happening.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Nod, the News Media Idiots that thought that the 25th Amendment was a short-cut to remove Trump really didn’t know what they were talking about. :twisted:

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  13. They are explaining it all away by saying the special prosecutor clearly is unsuited for the job, hiring neurologist s, etc. Which NEVER happens in a trial. Obviously, he is a Trump lackey and that Garland should never have appointed him. Because we all know that the courts are in Trump’s pocket! It’s the only reason Trump isn’t in jail for life yet.

    Liked by 2 people

  14. A theory I read about was that there are three groups running the White House and Joe. They are competing with each other and that’s another source for the crazy.
    I think it was “State” vs. DOJ vs. “Political Powers” (Jill et al) housed in the White House.

    I’m just waiting around for another shoe to drop and wondering if it’s a centipede who is taking off his shoes!

    As is – I’ll check some news sources now and again but will more closely watch local events. When it all goes, I think it will be very fast now.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. “If they could have replaced him with Kamala — or anyone — they would have done it by now.”

    It says a lot that Kamala isn’t President. One of the things it suggests to me is that -nobody- wants their fingerprints on what’s going on. Not even her. They’re letting the puppet take the rap. Open border? Let #Brandon wear that one.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. I don’t care what anyone says, I think it is as funny as hell. And it makes that KGB scumbag Putin look sane in comparison. On the World Stage it makes Putin look better, which is a bad thing for everyone. No, I think they are panicking everywhere but the leftist halls of power. They don’t get that all those people they normally rely upon are not on their side anymore. But, that panic is going to creep up from the grass roots soon. I think they are praying that one of their kangaroo courts takes Trump out. Not going to happen. When that fails in the coming weeks is when they will lose it, just in time for spring and the late Easter Riots in the blue cities. First riots, maybe second riots, will be by the Illegals because their room service was late, than all the poor and minorities will riot because the illegals are taking all the welfare. Lather, rinse, repeat, as every blue city tries to out do each other in rioting 101, and most blue cities will be even more of a shambles than they are now. Just in time for the Chicago Convention which is only a bus ride from the Muslim Centers of America. They ain’t happy about the aid being given to Israel. The Gangs should be running the streets of Chicago by then and all the delegates will be robbed and carjacked by all those released without bail and still wearing their ankle monitors democrat voters. I wonder how much of a deterrent it will be when all those Pro Palestinian protesters are released the very next day to go protest some more. Still ROTFLMAO, because I ran out of tears years ago.

    Yes, I have a dark sense of humor.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Why will they riot in the blue cities? Because it is what they have been taught makes change happen. You riot and the powers that be give you stuff, and what they don’t give you you can go out and loot. The only problem being, there is little left to loot in their neighborhoods. The economy has been so bad, and the thieve have been ransacking their stores so much, the businesses all closed down or moved away, they’ll have to go to other neighborhoods to riot and loot. When they do that, cops or no cops, the residents won’t put up with that shit and will shoot back this time.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. They travel poorly. Examples go back to the 60s. Very little crap hits the nicer neighborhoods.

        Cops live nicer. So do the politicos. So do the medics. So do the -taxpayers-, so do the -powerful-. So the riots are allowed in crapville, but not the Emerald City burbs and boros. Any spillover gets squashed. Rare exceptions such as suicidal Seattle. And sometimes our newcomers are the harshest buffers. (“Rooftop Koreans”, etc.)

        Six decades of examples.

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      3. This is what I said in Sarah’s yesterday’s post. It may not be police that they go to help. But they will burn their own neighborhoods going against those they are perceiving as deceiving them and taking what is theirs. Like orphangeorge said the surrounding enclaves will shoot back, this time.

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  17. Last night I was thinking this was all just a show put on to excuse Joe not running again and installing Michelle as the candidate. But now I’m thinking that yes, it is a show put on for us, but it’s to show all us plebes that we no longer have power over the course of our future. Whoever is pulling the strings apparently feels they have consolidated enough power to start showing it off, and give us a poke in the eye about it. There won’t be any consequences for Biden, because he’s their puppet.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s not a unified sinister cabal of manipulators. It’s 3 to 6 factions of competing shitbag yahoos yanking everyone’s yayas.

      It’s a total all-hands FlusterCluck and it is becoming visible to anyone calm enough to watch the whole picture despite the “drama”.

      If there was a unified (competent) plot of plotters, you would already be in a KZ, or in an ashbag in the landfill. Or too cautious to speak out on a public website.

      Russian proverb:

      Don’t think.
      If you think, don’t speak.
      If you speak, don’t write.
      If you write, don’t sign.
      If you think, and speak, and write, and sign, don’t be surprised.

      We ain’t there. Not even close.

      Tyrolean FlusterCluck, with extra squeezins. And they are starting to eat each other -publicly-. Watch.

      Popcorn?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Recently bought a new ‘bottle’ of popcorn… as I could not find the old one (so…) and am wondering if I need to enlarge my reserves for the coming… thingie.

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    2. The unspoken word is, “PROVOCATION”.

      Both the stirring up of the perpetually-aggrieved and the “othering” of REAL people are intended to produce parallel reactions.

      With the “usual suspects” it is the “promise” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) of a “blind-eye” being turned on the next bout of property destruction and murder.

      As for the REAL people,they are to be driven beyond the patience of saints. Then after a few “crack” too early, the full “majesty” of the law will descend upon them. Think Waco and suchlike on a NATIONAL scale, but with better sequencing: Pillage and Rape THEN BURN.

      Interesting times; but to what ultimate end and to whose (domestic and foreign) interest?

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  18. Folks

    Re: 25th Amendment. Go read it verbatim. Then script out who says what. Biden is functional enough to go through the needful. Does anyone believe -two thirds- of Congress will vote to remove? Not happening. So moot.

    Re: Biden. He is a cunning and vicious dunce. The speech issues are stroke symptoms. He has had several minor ones, and fairly recently. He also has the usual “old man slowing down” frustrations and complications. He may code out completely trying to be 50 again. But he is functional enough to meet -legal- requirements as a non-custodial case. Florida (Saint Petersburg!) is overrun with worse who run around loose. So moot.

    Unless the Republicans want to commit seppuku, they won’t help the donks remove Biden. There won’t -be- a republican party if they cross that Rubicon and save the Donks from their date with disaster. Trump can form a third major party tomorrow, and all the players know it. “Bull Moose” ring a bell? Also recall the Republicans started as a third party, and in 10 years had their first President. So yeah, maybe the uni-party effs the republican base. Then the big chunk of base goes 3rd. Because those base -cannot- win otherwise. And middle-finger “find out” time.

    Now, the machinatiors -might- bribe the FICUS into retiring, combo of pardons and millions, and probably an ambassadorship to someplace low tax and low law where he can sniff kiddies behind a diplomatic passport. They -might- Bernie him.

    I think Newsome wants a Trump to have four years of Donk-induced crash, so he can ride to the rescue in 2028. He has to see what us coming in the next four, and avoid the splash. Newsome holding the wheel during the next few guarantees DeSantis in 28. Lol. Might actually be the best outcome long term. Trump might fix things enough where folks get comfy with another donkulus next time. Riding the tiger now would guarantee a quarter century plus of non-donk prosperity.

    Things are going to get bumpy, then un-effed. Strap in, hold on, and barf out the window if you must, but don’t bail out because the destination is worth the ride.

    Recall:
    “These are the times that try mens’ souls….”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m not seeing 2/3 happen, but, having seen the speaker McCarthy removal, I wonder if a few (R)s wouldn’t try it, on the theory that Kacklin’ is worse? Or whatever rationale 8-1/2D chess they could come up with.

      Like

      1. The Donkeycritters are not loyal to the country. They are not even loyal to their constituents. They are loyal to the Donkycritter Machine. That is why they will never replace Slow Joe the Bidengaffer, Bidengrifter, and Bidengrabber.

        Like

    2. I think Newsome’s hoping that California’s economy doesn’t crash before he gets the chance to run for President and safely ensconce himself in the White House.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Well, it worked for him to get out of SF to Sacramento before SF became famously poopy – note it was already poopy when Gavin wins in town, but not so famously poopy yet.

        There’s a thing in California where the path to power is SF->SAC, then to DC somehow, which pisses off the LA pols no end. A lot of times it’s SF->SAC->a cabinet post, sometimes the Senate though since those end up seats-for-life they don’t open up much. The path to the House seats more often is local, then they stay there for life voting the way Nancy tells them, hoping for some of the higher ups to keel over and open up a more powerful position.

        Advice to the rest of the country: One way to keep California politicians from getting more Federal decision power is to keep the Dems out of the speakership – the pols are only Dems here, so exclude them and you exclude California.

        Liked by 1 person

    4. Occam’s Razor. Biden will be dead just before the convention. The cocktail of drugs he’s on will “interact”, and there’s not a thing Jill can do about it (except be accused of causing it, that is). Kamala? None of those delegates are pledged to her; and if she’s stubborn, some “MAGA insurrectionist” will get through her security. The only thing in the way of THAT is the Republicans control the House. Anyone else notice how many “Immediate resignations” have whittled away the majority?

      Who will be the nominee? Lord knows; plenty of ambition and not so much talent.

      At that point, we may not even bother with an election. See “MAGA insurrectionist” above.

      We look at that and say they’ll never pull it off; too complicated. They never heard of the KISS principle, so they’ll try.

      Like

  19. My suspicion is Biden is declining faster than anticipated. I know Sarah thinks he was almost as bad in 2020, but I don’t think so. It seems to me that in the last year(ish) he’s gone from being more or less compos mentis for an hour or so to being barely compos mentis for 10 minutes.

    His controllers may try and find a way for him to retreat to the basement again and then they can do deepfake videos. Unfortunatwly there are too many global crises for that to be really feasible because he has to be seen meeting with global leaders and those leaders generally won’t want to go along with any pretence (and/or can’t be trusted to not spill the beans)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It could be that his dementia et al have now exceeded the ability of pharmaceuticals and other therapies to stabilize. He could hold on for a few hours at a go in 2020, perhaps, but now? The lucid periods are shorter and shorter.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Sundowning is absolutely a real thing with dementia. The mid-afternoon “lids” his staff calls on his schedule all the time to keep all the scheduled events early, and well as the near-constant “vacations”, fall right in line with that.

        And sudden uncontrollable rage is a real thing too.

        I think he was just off the rails raving and yelling at his staff, as the WaPo is reporting, maybe triggered by anyone daring to criticize him at all plus the Beau thing, and no matter what anyone else said he was going to go out there and show everyone no matter what.

        This was his “Just Watch Me” answer manifested live at 7:55pm local time.

        There was no time for staff and Mrs. Doctor Jill to get him drugged up like they do for major speeches, so we got what we got.

        One of the commentators I watched today, Shapiro maybe?, did a complete playthrough showing how Brandon’s faculties degraded second by second, obviously and visibly, after about the two minute mark – he was throwing the heat for two minutes, then not so much.

        We certainly live in interesting times.

        Like

    2. Mini strokes, recent.

      Remember “red eye” Joe? Anger management. Pop goes the weasel. The sluring, the weak side and balance causing stumbles.

      He is a rageaholic. They pop capillaries. Sometimes bigger vessles blow out.

      One more reason I make extra effort at calm.

      Liked by 1 person

  20. I still think Garland told Hur to find some Legal way to let Pedo Joe of the hook. He was so disgusted by it all he said fine, here you go, “Too mentally feeble to bring to trial”, and then had the audacity to quote Pedo Joe himself as justification. Whether you are crying or wringing your hands, take a step back and look at it as if it was happening in another world. It is actually funny as hell. Then all these talking heads telling us Joe is just fine and contorting themselves into pretzels to excuse Pedo Joe. Hilarious.
    You know as well as I do that if any of us wrote this as a plot we’d be laughed out of the room.
    Pass the popcorn, shits getting good.
    Or as they used to say on Broadway, Author, Author.

    Liked by 2 people

    2. In 20 or 30 years we may look back on this and smile. I suspect it’s going to be more like Kennedy, and if everything does come out we’ll be horrified by the machinations involved.

      Liked by 1 person

  21. Ignored the Joe The Figurehead Show, been seeing that for years. As for the true power behind the puppet masters, it’s probably the same demonic folks backing Queen Victoria Nuland and the Neocons that have killed millions in the last two decades.

    As for the Putin “interview”, Tucker was too way too short for that ride. Probably why he didn’t make it into the CIA. Or did he? ;)

    Putin may be a evil bastard, but he’s Russia’s evil bastard and isn’t brain dead like most of the Western leaders. Still think the demonic folks will continue to bait him into launching.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Re Tsar Vlad the Shirtless liking Trump better: Yeah he’s KGB scum, and a mobster, and Russian, and corrupt, but I repeat myself, but it’s not surprising for several reasons. One it sows chaos in the US to say so, which everything the KGB has done Vlad’s entire life was trying to accomplish.

    But, two, also it’s eminently believable to the rest of the world. Really what conceivable foreign head of state, dictator or otherwise, would not prefer anyone over Brandon the Senile?

    The word I hear is that while they didn’t like him, especially with his appeal to populism, the world’s governmental apparatchiks across the board were actually OK with DJT because he was predictable. Even China – they didn’t like his positions, but they knew absolutely what they were.

    Everyone sees this US government as fundamentally unpredictable, which is bad juju in international relations.

    I think even China sees Joe as unpredictable these days, which is really saying something about buyers remorse.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Trump doesn’t like wars. He will do warstuff, but avoids. He is a counter-puncher.

      So evade, avoid, and frustrate, but do not attack. Wait him out.

      Fairly safe then, if you ain’t ayatolla-nutz.

      Liked by 1 person

  23. I am actually somewhat shocked that “they” have never brought in a body double without the Alzheimers’ to quietly take Joe’s place.

    Of course, who would take that job? They’d have to deal with “Dr.” Jill, et al.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. He used to have at least two body doubles. The differences are quite obvious if you know what you’re looking at. Essentially, any time Brandon has been coherent in the last four years, you can be pretty sure it’s a body double.

      Haven’t seen them for a while though, which suggests that someone wants Brandon’s real capability to be seen. Maybe he got the bit in his teeth and fired them.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. My understanding is that they are used primarily in high risk public situations where those who know him already know the situation. So most of the people involved have never met the man. If you saw one of the body doubles on TV, surrounded by security, with “Jill” hanging on his arm, you probably wouldn’t know the difference. The double doesn’t have to mimic anything. Even if giving a speech, he reads it off the teleprompter, no questions, and he’s wisked away.

        These are not normally human interaction situations, with people who know him well.

        Like

    3. I have a friend who is retired State Department. She’s talked about meeting Hitlery’s double. One of four, apparently.

      Like

      1. Remember when Hillary physically collapsed in NYC and the Secret Service close detail had to potato-bag toss her face first into the van, then shortly later “she” strolls out to wave at the cameras all fit and hearty and hale, but does not deign to talk to the press line or come closer to the cameras than all the way far away over there?

        Yeah, that.

        Liked by 1 person

  25. Think of it this way, back in the day, the household staff were the only people who got to see the palace intrigue up close in personal.

    We life in glorious times fellow Deplorables!

    Like

  26. …my brain hurts at times.

    It truly does.

    Biden gets out of being in trouble because he has dementia…
    …yet he’s considered “able to do the job.”

    And I suspect they’ll ride Biden right into the glue factory, because the Democratic bench doesn’t have a good replacement.

    Hillary!? If they want to see Trump win even more this time around…
    Harris? Nobody likes her and if she slept her way into political power (it’s an open secret that she was Willie Brown’s FTB for a long time)…our political class has bad taste in bed warmers.
    Newsom? Short of some of the most blatant fraud possible, he’d be lucky to win any blue states, let alone anything else.

    Oh, I’d love to see Harris try to debate Trump. Even if she somehow avoids it, it’ll be funny.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s a pity that the big networks (of old) are all so clearly so far left that they cannot even fake being kinda centrist and having a modern Laugh In – the comedy writes itself and today provides an amazingly target-rich environment.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. And knows it?

          Even Obumbles had the sense, despite all kinds of pressure to the contrary, to shuffle her off to SecState. He didn’t want to break Harrison’s record for Shortest Time in Office.

          Liked by 1 person

  27. Re: Putin

    He isn’t recreating the Soviet Union. He is recreating a Russian Empire, with him as Vlad the Greater, Tsar of all the Russias.

    Ceasar, not Stalin.

    Gaius Julius Ceasar planted the seed of the great empire. Octavia Ceasar “Agustus” grew it to Empire. Peter the great, in one generation, took Russia from medieval backwater to modernish novice world player.

    Stalin usurped the work of others. Big dif.

    Putin is not satisfied with being Stalin, who ultimately -crippled- the Union, as evidenced by what came next.

    (“Tsar”, by the way, is derived from russified ceasar – cee-tsar)

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Russian Empire. It was rather functional when led by an able Tzar. The Sovet Union was a basket case most of the time, propped up by “maskirovka” and idiot Americans.

        Putin is making -imperial- moves, not “Soviet Socialist” moves. Awe versus Terror. He can do terror, but he tries awe first.

        Imperial. Tzar of all the Russias.

        Sure, the USSR was preferable to the breakup. But he isn’t recreating any of that CPSU/Marxist-Leninist insanity.

        Tzar, not Chairman.

        Like

      1. The Russians really have the hots for their being the “real” true descendant of the Roman Empire.

        It’s weird, and they have to do all these one-handed handstands and other weird contortions to trace through the Constantinople eastern empire and then via orthodox monks converting the Rus and them getting the Greek-based alphabet to confer their legitimacy.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. “The Third Rome.” If I recall correctly, it started with Ivan IV and the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and then was developed and expanded over the centuries.

          Like

      2. I recommend Adrian Goldsworthy’s works on Julius Caeser, Octavian “Augustus”, and his other works on Roman history. Very detailed and informative, but also very readable.

        Like

      3. IIRC “Kaiser” is similar. And I’ve read that in Latin the “ae” dipthong was pronounced as a long “i”, not “ee”, and that the “C” was hard, not soft. Apparently the Germans remembered…

        Liked by 1 person

              1. Thanks, but…ummm, you do realize that was a line from a zombie apocalypse flick, and was a riff on “zombie language”? :-)

                Like

      4. I assumed so. That was more for others.

        Stephen Dando-Collins ” Ceasar’s Legion” a history of Tenth Legion. There were other books on other Legions. He later wrote “The Legions of Rome”, a -big- one volume history of all the Legions, from founding to breakup. Good stuff.

        Liked by 1 person

  28. I’ve never bought the idea that Obama is behind anything. He never seemed to enjoy any part of the job during his eight years and I don’t think he’d want anything to do with it afterwards.

    As for replacing Biden, I think they have been poised to get rid of sleepy joe for awhile but have several issues. Jill would not keep quiet, and had probably been collecting secrets for years. Next, if they did buy her off and input KH then they end up with someone who is just about as competent as a dementia patient, but is harder to control. Give JB a pudding cup and just agree to whatever he wants and five minutes later he won’t even remember what he asked for. KH would know when people weren’t doing what she told them to do. And, they cannot afford to lose KH’s tie winning senate vote. The current count of 48d, 49r, 3o is too close to call they need her vote and if they bring her up to the higher post they will not be able to put in a better candidate to fill her job. I think they had wanted to get rid her first and fill the spot with someone else, then get rid of Joe. But the close number in the Senate have made that too risky.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Sit back, relax, take a deep breath, and remember you have the luxury of watching at a distance… as the jugglers juggle the nitroglycerin snowglobes.

      The whole thing reminds me of one analogy of M.A.D. in the Cold War…. two (or more) people waist-deep in an ocean of gasoline. And one has 10 matches and the other only 9, so who is safer?

      Liked by 1 person

  29. 1.) I got a strong impression that Biden himself was the one behind the press conference. He insisted on it, and wouldn’t let it go. The fumbled attempt to sound indignant (which doesn’t work well when you sound as feeble as he does) over the Beau Biden question was all Joe. I have a hard time imagining his staff putting that on the teleprompter.
    2.) I don’t think anyone’s pulling Biden’s strings. Worse, I don’t think anyone is running the government. I strongly suspect that our government right now is basically “by committee”, with the different departments each attempting to do their own thing. I think it’s quite literally government by the “deep states” (note the plural).
    3.) The local (non-affiliated) news channel that was covering the press conference noted the mistake about al-Sisi and Mexico. Make of that what you will.

    4.) I’m waiting to see what rationale the administration comes up with to avoid debating Trump again. I can think of a few already. But I’m curious which ones they’ll use.

    5.) I’m really hoping that the biggest news this Sunday is the results of a football game.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. What scares me is the idea of a smart terrorist who would NOT go for a big flashy attack, but something initially subtle. You can work out your own details, though Clancy likely covered at least one way it could happen.

      Like

    2. They intend to make it impossible for Trump to attend debates by imprisoning him., and having him get killed in prison. Every time that a senior Democrat and their media arm calls him “an existential threat”: they are inviting people to murder him.

      I thought that part of their game plan is rather obvious.

      Like

        1. A judge might “reasonably” decide a billionaire with his own airplane and numerous international friends (and friendly nations) is a “flight risk” and order him held pre-trial on no bail.

          The USSS works for Biden, ultimately, so they might withdraw any meaningful guards, other than perhaps a token unarmed one. And even billionaires can’t have formal armed guards in jail. And he can’t even try to outbid his opposition for cell block “protection” if all/most-of his assets are tied up in litigation.

          So yes, the donks are seeking someone to rid them….

          Trump’s new street-cred with gangsta culture is a neat potential counter. He will be an effing -king- on the cellblock with some factions.

          My Quatloos are wagered on the Orange Fighter.

          Liked by 1 person

    3. Joe is a ragemonkey.

      His Secret Service detail is likely why Joe won’t debate. Trump is a world-class troll. Bigly. If Trump wanted to do so, he could likely needle Biden into raging out into 1) a hard dementia brain-lock, 2) a genuine major blowout stroke, or 3) both.

      So, not happening.

      Liked by 1 person

  30. Personally, it does seem like there’s some sort of internal power struggle going on, but I also don’t think it ultimately matters more than entertainment value. Who ever ends up as the head of the blob ticket is going to be the same grade of nut hatch as the rest of them.

    I’m more realizing we really could end up with a civil war here, and trying to get my head around that.

    Liked by 1 person

  31. Re: Ginsberg and the Supremes….whether she was simply old and senile or an animatronic corpse all the court had to know…even the good guys. NOT. ONE. WORD. from any of them.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I laughed at the Bee article about the 9th Circus reversing the death of RBG and ordering her reinstated.

      A Supreme Court staffer was reported as saying, “She looks pretty much the same, only now we have to dust her twice a week.”

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Traditionally, the court does not talk about it’s internal matters. Period.

      Not. One. Word.

      There’s good reason for this, as it limits some of the actions that can be taken to try and influence the court.

      Ginsberg wasn’t the first time that the Court has kept quiet about health issues. IIRC, it was Blackmun whose mental faculties deteriorated while he was on the Court to the point that some of the justices began to discuss a plan to never allow him to cast the deciding vote in a case. Fortunately Blackmun was successfully convinced to step down. But there was no reveal of Blackmun’s condition or the discussion among the other justices until after he retired.

      This is the reason why the abortion decision leak was such a big deal.

      Liked by 1 person

  32. Yesterday was like watching a performing monkey bite the trainer and fling poo at the audience.

    Then the media fell all over each other praising the show.
    ———————————
    Erik: “It’s reassuring to find that the world is crazier than you are.”

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  33. As I said many a time, the civilians in Japan knew they were losing World War II not because the propaganda told them so, but because the Japanese Imperial Army’s great and glorious victories over the Imperialist American dogs kept getting closer and closer and closer to the home islands, and then everyone was told about the Honorable Death Of The Hundred Million (“Hey, we get to all commit suicide to shame America before the world!”).

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Which Eric Frank Russell used in “Wasp,” with a disgruntled Sirian noting they were constantly retreating gloriously from a weak and cowardly foe. (Not the exact words, but as close as I can get without hunting up my copy).

      Liked by 1 person

  34. I believe Putin would prefer Trump in power.
    At this point. (3 years ago, not so much.)
    He wants to consolidate his gains over the ethnically Russian portions of Ukraine, and have a durable peace.

    That requires a negotiation with someone who’s rational.
    Biden isn’t.
    Zelazny isn’t.
    The EU isn’t.

    Or to put a finer point on it…
    Would you prefer a rival who is sane, and is willing to work with you on the limited things that are mutually beneficial?
    Or would you prefer a nominal friend who is driven by emotion and never considers consequences?

    Like

    2. But more to the actual point…… why on earth would Putin want Trump?

      Trump already pushed his shit in once when he started trying to play deniability games. And notably Putin didn’t start the invasion until Trump was gone.

      Trump being sane doesn’t counter the fact that Russia dies without external help. Help which Trump had been systematically cutting off. To be fair not directly, just by allowing the market to do its thing.

      Like

    3. No, Putin definitely does NOT want Trump in power. Trump will once again turn the US into a net exporter of oil, crashing the price. With low oil prices, Russia can’t afford to do expensive things like conduct a war with its neighbor.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Russia has the same problem it has had for centuries, no warm water ports in the west. If you can’t have warm water ports, you can’t grow your economy, if you can’t grow your economy, you can’t stay in power. Putin will do everything you let him do. they let him take Crimea under Obama, Obama’s Nevile Chamberlain moment by the way. As you notice they went along with it so Russia would be satisfied with Crimea. You let him take Crimea, now Ukraine will fall. All this fighting is hurting Russia and Putin, but it is destabilizing Ukraine past it’s ability to stand, it will collapse and Russia and China will pick it apart. Then Putin will have the bread basket of Europe in his pocket to further blackmail his way to control over Europe. He doesn’t need to take over the rest of the Europe if he controls its food and gas.

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        1. I’m not sure what that has to do with Russia losing the majority of cash earned from its primary export.

          Also, we’ve had the port discussion before – Russia’s biggest Black Sea commercial port isn’t Sevastopol. It’s Novorossiyisk, which is just east of Crimea, and thus not part of the territory annexed from Ukraine. It will stay with Russia even if Ukraine somehow gets back to its pre-2014 borders.

          Again, if Trump gets elected, US oil production will ramp up. The oil market – which I understand trades heavily in futures – will rapidly drop the price per barrel even before all of the new oil production becomes active, as the market will anticipate Trump freeing up US oil production. Russia will lose its primary cash export, and rapidly run out of money with which to prosecute the war against Ukraine.

          Like

        2. If the Ukies won’t quit, it is Russia that falls. They are getting there. Thus all the effort to get -us- to get Ukraine to quit. No one else really can.

          Invader must -vanquish- to win. Must. Defender just has to not quit. Fundamental.

          Example, Vietnam. Those stubborn effers just don’t quit. They beat us by holding on endlessly, then beat freaking -China- in a few innings. (Beat them like a rented mule. China still hasent regained that lost face, and it -hurts-.)

          I knew a former VC turned “Kit Carson” scout for us, then a political prisoner of the North, then a “boat people” refugee to the USA. Quiet little unimpressive nebbish. Steel soul.

          Not a gram of quit in him. Nada.

          And he was, very weirdly, a mentor to me. He decided “-you- understand”. And thus told stories.

          Like a Nietzien abyss, but useful.

          Like

    4. Trump will negotiate a deal.

      Zelenski appears to genuinely be playing for Total Victory and regaining all previously lost territory.

      He may be an utterly corrupt player, but he increasingly seems a fanaticly patriotic one.

      Ukraine won when Russia’s vaunted Red Army failed to steamroller a foe a fraction of their size. Seriously. The FlusterCluck was -epic-. Especially when you contrast with the walkover of Crimea.

      Some pros were apparently coaching the indigenous forces. Ahem.

      Putin has to “win” or he will lose enough face to get removed. If Ukraine just won’t quit, Russia will collapse when they run out of cannon fodder, although that may take a few more years.

      China may decide it is time to “renegotiate” their Siberian border with Russia. They already have sent hordes of illegals there, too. No Red Army, no way to control all that resource-laden wilderness.

      And all because a comedic actor and petty crook decided he loved his motherland. Too funny.

      “Even bad men love their momma.”

      Liked by 1 person

      1. There are NO reasons to call Zelenski a petty crook. THAT was the guy before him that for some reason the right of center media keeps conflating.
        NO, seriously. That’s like calling Trump a petty crook, because Obama.

        Like

        1. Poroshenko was not a petty crook. Poroshenko was a world-class crook installed by the CIA at the behest of 0bama(‘s ventriloquists). They all hated Zelenskyy until Putin invaded, then they had to hate Putin more because of their lie that Trump conspired with Putin to steal the 2016 election.

          Liked by 1 person

          2. Poroshenko was a world-class crook installed by the CIA at the behest of 0bama(‘s ventriloquists).

            Please remember the supposed evidence of US involvement was one (1) leaked phone call where the two diplomats had even the faintest idea of who the people involved were, and that the guy they thought would be the least painful to deal with (as opposed to the elected-with-lots-of-fraud guy who was still using snipers on protesters) is still in politics.

            As the mayor of Kiev.

            He’s the guy who has name recognition because he was a boxer in the EU.

            Like

            1. Note, the snipe-the-protesters guy with the iffy election?

              Was pushing them joining back up with Russia.

              And he’s now in Russia. They, for obvious reasons, have no issues with shooting a protesters.

              Like

  35. FWIW department…I’m taking a workshop next week where I have been asked to wear a mask for a mixture of wuflu superstition and practical safety (we will be working with dyes). Needing N95s for this, I wandered to a national chain pharmacy. No masks. No masks of any kind, anywhere. When I asked the pharmacist, she said, “Wait, do we still have those surgical masks–?” Then reached into a drawer, pulled out a big handful of sealed masks and asked if that would be enough.
    So even the pharmacy doesn’t carry face diapers any longer….

    Liked by 1 person

  36. Totally off topic….there is a youtube channel called The Why Files. He has fun with fringe stuff, conspiracies etc. His latest is the Knights Templar. At one point he puts forth the theory that Portugal is a Templar Nation and the name actual derives from Port of the Grail.
    This is apparently part of Templar lore….thought it was amusing…as the Templars are secret masters of the world

    Like

    1. If he gets Ukraine he gets Europe’s food basket as well as natural gas, double black mail for Europe to do it Putin’s way or else. Notice Biden put the kibosh on new natural Gas exportation. Gives Putin more power in Europe.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. The Reader thinks the Europeans could deal with this easily by building a bunch of nuclear power plants and getting out of the way of their own farmers. If they don’t, that’s their stupidity. Rational market oriented policies by the West would make Putin irrelevant in a relatively few years.

        Liked by 1 person

  39. it looks like your 2024 elections with: 25a president & 14a former president.
    are run by a Florida man named: chad hang.

    Like

  40. If you believe he doesn’t want to recreate the old USSR I think less of you.

    I don’t. I think his aim is higher…he wants to recreate Tsarist Russia OR recreate the old USSR with the Warsaw Pact as member Republics outright. Well, maybe not Czechoslovakia or Bulgaria, but at least Poland, Romania, and Hungry…and, yes, a partitioned Germany.

    But I think mostly old Tsarist Russia maybe with some finesse on the borders here and there.

    Why, because he’s a Russian nationalists and Tsarist Russia was the most defensible boundaries Russia proper ever had although if we treat the Warsaw Pact as part of the USSR that’s slightly better (and slightly worse at the same time).

    The problem is, as I’ve said, any Russian leader who could last is going to have similar ambitions. What’s worse, is they might be more competent at it.\, realizing the Russian army is in no condition to make it happen post Ukraine.

    The question is not “is Putin an tyrant who wants to swallow up twice his country’s current size” but “are Putin’s ambition’s achievable in any realistic scenario assuming the best environment or are they delusions of grandeur.” I think it is closer to the latter than the former and that efforts to make him out to be Stalin have more to do with distracting us from his Xi while he tries to fix the unfixable by having a nice little war than anything else.

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      1. I’m not talking about government, but borders.

        Government wise he probably wants something like the USSR, but I could care less about his internal policies. Let the Russians take care of himself there.

        But I think he wants the old Imperial border because, to be honest, that is what the USSR plus Warsaw Pact had achieved…plus some. Russian leaders, ideology notwithstanding, in a nationalist sense want control over the choke points that can control access to the Eurasian Steppe.

        I think he sees the USSR as the most successful version of that control with one major failing: indirect control over certain European boundaries and the ability of even nominally captive governments to go on their own. Putin, in particular, seems to think only military occupation will work, not diplomacy.

        For example, a wiser Russian leader might have seen a Ukraine whose security was both NATO and Russia guaranteed in exchange for it not being in NATO as an acceptable 20 year status while shoring up other areas, such as the absorption of Belorussia.

        In that way, Putin, as big a hothead as he is, might be the better choice right now. He’s pissed away his military and seems too egotistical and unimaginative to try something other than brute force. Even if he takes Ukraine it’s over a decade before he moves further and, well, I doubt Ukraine can recover much territory but I doubt Russia will move much further west either without long term issues.

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    2. A point to consider: he doesn’t want tsarist Russia back. He wants the USSR back because, in his mind, Tsarist Russia was WEAK. It was never respected outside it’s own boarders. the USSR was FEARED. Yes, he wants to be Supreme Ruler, but he already is. He is, functionally, Tsar, but he wants the power and grandeur of the myth of the USSR back. Tsarist Russia’s myth isn’t grand enough. Never mind that the USSR was a drab dull monstrosity. That’s not the part that’s in his brain. When the USSR moved, other countries FEARED. When Tsarist Russia moved, most countries got annoyed.

      Whether or not he his ambitions are achievable, is about as relevant as whether or not his picture of Tsarist vs. Soviet are accurate. Which is not particularly. He is going to act on the view of both he has in his head. He want’s the glory of the Soviet Union, the wealth of the legends of Tsarist Russia, and Supreme Power over the world. (And I’m pretty sure if there was a way to add ‘immortality’ to it he would. That has been a hubris of Russian rulers for a very long time..)

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      1. That makes more sense than most of what I’ve read recently. Putin knows the Soviet Union. Czarist Russia was dead and gone before he was born. As you say, after the Napoleonic wars, Russia only won against much weaker opponents, and even that wasn’t always permanent (Ottomans, the Caucasus).

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        2. And to be fair since I’ve said he wants to be Tsar in the past. He wants to be Absolute Ruler. Functionally that is Tsar in the Russian headfurniture. But the upholstery on that head furniture is all about the USSR. And in simpler terms “Tsarist Russia”, the political entity, was trounced and destroyed by the USSR. No one trounced the USSR, it fell apart therefore it wasn’t DEFEATED. There’s a difference in the Russian psyche. There’s also the fact that the USSR was a Russian EMPIRE, whatever mouth noises it made.

          So the cultural effect is Putin is Tsar of the new Russian Empire. His actual GOAL is the fearful reputation and mythology of the USSR. In some ways it doesn’t make much difference to us since the actions he’ll take to those ends are mostly the same.

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        3. And on wars lost: Most proximal to the Bolshevik take over. They not only didn’t win the Russo-Japanese war, they beggared the country to do it, and the AMERICANS had to negotiate (Teddy Rosevelt won the Peace Prize for that, and my mother still hasn’t forgiven him for the consequences to Korea even though she wasn’t born at the time.) This was an ultimate humiliating weakness in the Russian way of thinking.

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        4. And on wars lost: Most proximal to the Bolshevik take over. They not only didn’t win the Russo-Japanese war, they beggared the country to do it, and the AMERICANS had to negotiate (Teddy Roosevelt won the Peace Prize for that) This was an ultimate humiliating weakness in the Russian way of thinking.

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      2. If they are achievable is very relevant. Their achievability determines how much and what kind of deterrence we need to arrange. The vision of the Red Army’s offensives in 1944 and 1945 set the pattern of achievability for the next 45 years and our military and foreign policy were designed as deterrents against that specific level of achievability.

        The same should be true today based on what he has achieved since about 2010. And that’s not nothing, peeling off pieces of former Soviet republics into puppet states that will eventually “petition” Russia to become part of the glorious motherland.

        If the Crimea was ramping up what was done to Georgia an order of magnitude and the current Ukraine War is ramping up another then we can see the limits of what Russia can do and what we need to improve.

        The biggest whole I see is something smart people had been complaining about: our lack of the ability to maintain and increase production of a variety of items. Also, we probably need to look at stockpiles. A lot of what went to Ukraine was effectively surplus tech developed in the 80s to fight the Soviets of the 90s. While it proved it could work as designed we have expended a lot (most, all?) of what was left.

        We need the ability to replenish modern munitions at a similar rate. We’ve forgotten we fired more ordinance in Vietnam than WW2. I wouldn’t be suspired if by the time it’s done, the Ukraine War sees even more fired.

        We also need to look at the war and see if anything about doctrine needs to change. Before you say “that’s Russia and Ukraine, not real armies”, pre-WW1 European generals said the same about the US Civil War yet Longstreet’s designs for defenses around Petersburg for the long siege that marked the last year of the war in Virginia look a lot like the Western Front by the end of 1915.

        What we don’t need to do is run around with our hair on fire thinking “Putin’s Russia is the USSR reborn”. This is doubly true for those claiming his military is too corrupt to launch nukes.

        Either his Russia is a threat on par with what we believed the Soviets were or we need to clam down, ignore his rhetoric, and look at what he has achieved.

        And that includes no more blank checks to corrupt and ineffective governments just because they’re anti-Soviet Russian.

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        1. No, whether his goals are achievable is completely irrelevant until HE realizes they are not achievable, because until he realizes they are not achievable, he will proceed as if they are with the resources he believes he has available. And if they’re NOT available, he’s going to turn the screws on his own people to make them available.

          If you want deterrence, you have to look at how the Russians THINK because militaries don’t do deterrence directly. The do Annihilation. (And before you say I don’t know what I’m talking about don’t forget what my job was in the Army.) You have to convince them, in terms they understand, that they REALLY don’t want to continue. And in Putin’s case you have to convince him there’s a way for him to back down without getting murdered by his own people for showing weakness. Or if he DOES get offed (which is looking more likely the way things are going.) you have to be ready to make it REALLY not worth his successors (probably plural since he has no clear heir, there’s likely to be a rapid change over for 5-10 years before it settles.) while to keep going. There needs to be enough force to back up the “We will flatten you if we have to” end of things, to drive them to more palatable options. But JUST the force isn’t enough, there has to be something they think they can go to to save face. Or he WILL try and takes as much with him as he can, out of whoever he blames for the failure. (Hint, hint, that will be us because in his mind EVERYTHING is America’s fault.)

          And why in the world would I say they’re not real armies? Putin’s fighting like it’s still the cold war, but the Ukraine seems to have learned more than a few lessons from our bouts in Iraq and Afghanistan. So what will he do if it actually sinks in that he’s going to loose? That he’s not going to survive loosing? Does he have functional Nukes? Does he have other ways of reaching out and destroying shit abroad? (This one is more likely, being a KGB thug who thinks like a KGB thug.) He HAS managed to reach out and off individuals, and seems to be getting less concerned with the optics of collateral damage.

          And no one sane here is saying Putin’s Russia is the USSR reborn. We’re saying THAT’S WHAT HE WANTS. Not that that’s what he’s achieved. It is quite likely impossible to bring the USSR back. Too many of the former members would rather be utterly destroyed than go back. This is ALSO intolerable to Putin and will affect what buttons he pushes. YOU started this out by saying he wanted something bigger than the USSR back.

          Also, Georgia happened BEFORE the Crimea campaign. Georgia was ’08 when Bush W was president, during the election year. Crimea was Obama’s second term. Georgia was the run up to Ukraine (both portions) not the other way around.

          As for Ukraine being ineffective… they’re still alive.

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          1. Yes, I said Crimea was Georgia scaled up and order of magnitude implying it came.first (although I thought it was 12 not 08 for some reason). Hence the idea Georgia succeeds so try a bigger bit in Crimea which succeeds so try a bigger bite in swallowing Ukraine whole.

            As for us behaving like Putin’s Russia is USSR 2.0, the US Congress is given Ukraine aid in a border security bill is both necessary to pass it and is larger funding wise than the border portion. And around these parts suggesting Putin isn’t a USSR level threat has gotten you called a fool or a Putin stooge.

            As for Ukraine being ineffective, they are still alive but they aren’t really retaking much either. They’re about as effective as the Russians they are fighting which means they’re punching above their weight, but can they do that longer than Putin can drain Russia. The national college football champions might play a good first half against the lowest ranked NFL team, but the odds they’d win are lower because no matter how well they do they aren’t effective at that level. I suspect the same thing here.

            As for him thinking his dreams are achievable setting our detergent, that’s allowing him to tell us we might as well give in. He dreams of reviving the Cold War and that’s just not something the American public is open to for a variety of reasons. If it is 1950 or 1980 again or Russia will not be deterd then, well, Russia will not be deterd. That has been evident for a decade at least and three of the last four presidents squandered what was left.of US willingness to fight to save the world. Add in Americans watching their children/grandchildren facing a worse material future and a government/ruling class that couldn’t give two shits and a holler about it and the ability isn’t there.

            And the press and officials screaming “Tucker is a traitor” isn’t helping either. I know no one here has, that I’ve seen, but the rulers and their prestitutes were since it was announced.

            You can probably still sell a “this is what we need to match what he can do” deterrence but no more.

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  41. The probable answer lies in the DNC rules. If, after being nominated in convention, a candidate withdraws or is unable to serve, the Committee can choose a new ticket. Full stop. No primary nor rank-and-file input is required. Thus, we see Gavin suddenly trying to clean up crime in California and whispers of Michelle saying no to running for President. Newsome-Obama anyone?

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