A Irishman wants a job, but the boss won't hire him until he passes a little math test.
Here is your first question, the boss said. "Without using numbers, represent the number 9."
"Without numbers?" the man says, "Dats easy."
And proceeds to draw three trees.
"What's this?" the boss asks.
"Tree and tree, plus tree makes 9" says the man.
"Fair enough," says the boss. "Here's your second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99."
The man stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree... "Ere ye go."
The boss scratches his head and says, "How on earth do you get that to represent 99?"
"Each of them trees is dirty now. So, it's dirty tree, and dirty tree, plus dirty tree. Dat makes 99."
The boss is getting worried that he's going to actually have to hire the guy, so he says, "All right, last question. Same rules again, but represent the number 100."
The man stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture again and makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, "Ere ye go. One hundred."
The boss looks at the attempt and says, "You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred!"
The man leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and whispers, "A little dog came along and pooped by each tree...so now you got dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, and dirty tree and a turd, which makes one hundred!"
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I used to work as an origami teacher but hated it.
Too much paperwork.
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In the wake of their failure to stop the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the George Soros-funded Council of Unhinged Leftist Knuckleheads (or CUK) gathered last night to discuss whether they should come up with some new tactics.
CUK President Dieter Fascist addressed the gathering, saying, "I sometimes wonder if we should stop bullying people by surrounding them with angry mobs shrieking nonsensical slogans ... but if we abandon that technique, we’d have to support our ideas with logical arguments — so never mind."
Feminist Leader Shrilly Harridan did a post-mortem on the failed anti-Kavanaugh protests, saying, "Speaking as a totally irrational woman, I thought we could appeal to that feminine energy that disregards facts in favor of hysteria and self-righteous entitlement and thereby bring all feminist women together into one huge screaming fifty-foot shrew raging completely out of control. When that technique failed, we were left with a bunch of girls acting like lunatics and hoping someone would do whatever we wanted just to get us to shut up. That always worked with Daddy but somehow it didn’t do the trick this time."
Other counsel members suggested changing some of their slogans and chants to make them more realistic. For instance, the chant: "The people united will never be defeated," might be rewritten to say, "A small number of excitable adolescents shouting triumphant-sounding hogwash really has no effect on anything."
During the Q&A period, one visitor to the CUK conference suggested, "Maybe it's just too arrogant and dishonest to claim we're speaking for large identity groups that we essentially invented for our own purposes. Maybe women, minorities and homosexuals are really large collections of individuals with differing interests and opinions who can't always be formed into a useful mob willing to mindlessly do our bidding in the name of a grievance panic that we created in the first place."
The leftist council took this suggestion under advisement then beat the visitor to death, while chanting slogans and shrieking.
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TOP FIVE SPORTS TEAMS THAT NEED TO CHANGE THEIR NAMES BECAUSE I FIND THEM OFFENSIVE
The Oakland A's -- Non-inclusive to the 25 other letters in the alphabet
Kansas City Royals -- Too elitist. Insulting to the riff raff.
New York Jets -- We shouldn't honor something that's polluting our atmosphere
St. Louis Cardinals -- That's half of "Cardinal Sin", which is very wrong
Los Angeles Dodgers -- Reminds me of the Draft Dodgers back in the 1960s
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They say the further along you get in life, the more you focus on matters of the self.
I must agree: In high school, my big dream was to get in the pants of each and every cheerleader.
Now my big dream is to get back in the pants I wore in high school.
Issue of the Times;
Ignored History: Columbus Sought to End Islamic Tyranny by Andrew Boston
Benjamin Harrison issued his “Proclamation 335 - 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America by Columbus,” on July 21, 1892, he emphasized how the great discoverer pioneered “progress and enlightenment,” reflected four centuries later in America’s system of universal education:
Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of progress and enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day's demonstration.
President Harrison also highlighted the patriotic motivations for the holiday, and the shared “devout faith” -- Christianity -- of Columbus and the American people, so abundantly blessed by “Divine Providence”:
Let the national flag float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship. In the churches and in the other places of assembly of the people let there be expressions of gratitude to Divine Providence for the devout faith of the discoverer and for the divine care and guidance which has directed our history and so abundantly blessed our people.
As we celebrate Columbus Day -- for those of us still inoculated enough against cultural relativist depravity to do so -- it is also worth recapturing concretely the specific late 15th century religious motivations for Columbus’ voyage. Simply put, Columbus sought “eastern (even far eastern) alliances” to end a millennium of Islam’s jihad-imposed tyranny against Christendom. Louis Bertrand’s scholarly 1934 tome, The History of Spain, elegantly -- and unapologetically -- characterized the now well-nigh forgotten, or ignored, historical context.
When the Spanish Christian monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella recaptured Granada on January 2, 1492, they ended almost eight centuries of jihad ravages (described by Bertrand in 1934, and in 2016 here) -- massacres, pillage, mass enslavement, and deportation -- and the grinding imposition of Sharia by Spain’s various pious Muslim conquerors, and rulers. Bertrand’s unsparing narrative describes the bitter, chronic fate of Spain’s Christians under Islam, both those fully subjugated and the populations never entirely subdued in the semi-autonomous northern regions:
The Christians of the interior were mastered. They had lost their leaders and their principal centers of resistance. The armies of the Caliph, the Arab and Berber chieftains, had massacred them, burned them out and pillaged them to the best of their ability. Thus decimated and humiliated, they nevertheless continued to exist, in a furtive and more or less precarious way of life …
The Christians of the North scarcely knew the meaning of repose, security, or any of the amenities of life. They were continually at war with their Musulman [Muslim] neighbors. It was the fatality of that Arab conquest, a superficial and hasty conquest, never carried through to the end, that it had divided the country into two irreducible camps: that of the replete, and that of the hungry; those who held the best soil, and those who were relegated to the mountains or to desert plains…[The Muslims] interposed a desert between themselves and the Christians, and made a waste of the region which lay on the left bank of the latter [Duero] river. This was what they called “the Great Desert.” …
To keep the Christians in their place it did not suffice to surround them with a zone of famine and devastation. It was necessary also to go and sew terror and massacre among them. Twice a year, in spring and autumn, an army sallied forth from Cordova to go and raid the Christians, destroy their villages, their fortified posts, their monasteries and their churches, except when it was a question of expeditions of larger scope, involving sieges and pitched battles. In cases of simply punitive expeditions, the soldiers of the Caliph confined themselves to destroying harvests and cutting down trees. Most of the time they took the field to win booty. A district was allowed to re-people itself and be brought under cultivation; then it was suddenly fallen upon. Workers, harvesters, fruits and cattle were seized.
The religious Islamic jihad motivations for this devastation, and related “pious,” sadistic savagery of their triumphal execution, were underscored by Bertrand:
If one bears in mind that this brigandage was almost continual, and that this fury of destruction and extermination was regarded as a work of piety -- it was a holy war against the infidels -- it is not surprising that whole regions of Spain should have been made irremediably sterile. This was one of the capital causes of the deforestation from which the [Iberian] Peninsula still suffers. With what savage satisfaction and in what pious accents do the Arab annalists tell us of those at least bi-annual raids!
A typical phrase for praising the devotion of a Caliph is this: “he penetrated into Christian territory, where he wrought devastation, devoted himself to pillage, and took prisoners. After that he brought the Musulmans back to Cordova safe and sound and laden with booty.” Abd er Rhaman [r. 912-961 A.D.], in the course of a campaign in Navarre, “did not fail, whenever a Christian retreat was to be found in the neighborhood, to carry destruction there and deliver the surrounding countryside to incendiarism, so that the Christian territory was ravaged by the flames to an extent often square miles.”
The same Caliph, when he laid siege to Toledo, began by destroying everything in the rich plain which surrounded the town. “He commenced by doing the rebels unimaginable harm. He remained there for thirty-seven days without ceasing his devastation cutting down the trees, pillaging and ruining the villages, destroying all the crops.” And again: “the strongholds of this region were reduced to ruins. Not one stone was left upon another…, The suburbs were surrendered to the flames, the harvests and all the property in the neighborhood were utterly ravaged and laid waste.”
Bertrand also chronicled the 11th and 12th century North African Berber Muslim Almoravid and Almohad invasions of Spain. These renewed jihad campaigns wrought not only further ravages and persecutions of Spain’s Christians, but massive population transfers:
From the outset of the Almoravid invasion the destruction of Christian churches had begun. … The faquis [Muslim clerics] commenced to persecute the Christian Mozarabs [dhimmis] so intolerably that they begged the King of Aragon, Alfonso the Warrior, to come and deliver them. The Aragonese did not succeed in taking Granada. When they retreated, the faquis avenged themselves on the Mozarabs in the most merciless fashion. Already ten thousand of them had been compelled to emigrate into the territory of Alfonso to escape their enemies' repression. The remainder were deprived of their property, imprisoned, or put to death. Many of them were deported to Africa. They were established in the neighborhood of Sale and Meknes, where oppression of all kinds compelled them to embrace Islam.
Ten years later there was a fresh expulsion. The Christians were again deported to Morocco en masse. Here, then, were cities and whole districts depopulated by massacres and proscriptions. This corresponded with a plan drawn upon in advance, a systematic course of action. “Sultan Yousouf,” writes [Muslim historian] Marrakeshi, “never failed to repeat at every one of his audiences: ‘To rid the [Iberian] Peninsula of the Christians that is our sole purpose … ’” Accordingly, after having expelled the Christians, he replaced them by Berbers. "To combat our enemies," said Yousouf himself, “I shall fill Spain with horsemen and footmen who think nothing of repose, who do not know what it is to live softly, whose sole thought is to groom and train their horses, take care of their arms, and hasten to obey their orders.” The Almohads devoted themselves no less ardently to repopulating the South of Spain by filling it with Africans and Arabs.
Not surprisingly, as Bertrand notes, following “so many massacres and expulsions,” accompanied by a “new flood of barbarous and fanatical [Muslim] invaders,” Christians and Muslim “religious passions and hatreds acquired intensified vigor and virulence.” As a result, he concluded:
Once more the fatal dilemma which had hung over Spain for more than four centuries [i.e., since the 8th Century Arab invasion, through the 12th Century Almohad invasion] presented itself to the Spaniards: expel the foreigner, or be expelled by him!
But as the rationale for Columbus’ voyage demonstrates, even Ferdinand and Isabella’s reconquest of Granada three centuries later did not solve the broader “dilemma” of Islam’s global jihad. Shortly after Granada was reconquered, Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to fund and provision Christopher Columbus’ voyage. His expedition, which serendipitously ended in the discovery of the Americas, had for its original objective, as Bertrand documents:
... to reach the East Indies, so as to take Islam in the rear, and to effect an alliance with the Great Khan -- a mythical personage who was believed to be the sovereign of all that region, and favorable to the Christian religion -- and finally, after the sectaries of Mahomet had been reduced to impotence, to diffuse Christianity throughout that unknown continent and trade with the traditional source of gold and spices.
Bertrand argued Columbus himself “left no room for doubt” about this religious motivation in his Journal (see Journal of the First Voyage of Columbus, Wisconsin Historical Society):
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Most Christian, the most high, the most excellent and most powerful princes, King and Queen of the Spains … In this present year 1492, after Your Highnesses had brought to an end the war against the Moors who reigned in Europe, and after Your Highnesses had terminated this war in the very great city of Granada, where, in this present year, on the 2nd of the month of January, I saw, by force of arms, the royal banners of Your Highnesses planted on the towers of the Alhambra, the citadel of the said city, and where I saw the Moorish king come out of his gates and kiss the royal hands of Your Highnesses; And immediately afterwards, in this same month, in consequence of information which I had given Your Highnesses on the subject of India, and of the Prince who is called the "Great Khan/ which, in our Roman, means 'the King of Kings' namely, that many times he and his predecessors had sent ambassadors to Rome to seek doctors of our holy faith, to the end that they should teach it in India, and that never has the Holy Father been able so to do, so that accordingly so many peoples were being lost, through falling into idolatry and receiving sects of perdition among them; "Your Highnesses, as good Christian and Catholic princes, devout and propagators of the Christian faith, as well as enemies of the sect of Mahomet and of all idolatries and heresies, conceived the plan of sending me, Christopher Columbus, to this country of the Indies, there to see the princes, the peoples, the territory, their disposition and all things else, and the way in which one might proceed to convert these regions to our holy faith. And Your Highnesses have ordered that I should go, not by land, towards the East, which is the accustomed route, but by the way of the West, whereby hitherto nobody to our knowledge has ever been.
Indeed several decades before Columbus appealed to Ferdinand and Isabella, the so-called “Plan of the Indies,” of Portuguese clerical origin, had been hatched-- allying with an ostensible “Great Khan of India,” and perhaps East African Christians, “to take Islam in the rear and begin … by ruining its commerce in the Red Sea.”
What Bertrand identified appropriately as “the Ottoman menace” illustrates the era’s ongoing jihad threat which made Columbus’ appeal so compelling to Ferdinand and Isabella:
To understand this properly we must bear in mind the terror which the Turks had inspired throughout Europe since they had set foot there, and especially since die taking of Constantinople. As early as 1442, Pope Eugene IV issued an encyclical calling the Christians to arms against the Infidels, who were increasingly threatening the Entire and Italy. In 1459 Pius II, the learned Sylvius Aeneas Piccolomim, convoked an assembly of the Christian nations, at Mantua to concert means of combating the new barbarians. In the following year he proclaimed a holy war against the Turks. But the Christian nations, at war with one another, made no response to the appeal of the Sovereign Pontiff. He refused to be discouraged. In November 1463, Pius II set himself at the head of a crusade against the Turks, and once more conjured the Christian world to unite against the common enemy. It was a fruitless effort. Europe took no interest in what was happening on the banks of the Danube.
In 1477, Mahomet II penetrated into Carniola, Styria, and Carinthia, and invaded Salzburg and Friuli. In the following year he occupied Albania. There he was at the gates of Italy. In 1480 he launched a fleet of a hundred sail against the town of Otranto and seized it. Now he was at the gates of Naples and of Rome. The startled Pope addressed the most pressing adjurations to Christendom. “The conquerors,” said Sixtus IV, "spread themselves with insatiable avidity over the towns and the neighboring countrysides. Nardi, Lecci, Castro, Brindisi, Bari are exposed to their outrages or have already fallen into their power. Soon they will be masters of Sicily, of the Neapolitan kingdom, of the whole Peninsula, if we remain plunged in the same inertia, if the princes and the peoples do not rise incontinent, hasten to arms, and lend one another mutual support, to defend their fields and their homes, their children and their wives, their religion and their liberty. Let them not think that they are protected against invasion, those who are at a distance from the theatre of war! They, too, will bow the neck beneath the yoke, and be mowed down by the sword, unless they come forward to meet the invader. The Turks have sworn the extinction of Christianity.
A truce to sophistries! It is the moment not to talk, but to act and to fight!” This, no doubt, was why this same Sixtus IV encouraged the Spanish crusade against Granada and sent the Catholic Sovereigns, by way of a standard, the famous massive Cross of silver which was finally planted on the Watch Tower of the Alhambra. To fight Islam in Andalusia was equivalent to depriving the Turks of ports of disembarkation and lessening the chances of invasion … The danger seemed so menacing that, in the very year which preceded the capitulation of Granada, Innocent VIII organized, once more, a Crusade to attack the Turks by land and sea. This time it was to be an operation of great scope, in which a dozen states were to take part. This ambitious project failed like all the others, and for the same reason: the indifference or the selfishness of the European peoples and potentates.
In the end, Bertrand maintains, it was “Columbus’ shrewdness” that prevailed:
… dazzling the eyes of Isabel with the possibilities of a last Crusade, which, after all, would not be very costly and would definitely reduce Islam to impotence. The very terms of the text [from Columbus’ Journal, quoted above] proved conclusively that the Genoese had conceived his discovery as a pious enterprise of mass conversion. So it was that the discovery of America was the last Crusade against Islam…In short, it was the Crusade against the Moors which was to be continued by a new and surer route. It was by way of the Indies that Islam was to be dealt a mortal blow.
Bertrand’s concluding discussion reveals how Columbus’ westward voyage, motivated by anti-jihadism, “chimerical ideas,” and his own persevering genius, begot “immense discovery”:
Columbus' great idea was that of reaching there by the route of the West. The Genoese was merely synthesizing all the more or less chimerical ideas, which had been in the air for the last half century at least, adding to them his own peculiar genius. It was to realize the dream so long cherished by pious imaginations—the dream of a final and definite Crusade against Islam by way of the Indies—that he asked the Catholic Sovereigns for the three poor little caravels which were to lead to the immense discovery.
Quote of the Times;
“Somehow I just can’t find myself getting worked up into a real fear of the party of trigger warnings, safe spaces, and p*ssy hats. It’s what comes after, when you ‘useful idiots’ are the first to be sent to the gulags that’s frightening. There’s a reason why you and your ‘allies’ fly into a hysterical fit whenever you’re presented with a hard look at facts and it’s because at the core, you have to deny reality. No matter what happens in the short term, in the long run, Leftism always fails, even when it’s run by steel-toed men with a spine. It would be nice if we as a nation could recognize what a colossal failure it always winds up being; 100 million deaths and many more suffering through starvation, terror and impoverishment across the 20th Century- it probably kinda sucked to be living under it. But I guess there will always be fools who like to shoot holes in the bottom of the boat they’re in, so we all get to suffer from your stupidity. So thanks for that. It may take a village to raise a child but it takes resentment, naivety, and willful delusion for him to become a leftist after the 20th Century.”
Link of the Times;
https://www.dailywire.com/news/36835/watch-shapiro-gives-fiery-unprecedented-assault-daily-wire
Columbus?
Rome?
And now, a quick moment of silence for all that candy we've lost over the past few weeks, not even close to Halloween.
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I don't mind that my grandson is earning more than I did on my first job.
What disturbs me is he's just seven, and it's his allowance!
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WASHINGTON — Space Force Recruiting and Retention Command announced today that it is seeking applications from current active-duty Army 11-series MOS and Marine 03xx-series MOS personnel for lateral transfer into the Mobile Infantry, the service’s direct-action combat arms branch.
The “Cross Into the Black” initiative seeks to recruit current infantry soldiers and Marines to take their ground combat skills to the interstellar battle space.
“Our goal is to be able to rapidly field an initial corps of trained warfighters who will then be able to train the next generation of mobile infantry,” said Space Force Lt. Col. John Rico. “Our troopers will be prepared to deal with anything, from the gritty hell of face-to-face combat, to the potentially awkward moral dilemmas that may arise from railing out your smoking-hot redhead platoon mate while you’ve still sort of got a thing for this pilot chick.”
Mobile infantry warfighting doctrine calls for rapidly deployable units that can counter not only Earth-based threats, but also potential attack from non-Earth based enemy forces. Insertion by orbital dropship is the primary assault tactic employed, as it enables rapid massing of friendly forces on the enemy objective and the establishment of a secure lodgment for follow-on operations or beer-and-bang parties.
Mobile infantry units will deploy aboard heavy fleet cruisers such as the USS Rodger Young, the first Space Force cruiser to be commissioned. The cruisers can deploy 32 Viking-class dropships, each capable of carrying one fully combat-equipped rifle platoon as well as four Conestoga-class support dropships stocked with mission-critical supplies including spare munitions, rations, hair-styling products, beer kegs, electric violins, and footballs.
Units are gender-integrated, which eases logistical and supply-chain burdens for field shower units, portable tents, personal prophylactic kits, and other sustainment provisions.
The Space Force is offering transfer bonuses of up to $20,000 for service experience of eight years or more, or the equivalent qualifying time and unlocked achievements in a candidate’s online gamer profile, as an incentive to lure experienced mid-career infantrymen away from sister services.
Applicants should have a GT score of 110 or greater on the ASVAB. Scores down to 50 are waiverable if the applicant has less than 12% body fat and flexible sexual standards.
Would you like to know more? Space Force Recruiting and Retention Command says interested parties should visit its website for more information.
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A Toronto fisherman was trying to persuade his northern Ontario guide to visit him in the big city, but the guide said he was afraid the city people would laugh at him.
“Why?” asked the fisherman.
“Why not?” said the guide. “I sure laugh at your friends when they come up here.”
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Depressing Things About Your Class Reunion?
Your old crush just crushed a chair
Your school Bulldog mascot has fewer wrinkles than you do
Librarian demands your late fees, with interest
No one recognized you, not even your ex-wife
Issue of the Times;
5 Troubling Lessons For America From Ancient Rome by John Hawkins
The Romans spent almost 500 years as a republic before Julius Caesar’s adopted son Augustus became the first Roman emperor. The Romans moved on from having kings to becoming the first republic, to sliding backward into monarchy and tyranny and it’s not impossible that America will follow a similar trajectory. In fact, if you study Roman history, it’s not hard to see the parallels.
1) It’s Extremely Dangerous To Introduce Violence Into The Political Process: Tiberius Gracchus was an arrogant Roman Populist who cared little for the niceties of tradition and even less for the opinions of his opponents. He proposed confiscating land from the rich to give to soldiers and poor Romans. This was a terrible policy which helped lead to the fall of the Roman Republic, but unsurprisingly it was quite popular. However, there was quite a bit of resistance to the policy in the Senate and passing legislation of this sort without the approval of the Senate simply wasn’t done in ancient Rome. That is until Tiberius Gracchus found a loophole and did it anyway, earning him the outright hatred of the Senate. Later, a misunderstanding made the members of the Senate believe that their hated enemy was going to overthrow the government and make himself king. They responded to this misunderstanding by surrounding him, ripping the legs off benches and beating him to death. This was the start of a long, violent, slippery slope in Rome as political violence became ever more common. In time, politicians had their own gangs that fought in the street. Senators were knifed on the floor of the Senate and eventually, the leadership of the nation was determined by who could bring the biggest army to Rome. Here in America, we are now starting to see politically-motivated violence. Riots at Berkeley to keep conservatives from speaking. A white supremacist driving his car into the crowd. A Bernie Sanders supporter shooting up a Republican softball game. Protests where the protesters and counter-protesters bring weapons. This goes nowhere good and we would be wise to clamp down hard on this sort of violence before it gets out of hand.
2) When Governance Becomes A Means Of Personal Enrichment First, Good Governance Comes Last: As the Roman Empire declined, something called the Crisis of the Third Century occurred. For the most part, it followed a pattern like so: the current emperor would be assassinated, usually by his own troops. Then, the strongest governors for the outer provinces of the Roman Empire would marshal their forces and march on Rome. After a bloody struggle, one of them would become the Roman emperor. Unfortunately, while the troops who manned the edges of the empire were fighting in Rome, barbarians would storm across the borders to pillage, loot and rape everything in their path. Soon thereafter, perhaps frustrated by the incompetence that allowed this to occur, some of the soldiers who put the emperor in power would then murder him and the cycle would start again. This led to Rome having something like 20 emperors during a 50 year period as the Empire fell into further disrepair. Thank God that John McCain and Dianne Feinstein don’t have their own personal armies, but are they – and the rest of the members of Congress – really putting the country first anymore? Is good governance a bigger concern than pleasing special interest groups and getting TV time? Do our leaders make anything more than a grandstanding surface attempt to tackle the tough issues that confront America? Are our politicians the best among us? Are they men like Washington, Jefferson and Adams who were determined to make this a better country for future generations or just top-of-the-line con artists smart enough to think bigger than bilking old ladies out of their pension checks? Good governance doesn’t just happen. It takes the right kind of people in office to make it happen and for the most part, those are no longer the sort of men and women we have in charge.
3) If You Stop Doing What Makes You Successful, The Success Won’t Continue Forever: In the early days of the Roman Republic, the soldiers tended to be the WEALTHIER people in society. That was because they needed a certain amount of money to buy the equipment needed to fight. Back then, being a Roman citizen meant something. No politician dared mistreat a citizen of the empire for fear of retaliation from Rome. For most of the Roman Republic, there was no welfare and people were expected to take care of themselves. The republic was certainly challenged during these years, but it stayed free and strong and it was the driving force of the civilized world. Eventually, things changed for the worse as the Roman elite became more interested in using the government to become rich and powerful instead of using it for the good of the people. Later on, the rich seldom fought unless it was at the head of an army, which was a money-making venture in those days. Roman emperors had citizens put to death solely because they wanted to repossess their lands and money to give to their supporters. Free grain along with extravagant games in the Colosseum were given to the mob, which became increasingly demanding, irrational and violent. As many of the traditions, practices and character traits that made Rome successful disappeared, Rome became weaker. It moved toward decadence, weakness and tyranny. Eventually the Western half of the Empire fell in 476 A.D. If you had to pick a period of Roman history that today’s post-constitutional America is reminiscent of, it would be that last stage of the Roman Republic when freedom was slowly, but surely slipping away from the Romans while corrupt men fought to control the spoils that running the government could bring. Don’t take the freedom we have for granted because we could lose it one day just as easily as the Romans did.
4) When People Can’t Get Justice Under The Law, They Will Go Outside The Law: Many people have heard of Julius Caesar’s famous decision to “cross the Rubicon” and begin a Roman civil war, but the devil is in the details. You see at this point in Roman history, the Republic was hanging on by a thread. Appearances were largely kept up, but Caesar and his former partner-turned-rival Pompey were the two most powerful men in the country and each feared the other intended to take over. Yet and still, Caesar had not committed to that course of action. So when Caesar returned from Gaul, he made a simple offer. He would be willing to disband his armies before crossing the Rubicon and entering Rome if Pompey did the same thing. Although the Senate voted in favor of this proposal, a number of prominent senators undermined it and encouraged Pompey not to disarm. Had Caesar returned to Rome while his rival had an army at his back, he likely would have been killed. So instead, he crossed the Rubicon with his own troops and that was the beginning of the end for the Roman Republic. As we have become ever more tribal in America, we have started to simply not care about being fair to our political adversaries. The “free press” is hopelessly hostile and biased toward conservatives. The IRS and FBI have been used for political purposes. The EPA has put draconian restrictions on what people can do with their own land. Liberals openly advocate using the court system to implement laws that can’t make it through Congress. The federal government has become ever more powerful and its reach has become ever longer and more restricting. As we saw with Hillary Clinton and with illegal aliens, if you are politically powerful enough or part of a catered-to group, the laws don’t apply to you. This is all extremely dangerous because it undercuts the rule of law, respect for law and the compassionate and fair application of the law. When people conclude that only outlaws can get justice, people will become outlaws.
5) Immigration Only Works As Long As There Is Assimilation: Like the United States, the Romans were great believers in bringing other people under the banners. Instead of subjugating and enslaving the foreign nations they captured, the Romans usually made them part of their alliance. In some cases they gave them full citizenship, but even a lesser form of citizenship was no small thing given the power of the Romans and how they could have behaved given their strength. This was a big part of why the Romans became so successful. However, as time went on, things began to change. The Romans had at times allowed conquered tribes to enter their territory, but they always split them up so they’d have no choice other than to live surrounded by Romans and learn their ways. As the Empire became more decadent, they allowed tribes of barbarians to move into Roman territory as a group under their old rulers. Under those circumstances, the barbarians kept their old culture. Eventually, the Romans started bringing these foreigners into their military. The Western half of the Roman Empire was especially guilty of this. In time, the foot soldiers in the military were largely German Goths who ironically were primarily needed to fight other German Goths who surged across the borders. This was problematic for a number of reasons, but just to name one, it sometimes led to Roman cities being besieged and sacked by their own unassimilated German troops. Eventually, the Western half of the Roman Empire fell as the foreign troops decided they’d rather be ruled by a barbarian king named Odoacer. Here in America, not only do we have surging immigration, we no longer encourage immigrants to assimilate to our culture. It has gotten so bad that we’d rather tell people to press 2 for Spanish instead of insisting that they learn English. Immigration has gotten so out-of-control that even suggesting that we should limit immigration or only allowing immigrants who obey our laws to come here is called “racist.” The Romans eventually lost their nation over that sort of attitude and one day, the same thing may happen to us if we’re not careful.
Quote of the Times;
“If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” - Samuel Adams
Link of the Times;
http://gunslingersjournal.blogspot.com/2018/10/what-president-trump-has-done-so-far.html
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I don't mind that my grandson is earning more than I did on my first job.
What disturbs me is he's just seven, and it's his allowance!
*.*
WASHINGTON — Space Force Recruiting and Retention Command announced today that it is seeking applications from current active-duty Army 11-series MOS and Marine 03xx-series MOS personnel for lateral transfer into the Mobile Infantry, the service’s direct-action combat arms branch.
The “Cross Into the Black” initiative seeks to recruit current infantry soldiers and Marines to take their ground combat skills to the interstellar battle space.
“Our goal is to be able to rapidly field an initial corps of trained warfighters who will then be able to train the next generation of mobile infantry,” said Space Force Lt. Col. John Rico. “Our troopers will be prepared to deal with anything, from the gritty hell of face-to-face combat, to the potentially awkward moral dilemmas that may arise from railing out your smoking-hot redhead platoon mate while you’ve still sort of got a thing for this pilot chick.”
Mobile infantry warfighting doctrine calls for rapidly deployable units that can counter not only Earth-based threats, but also potential attack from non-Earth based enemy forces. Insertion by orbital dropship is the primary assault tactic employed, as it enables rapid massing of friendly forces on the enemy objective and the establishment of a secure lodgment for follow-on operations or beer-and-bang parties.
Mobile infantry units will deploy aboard heavy fleet cruisers such as the USS Rodger Young, the first Space Force cruiser to be commissioned. The cruisers can deploy 32 Viking-class dropships, each capable of carrying one fully combat-equipped rifle platoon as well as four Conestoga-class support dropships stocked with mission-critical supplies including spare munitions, rations, hair-styling products, beer kegs, electric violins, and footballs.
Units are gender-integrated, which eases logistical and supply-chain burdens for field shower units, portable tents, personal prophylactic kits, and other sustainment provisions.
The Space Force is offering transfer bonuses of up to $20,000 for service experience of eight years or more, or the equivalent qualifying time and unlocked achievements in a candidate’s online gamer profile, as an incentive to lure experienced mid-career infantrymen away from sister services.
Applicants should have a GT score of 110 or greater on the ASVAB. Scores down to 50 are waiverable if the applicant has less than 12% body fat and flexible sexual standards.
Would you like to know more? Space Force Recruiting and Retention Command says interested parties should visit its website for more information.
*.*
A Toronto fisherman was trying to persuade his northern Ontario guide to visit him in the big city, but the guide said he was afraid the city people would laugh at him.
“Why?” asked the fisherman.
“Why not?” said the guide. “I sure laugh at your friends when they come up here.”
*.*
Depressing Things About Your Class Reunion?
Your old crush just crushed a chair
Your school Bulldog mascot has fewer wrinkles than you do
Librarian demands your late fees, with interest
No one recognized you, not even your ex-wife
Issue of the Times;
5 Troubling Lessons For America From Ancient Rome by John Hawkins
The Romans spent almost 500 years as a republic before Julius Caesar’s adopted son Augustus became the first Roman emperor. The Romans moved on from having kings to becoming the first republic, to sliding backward into monarchy and tyranny and it’s not impossible that America will follow a similar trajectory. In fact, if you study Roman history, it’s not hard to see the parallels.
1) It’s Extremely Dangerous To Introduce Violence Into The Political Process: Tiberius Gracchus was an arrogant Roman Populist who cared little for the niceties of tradition and even less for the opinions of his opponents. He proposed confiscating land from the rich to give to soldiers and poor Romans. This was a terrible policy which helped lead to the fall of the Roman Republic, but unsurprisingly it was quite popular. However, there was quite a bit of resistance to the policy in the Senate and passing legislation of this sort without the approval of the Senate simply wasn’t done in ancient Rome. That is until Tiberius Gracchus found a loophole and did it anyway, earning him the outright hatred of the Senate. Later, a misunderstanding made the members of the Senate believe that their hated enemy was going to overthrow the government and make himself king. They responded to this misunderstanding by surrounding him, ripping the legs off benches and beating him to death. This was the start of a long, violent, slippery slope in Rome as political violence became ever more common. In time, politicians had their own gangs that fought in the street. Senators were knifed on the floor of the Senate and eventually, the leadership of the nation was determined by who could bring the biggest army to Rome. Here in America, we are now starting to see politically-motivated violence. Riots at Berkeley to keep conservatives from speaking. A white supremacist driving his car into the crowd. A Bernie Sanders supporter shooting up a Republican softball game. Protests where the protesters and counter-protesters bring weapons. This goes nowhere good and we would be wise to clamp down hard on this sort of violence before it gets out of hand.
2) When Governance Becomes A Means Of Personal Enrichment First, Good Governance Comes Last: As the Roman Empire declined, something called the Crisis of the Third Century occurred. For the most part, it followed a pattern like so: the current emperor would be assassinated, usually by his own troops. Then, the strongest governors for the outer provinces of the Roman Empire would marshal their forces and march on Rome. After a bloody struggle, one of them would become the Roman emperor. Unfortunately, while the troops who manned the edges of the empire were fighting in Rome, barbarians would storm across the borders to pillage, loot and rape everything in their path. Soon thereafter, perhaps frustrated by the incompetence that allowed this to occur, some of the soldiers who put the emperor in power would then murder him and the cycle would start again. This led to Rome having something like 20 emperors during a 50 year period as the Empire fell into further disrepair. Thank God that John McCain and Dianne Feinstein don’t have their own personal armies, but are they – and the rest of the members of Congress – really putting the country first anymore? Is good governance a bigger concern than pleasing special interest groups and getting TV time? Do our leaders make anything more than a grandstanding surface attempt to tackle the tough issues that confront America? Are our politicians the best among us? Are they men like Washington, Jefferson and Adams who were determined to make this a better country for future generations or just top-of-the-line con artists smart enough to think bigger than bilking old ladies out of their pension checks? Good governance doesn’t just happen. It takes the right kind of people in office to make it happen and for the most part, those are no longer the sort of men and women we have in charge.
3) If You Stop Doing What Makes You Successful, The Success Won’t Continue Forever: In the early days of the Roman Republic, the soldiers tended to be the WEALTHIER people in society. That was because they needed a certain amount of money to buy the equipment needed to fight. Back then, being a Roman citizen meant something. No politician dared mistreat a citizen of the empire for fear of retaliation from Rome. For most of the Roman Republic, there was no welfare and people were expected to take care of themselves. The republic was certainly challenged during these years, but it stayed free and strong and it was the driving force of the civilized world. Eventually, things changed for the worse as the Roman elite became more interested in using the government to become rich and powerful instead of using it for the good of the people. Later on, the rich seldom fought unless it was at the head of an army, which was a money-making venture in those days. Roman emperors had citizens put to death solely because they wanted to repossess their lands and money to give to their supporters. Free grain along with extravagant games in the Colosseum were given to the mob, which became increasingly demanding, irrational and violent. As many of the traditions, practices and character traits that made Rome successful disappeared, Rome became weaker. It moved toward decadence, weakness and tyranny. Eventually the Western half of the Empire fell in 476 A.D. If you had to pick a period of Roman history that today’s post-constitutional America is reminiscent of, it would be that last stage of the Roman Republic when freedom was slowly, but surely slipping away from the Romans while corrupt men fought to control the spoils that running the government could bring. Don’t take the freedom we have for granted because we could lose it one day just as easily as the Romans did.
4) When People Can’t Get Justice Under The Law, They Will Go Outside The Law: Many people have heard of Julius Caesar’s famous decision to “cross the Rubicon” and begin a Roman civil war, but the devil is in the details. You see at this point in Roman history, the Republic was hanging on by a thread. Appearances were largely kept up, but Caesar and his former partner-turned-rival Pompey were the two most powerful men in the country and each feared the other intended to take over. Yet and still, Caesar had not committed to that course of action. So when Caesar returned from Gaul, he made a simple offer. He would be willing to disband his armies before crossing the Rubicon and entering Rome if Pompey did the same thing. Although the Senate voted in favor of this proposal, a number of prominent senators undermined it and encouraged Pompey not to disarm. Had Caesar returned to Rome while his rival had an army at his back, he likely would have been killed. So instead, he crossed the Rubicon with his own troops and that was the beginning of the end for the Roman Republic. As we have become ever more tribal in America, we have started to simply not care about being fair to our political adversaries. The “free press” is hopelessly hostile and biased toward conservatives. The IRS and FBI have been used for political purposes. The EPA has put draconian restrictions on what people can do with their own land. Liberals openly advocate using the court system to implement laws that can’t make it through Congress. The federal government has become ever more powerful and its reach has become ever longer and more restricting. As we saw with Hillary Clinton and with illegal aliens, if you are politically powerful enough or part of a catered-to group, the laws don’t apply to you. This is all extremely dangerous because it undercuts the rule of law, respect for law and the compassionate and fair application of the law. When people conclude that only outlaws can get justice, people will become outlaws.
5) Immigration Only Works As Long As There Is Assimilation: Like the United States, the Romans were great believers in bringing other people under the banners. Instead of subjugating and enslaving the foreign nations they captured, the Romans usually made them part of their alliance. In some cases they gave them full citizenship, but even a lesser form of citizenship was no small thing given the power of the Romans and how they could have behaved given their strength. This was a big part of why the Romans became so successful. However, as time went on, things began to change. The Romans had at times allowed conquered tribes to enter their territory, but they always split them up so they’d have no choice other than to live surrounded by Romans and learn their ways. As the Empire became more decadent, they allowed tribes of barbarians to move into Roman territory as a group under their old rulers. Under those circumstances, the barbarians kept their old culture. Eventually, the Romans started bringing these foreigners into their military. The Western half of the Roman Empire was especially guilty of this. In time, the foot soldiers in the military were largely German Goths who ironically were primarily needed to fight other German Goths who surged across the borders. This was problematic for a number of reasons, but just to name one, it sometimes led to Roman cities being besieged and sacked by their own unassimilated German troops. Eventually, the Western half of the Roman Empire fell as the foreign troops decided they’d rather be ruled by a barbarian king named Odoacer. Here in America, not only do we have surging immigration, we no longer encourage immigrants to assimilate to our culture. It has gotten so bad that we’d rather tell people to press 2 for Spanish instead of insisting that they learn English. Immigration has gotten so out-of-control that even suggesting that we should limit immigration or only allowing immigrants who obey our laws to come here is called “racist.” The Romans eventually lost their nation over that sort of attitude and one day, the same thing may happen to us if we’re not careful.
Quote of the Times;
“If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” - Samuel Adams
Link of the Times;
http://gunslingersjournal.blogspot.com/2018/10/what-president-trump-has-done-so-far.html
Mafia?
Q: How many feminists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: That's not funny!
*.*
Oneliners:
A man in India has grown a 22-foot-long mustache. While there are the challenges, it does provide a tasty selection of snacks throughout the day.
Alaska Airlines is going to allow miniature horses as comfort animals. Can First-Class Aisle Racing be far behind?
I feel bad for the flight attendants. How many times are they going to hear someone say, "I feel a little horse."
A Florida doctor is selling cannabis-infused ice cream. Possible name, in the style of Ben and Jerry - he could call it, Peach and Chong!
The new LG V40 ThinQ smartphone has five different cameras. So now you can talk a selfie while taking a picture of you taking a selfie of a picture of you totally ignoring the person you're with.
I've got some really lazy kids. They say that this year, instead of going Trick or Treating, they're just going to order their candy using Uber Eats!
A study says giraffes inherit their mottled pattern spots from their mothers. Glad they figured that out. Now, can we get back to researching that cancer thing again?
*.*
What’s long and hard that a Polish bride gets on her wedding night ?
A new last name.
*.*
Doctors Recommend Nation Get Portland Removed
PORTLAND, OR—Calling the situation "life-threatening," doctors strongly encouraged the nation to get Portland removed in a surgical procedure as soon as possible.
The operation is risky, but if successful, could prevent the deadly disease known as "Antifa" and other extremist groups from spreading to the rest of Oregon and eventually the entire nation.
"If we had taken action a few years ago, we might have been able to save Portland, but now," said a doctor, shaking his head, "now there's very little chance. The only real option here is to amputate the entire thing."
"I'm sorry. I'll give you a few minutes to think it over," the doctor added respectfully before allowing the nation some privacy to consider the big decision.
Much to his surprise, the nation took just 13 seconds to deliberate getting the operation before accepting his advice.
*.*
A study says Donald Trump’s TV coverage is 92% negative.
The television networks were quick to explain that it’s entirely possible they got that 8% wrong.
Issue of the Times;
The Mafia Is Muscling In On The Refugee Racket In Italy by James Kirkpatrick
“Michael thought about his father’s organization. If it continued to prosper it would grow into what had happened here on this island, so cancerous that it would destroy the whole country. Sicily was already a land of ghosts, its men emigrating to every other country on earth to be able to earn their bread, or simply to escape being murdered for exercising their political and economic freedoms” —The Godfather, Chapter 23
Many immigration patriots or members of the Alt-Right began as libertarians, or may even still describe themselves as such. And one thing that can be said about libertarians: they are constantly discussing first principles—What is the role of the state? What is its purpose? And in the end, is it anything other than a protection racket, or a Mafia?
Of course, the move to the right usually comes when a libertarian starts to seriously consider questions of demographics, culture, ethnicity and immigration. After all, “property” is simply borders on a small scale.
If a government does not enforce national borders, that government ceases to fulfill its function as a guardian of the collective property rights of the entire community. Instead, it simply functions as a parasite, capturing wealth and redistributing it to the “connected.” It becomes a criminal syndicate. And when the government is directly funding mass immigration, it is in essence operating no differently than a criminal gang flooding a community with drugs, destroying the larger society in order to increase private wealth for a very few.
Indeed, organized crime is now operating as part of the “refugee resettlement” racket by which politically connected “NGOs,” often masquerading as religious organizations, are paid outrageous amounts of taxpayer money to deconstruct out their own country and communities by facilitating mass immigration.
Thus the Calabria-based Ndrangheta has reportedly stolen 32 million euros from funds which were supposed to support “refugees.” The scheme allegedly involved a “Catholic charity”. Even before the current artificially-created “refugee crisis,” organized crime groups in Rome were using a similar scheme to harvest millions of euros from funds supposedly directed at helping “refugees.”
These cases are only the ones which have been exposed. Even the Main Stream Media reports the level of corruption may be far larger than anyone suspects. The “migration crisis,” created because of the government’s refusal to protect its borders, is providing a huge opportunity for criminal syndicates to enrich themselves at the public’s expense.
The New York Times reports:
The case in Calabria may be just the most glaring example of how the misery of others has provided ripe opportunity for mobsters and corrupt officials as Italy struggles to keep up with an unceasing flow of migrants and refugees — more than 93,000 so far this year alone.
The swelling of the migrant population, investigators say, has made the running of reception centers a cottage industry of potential government corruption and mafia penetration… “Mobsters are where power and money are,” said Nicola Gratteri, one of Italy’s more active anti-mafia investigators.
The Mafia exploits the situation on an even broader scale. The Mafia is working with groups of refugees to force newcomers to sell drugs. If refugees refuse to join in the scheme, they are attacked and sometimes mutilated. Women, naturally, are forced into prostitution.
Yet ultimately, the Mafia is not the most dangerous criminal enterprise exploiting the wave of migrants—the most dangerous organization is the Italian government itself. In Palermo, the government has been notably more eager in cracking down on indigenous criminal networks than refugees, leading Mafia bosses to declare a “war” against the newcomers. The mayor of Palermo has also boasted about how he now runs a “mosaic” city, rather than a European one. [Migrants versus the MAFIA: Cosa Nostra ‘declares war’ on refugees as mayor says Sicily capital feels more like Istanbul or Beirut than Europe , By Jake Wallis Simons, Daily Mail, April 23, 2016]
As Paul Gottfried has outlined, in the modern West, the administrative elite garners legitimacy and power by breaking down cultures and institutions that developed organically. Once a society has been hollowed out, the elite gains power by socially conditioning the masses through government programs designed to achieve “equality,” egalitarian propaganda funneled through the mass media, and “NGOs” which are funneled by huge taxpayer subsidies.
Thus, in a city like Palermo, the government actually supports mass migration because officials believe refugees will be easier to control than existing institutions, notably the Mafia. Andrea Romano, an MP for the Democratic Party, actually said this explicitly:
‘What we see in Sicily is that when the state tries to better organise the migrants, the Mafia reacts. It tries to push people against the state and the migrants, because it wants the situation to remain blurred and disorganized. That allows them to take control.
Yet there’s a contradiction at the heart of this approach. As we’ve seen above, though refugees can provide a challenge to existing institutions (even criminal ones such as the Mafia), they also lead to social chaos which provides financial opportunities for the unscrupulous.
Romano, who favors moderately reducing migration, admits: “Of course the tension is going to rise when migrant number go up. It is unavoidable in the face of such an emergency.”
It even allows the Mafia to occasionally challenge the state for legitimacy. In a curiously under-reported development, “a former mafia boss” has apparently formed a group to stop migrants from leaving for Europe. The group, based in the seaside town of Sabratha west of Tripoli, achieved a 50 percent drop in arrivals in Italy compared to a year earlier. It is also reportedly looking for support from the Libyan government which has an uneasy control over parts of the country.
Of course, under the former rule of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan government systematically stopped flotillas of Africans from reaching Europe. However, because Europe backed the effort to overthrow Gaddafi, it enabled the “migration crisis” which now threatens Europe itself. So it now falls to paramilitaries and extra-legal forces to fulfill the most basic responsibilities of the state. The result: an inexorable loss of legitimacy for government, because it is failing to fulfill the basic protective responsibilities that justify government in the first place
Thus, the elite’s attempt to create a more pliable population amendable to social conditioning keeps backfiring. Instead of leading to social peace, it leads to unrest. Instead of undermining indigenous criminal networks, it can provide new opportunities for mobsters. Instead of creating new workers to pay for pension plans and the retirement of elderly Europeans, it leads to the growth of more dependents.
Indeed, the negative effects of mass migration are now so obvious and undeniable that one questions whether there is even a deliberate strategy at all. Some would argue that powerful ethnic groups which hate the West are deliberately undermining the indigenous population of Europe. Others could argue there is an ideological agenda at work, as Leftist parties seek out voters.
Yet the simple short-sighted greed may best explain the actions of many of those who actually work on the ground to replace Europe’s population. Notoriously, this explains the behavior of the corporations who want cheap labor. But those who directly benefit from mass migration in the form of government grants or from running NGOs are now a powerful constituency unto themselves. Their much-touted altruism is simply a cover for the most shameful self-interest.
The Refugee Resettlement Racket should not be viewed as political activism. It should be viewed as organized crime. Indeed, at best, it furthers the growth of organized crime. At worst, it actually renders the state less legitimate than paramilitaries and mafiosi.
Those who work in refugee resettlement personally profit by hollowing out their larger societies. They are not “activists.” They are criminals. And sometimes, they are even worse.
Quote of the Times;
“The urge to denigrate is an attempt to establish your own superiority by imposing humiliation on someone else—as well as a naked admission that you have no other way to demonstrate your personal merit.” – Tracinski
Link of the Times;
https://babylonbee.com/news/let-the-hate-flow-through-you-cackles-cloaked-hillary-clinton-at-campaign-rally
A: That's not funny!
*.*
Oneliners:
A man in India has grown a 22-foot-long mustache. While there are the challenges, it does provide a tasty selection of snacks throughout the day.
Alaska Airlines is going to allow miniature horses as comfort animals. Can First-Class Aisle Racing be far behind?
I feel bad for the flight attendants. How many times are they going to hear someone say, "I feel a little horse."
A Florida doctor is selling cannabis-infused ice cream. Possible name, in the style of Ben and Jerry - he could call it, Peach and Chong!
The new LG V40 ThinQ smartphone has five different cameras. So now you can talk a selfie while taking a picture of you taking a selfie of a picture of you totally ignoring the person you're with.
I've got some really lazy kids. They say that this year, instead of going Trick or Treating, they're just going to order their candy using Uber Eats!
A study says giraffes inherit their mottled pattern spots from their mothers. Glad they figured that out. Now, can we get back to researching that cancer thing again?
*.*
What’s long and hard that a Polish bride gets on her wedding night ?
A new last name.
*.*
Doctors Recommend Nation Get Portland Removed
PORTLAND, OR—Calling the situation "life-threatening," doctors strongly encouraged the nation to get Portland removed in a surgical procedure as soon as possible.
The operation is risky, but if successful, could prevent the deadly disease known as "Antifa" and other extremist groups from spreading to the rest of Oregon and eventually the entire nation.
"If we had taken action a few years ago, we might have been able to save Portland, but now," said a doctor, shaking his head, "now there's very little chance. The only real option here is to amputate the entire thing."
"I'm sorry. I'll give you a few minutes to think it over," the doctor added respectfully before allowing the nation some privacy to consider the big decision.
Much to his surprise, the nation took just 13 seconds to deliberate getting the operation before accepting his advice.
*.*
A study says Donald Trump’s TV coverage is 92% negative.
The television networks were quick to explain that it’s entirely possible they got that 8% wrong.
Issue of the Times;
The Mafia Is Muscling In On The Refugee Racket In Italy by James Kirkpatrick
“Michael thought about his father’s organization. If it continued to prosper it would grow into what had happened here on this island, so cancerous that it would destroy the whole country. Sicily was already a land of ghosts, its men emigrating to every other country on earth to be able to earn their bread, or simply to escape being murdered for exercising their political and economic freedoms” —The Godfather, Chapter 23
Many immigration patriots or members of the Alt-Right began as libertarians, or may even still describe themselves as such. And one thing that can be said about libertarians: they are constantly discussing first principles—What is the role of the state? What is its purpose? And in the end, is it anything other than a protection racket, or a Mafia?
Of course, the move to the right usually comes when a libertarian starts to seriously consider questions of demographics, culture, ethnicity and immigration. After all, “property” is simply borders on a small scale.
If a government does not enforce national borders, that government ceases to fulfill its function as a guardian of the collective property rights of the entire community. Instead, it simply functions as a parasite, capturing wealth and redistributing it to the “connected.” It becomes a criminal syndicate. And when the government is directly funding mass immigration, it is in essence operating no differently than a criminal gang flooding a community with drugs, destroying the larger society in order to increase private wealth for a very few.
Indeed, organized crime is now operating as part of the “refugee resettlement” racket by which politically connected “NGOs,” often masquerading as religious organizations, are paid outrageous amounts of taxpayer money to deconstruct out their own country and communities by facilitating mass immigration.
Thus the Calabria-based Ndrangheta has reportedly stolen 32 million euros from funds which were supposed to support “refugees.” The scheme allegedly involved a “Catholic charity”. Even before the current artificially-created “refugee crisis,” organized crime groups in Rome were using a similar scheme to harvest millions of euros from funds supposedly directed at helping “refugees.”
These cases are only the ones which have been exposed. Even the Main Stream Media reports the level of corruption may be far larger than anyone suspects. The “migration crisis,” created because of the government’s refusal to protect its borders, is providing a huge opportunity for criminal syndicates to enrich themselves at the public’s expense.
The New York Times reports:
The case in Calabria may be just the most glaring example of how the misery of others has provided ripe opportunity for mobsters and corrupt officials as Italy struggles to keep up with an unceasing flow of migrants and refugees — more than 93,000 so far this year alone.
The swelling of the migrant population, investigators say, has made the running of reception centers a cottage industry of potential government corruption and mafia penetration… “Mobsters are where power and money are,” said Nicola Gratteri, one of Italy’s more active anti-mafia investigators.
The Mafia exploits the situation on an even broader scale. The Mafia is working with groups of refugees to force newcomers to sell drugs. If refugees refuse to join in the scheme, they are attacked and sometimes mutilated. Women, naturally, are forced into prostitution.
Yet ultimately, the Mafia is not the most dangerous criminal enterprise exploiting the wave of migrants—the most dangerous organization is the Italian government itself. In Palermo, the government has been notably more eager in cracking down on indigenous criminal networks than refugees, leading Mafia bosses to declare a “war” against the newcomers. The mayor of Palermo has also boasted about how he now runs a “mosaic” city, rather than a European one. [Migrants versus the MAFIA: Cosa Nostra ‘declares war’ on refugees as mayor says Sicily capital feels more like Istanbul or Beirut than Europe , By Jake Wallis Simons, Daily Mail, April 23, 2016]
As Paul Gottfried has outlined, in the modern West, the administrative elite garners legitimacy and power by breaking down cultures and institutions that developed organically. Once a society has been hollowed out, the elite gains power by socially conditioning the masses through government programs designed to achieve “equality,” egalitarian propaganda funneled through the mass media, and “NGOs” which are funneled by huge taxpayer subsidies.
Thus, in a city like Palermo, the government actually supports mass migration because officials believe refugees will be easier to control than existing institutions, notably the Mafia. Andrea Romano, an MP for the Democratic Party, actually said this explicitly:
‘What we see in Sicily is that when the state tries to better organise the migrants, the Mafia reacts. It tries to push people against the state and the migrants, because it wants the situation to remain blurred and disorganized. That allows them to take control.
Yet there’s a contradiction at the heart of this approach. As we’ve seen above, though refugees can provide a challenge to existing institutions (even criminal ones such as the Mafia), they also lead to social chaos which provides financial opportunities for the unscrupulous.
Romano, who favors moderately reducing migration, admits: “Of course the tension is going to rise when migrant number go up. It is unavoidable in the face of such an emergency.”
It even allows the Mafia to occasionally challenge the state for legitimacy. In a curiously under-reported development, “a former mafia boss” has apparently formed a group to stop migrants from leaving for Europe. The group, based in the seaside town of Sabratha west of Tripoli, achieved a 50 percent drop in arrivals in Italy compared to a year earlier. It is also reportedly looking for support from the Libyan government which has an uneasy control over parts of the country.
Of course, under the former rule of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan government systematically stopped flotillas of Africans from reaching Europe. However, because Europe backed the effort to overthrow Gaddafi, it enabled the “migration crisis” which now threatens Europe itself. So it now falls to paramilitaries and extra-legal forces to fulfill the most basic responsibilities of the state. The result: an inexorable loss of legitimacy for government, because it is failing to fulfill the basic protective responsibilities that justify government in the first place
Thus, the elite’s attempt to create a more pliable population amendable to social conditioning keeps backfiring. Instead of leading to social peace, it leads to unrest. Instead of undermining indigenous criminal networks, it can provide new opportunities for mobsters. Instead of creating new workers to pay for pension plans and the retirement of elderly Europeans, it leads to the growth of more dependents.
Indeed, the negative effects of mass migration are now so obvious and undeniable that one questions whether there is even a deliberate strategy at all. Some would argue that powerful ethnic groups which hate the West are deliberately undermining the indigenous population of Europe. Others could argue there is an ideological agenda at work, as Leftist parties seek out voters.
Yet the simple short-sighted greed may best explain the actions of many of those who actually work on the ground to replace Europe’s population. Notoriously, this explains the behavior of the corporations who want cheap labor. But those who directly benefit from mass migration in the form of government grants or from running NGOs are now a powerful constituency unto themselves. Their much-touted altruism is simply a cover for the most shameful self-interest.
The Refugee Resettlement Racket should not be viewed as political activism. It should be viewed as organized crime. Indeed, at best, it furthers the growth of organized crime. At worst, it actually renders the state less legitimate than paramilitaries and mafiosi.
Those who work in refugee resettlement personally profit by hollowing out their larger societies. They are not “activists.” They are criminals. And sometimes, they are even worse.
Quote of the Times;
“The urge to denigrate is an attempt to establish your own superiority by imposing humiliation on someone else—as well as a naked admission that you have no other way to demonstrate your personal merit.” – Tracinski
Link of the Times;
https://babylonbee.com/news/let-the-hate-flow-through-you-cackles-cloaked-hillary-clinton-at-campaign-rally
Deep?
A new twist…
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below.
She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.
She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."
The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat."
"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"
"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it's my fault."
*.*
Day in the life of a Rebel Alliance Tower Guard on Yavin 4
kocD8Secret Base on [REDACTED]
Dear Mom,
Taking a moment to drop you a line. As you know, life here in the Rebel Alliance has been kind of crazy of late, what with the whole Death Star business and everything. You hear about Alderaan? I’m not even sure if I believe the news, sounds like Imperial propaganda trying to throw us off. Has definitely caused a lot of action here on base. There’s ships coming and going like you wouldn’t believe.
As you know, I took that promotion to sergeant in the Alliance’s military police corps. It’s definitely a different world from the maintenance bays. There, we hardly had to do anything; the droids handled all the work orders and we could just hide out in the hangers playing games or sleeping. But now, we’ve got real jobs to do. We’ve been told that our orders come direct from Mon Mothma herself, which is pretty crazy.
I guess you’re probably wondering what it is we do. It’s not too much to say that we’re the real lynchpin holding this base together. Security is the most important thing, of course. We’ve got patrols and gate guards that handle things on the ground to keep our perimeter safe. Really, those X-Wing pilots couldn’t do their jobs without us, because if we weren’t there the whole base would be overrun with who-knows-what: animals and locals and Stormtroopers, probably. But we keep this place locked down. I served as shift NCOIC for our quick reaction force for a few weeks and that was pretty cool. We only got called out once because there was a malfunctioning droid that was trying to wander off post, but still: an important job.
Now I’m part of the Speed Control and Abatement Team (SCAT) which is a pretty big deal. See, safety is paramount in everything we do. In fact, according to the last briefing we had at the company level, safety is our number one priority. As Lieutenant Porkins says – he’s Red Squadron’s safety officer, by the way – “we can’t fly if we’re all dead from accidents.” And you’ve got to admit, he’s got a point. In the last safety office review, it was found that approach speeds for vessels coming to the landing pad were responsible for 73% of all ship-to-ship accidents. So now it is our responsibility to ensure that those accidents are kept to a minimum. To do that, we use scanners to analyze the ship’s approach vector and speed and if it exceeds the posted standards we ticket that ship’s captain. I tell you what, in the past three weeks I’ve written 15 tickets and there’s been a huge drop in violations. I even got Admiral Ackbar coming in too hot one time. He accused me of a speed trap but the scanner doesn’t lie. The worst chewing out I ever got was from Lieutenant Wedge Antilles, though. I almost thought he was going to draw his blaster on me, but he paid his fine in the end.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it can get pretty boring up in those towers. I pass my 4 hour shift by counting birds – although the fighter ships have really done a number on those birds with their engines. There’s dead birds everywhere. We actually have to send out details to collect them off the landing pads, otherwise they can get sucked into engines and it makes more mess than a Bantha with the runs.
Other stuff I do when not on tower duty is to do patrols to ensure everyone is wearing the correct safety gear – we’ve got this panel you wear at night that lights up so that you don’t get run over, and it’s mandatory for wear but for some reason people don’t like it. Princess Leia Organa tried to get away without wearing it but we reported her to Mon Mothma. Unfortunately, I don’t think Mon Mothma took us seriously. She will when someone gets run over by a speeder, that’s for sure.
I’m not sure the head shed takes what we do seriously. A few days ago some rogue personnel took off without clearance in a captured Imperial shuttle – no paperwork, nothing, just some made-up callsign of Rogue One. Well, I filed all the correct paperwork, hit them with a 2000 credit fine, but it got all hushed up for some reason. Later that day they scrambled like half the fleet. Still don’t know what that was about but things were crazy for a while: no manifests, no clearances, and no accountability. I don’t know what things are coming to. Blue Squadron never even checked back in.
But mom, get this! Earlier today, a Corellian freighter came in WAY over the speed limit and I saw Princess Organa get off it with some scruffy looking folks and a real Wookie! They totally do exist! And I always thought you were making them up to try to scare me into eating my vegetables. Anyways, the base has been on lockdown since they arrived and I can see a lot of movement on the flight pads. Looks like Red and Gold Squadrons are prepping for something. Wish they’d file their manifests properly.
Damn, there goes that Corellian freighter again! Gotta go, mom, lots of paperwork to do to write that guy up. I don’t know who he thinks he is.
Love to all,
Sergeant Issa Prellian
RA MP Corps
“Vigilance is a Force Multiplier”
*.*
United Airlines is raising their baggage fee to $30. Don't complain. Remember, this is the airline that changed their slogan to, "Don't piss us off."
A study says an unhealthy lifestyle is putting 4 out of 5 adults at risk for early death. Weird that everybody I hang out has to be in the 4 group.
A Scottish woman says her doctor removed a tear duct instead of a tumor, thus making her the perfect person to spill milk.
Nearly half of all millennials have deleted the Facebook app. I take that as saying, “Go ahead and post anything you want about them!”
I’ll be honest, I just burned my athletic shoes. Oh, they weren’t Nikes. It was just my way out of getting out of going to the gym.
According to CNN, over 800 people in Central Florida were stung by jellyfish last week. And, of course, since it was CNN reporting it, they blamed President Trump.
A study says 10% of all Millennials don't tip when they eat out. In their defense, why should they tip their parents?
If you like saying the phrase, “That’s the last straw”, you probably want to move to Seattle. Quickly.
The new law was supported by the Broken Backed Camels Club of America.
*.*
Top Five Reasons your Airline Tickets were So Cheap
Your seat is in the new experimental Crying Baby section.
The price did not include actually flying.
The prison work release flight attendants.
They offered peanuts. Two, to be exact.
In-flight food menu is leftovers and a food fight.
*.*
What are three words a woman never wants to hear when she's making love?
"Honey, I'm home!"
Issue of the Times;
Thank Q? New York Times’ Anon Anti-Trump Tirade Points to Deep State Desperation by Robert Bridge
On September 5th, and by its own account, The New York Times took “the rare step” of publishing an anonymous Op-ed piece. But this was not your ordinary unsigned work of art. The author was said to be a top official in the Trump administration – with a serious ax to grind against the US leader.
In the very opening line of the explosive easy, entitled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration,” the writer drops a veritable bomb by alleging: “I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”
A bit later, he – assuming the closeted author identifies as male – says “many of the senior officials in [Trump’s] own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”
And as if to preempt the predictable claim that the piece was drafted by a shady member of the ‘deep state,’ the writer had that base covered: “This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.”
Well, that’s certainly ironic. This dauntless freedom fighter expects us to believe he is part of the same “steady state” that drafts diatribes against the US Commander-in-Chief. You know, because the good old ‘steady state’ doesn’t want to rock the boat or anything crazy like that.
In any case, this Washington insider, if he is who he says he is – and I am of the opinion he is not – triggered a firestorm of speculation as to his identity. Political pundits had a field day putting forward their favorite suspect, forensic experts were duly consulted to examine the ‘fingerprints’, while late-night ‘comedians’ pounced on the soggy ammunition for yet another round of painfully and very unfunny jokes. Eventually, every high-ranking official, from Vice President Mike Pence to UN Ambassador Nikki Haley to even Ivanka Trump herself, has been fingered as the fink.
Yet all of these sensationalistic efforts to play Sherlock Holmes are nothing more than an exercise in sheer quackery. The reasons are twofold: first, it is exactly what the architects of this letter want – to spark a firestorm and sow chaos inside of the administration, thus making Trump look not only out of control, but cornered; second, in all likelihood the letter was crafted by some pimply hack in the New York Times editorial department. But the ‘Grey Lady’ hides behind the paper shield of ‘journalistic ethics,’ saying it cannot reveal its sources, which could be just another way of saying there was no source at all. Most likely, we’ll never know.
What does seem certain is that a true patriot who loves his country would not set off fireworks like some juvenile delinquent in the highest branch of government. Instead, he would have done the honorable and professional thing and quietly resigned without a fiasco. Then this official – again, if he truly exists – could go on to sign a multi-million book deal detailing his life and times spent in the White House. Predictably, however, it would be in the same vein as fact-fudger Bob Woodward and his latest bit of Masterpiece Theater, replete with innumerable nods to anonymous officials and former diplomats who would rather not have their names mentioned. You know, because security and other such delightful nonsense.
But I digress. What is so lamentable about the New York Times’ decision to publish this unverifiable diatribe is that it further erodes the foundation of the already severely damaged mainstream media colossus. The last thing that newspaper readers want or need is an anonymous opinion piece that stinks to the high heavens of political intrigue. News articles already read like Tom Clancy pulp novels, complete with fictional, anonymous characters and highly implausible plots that make substantiating the claims next to impossible. Few people would eat a can of soup that didn’t advertise the ingredients; the same thing could be said about chowing down at the media trough without knowing the names of the sources. This sort of junk-food journalism goes far at explaining, incidentally, why alternative news sites have been doing a booming business, and, moreover, why the brutal crackdown on these sites has shifted into high gear.
And then there is the very suspicious timing for the release of this mystery piece with Midterms – possibly the most pivotal one in US political history – bearing down on us like a tornado. Although it seems that most Americans are firmly fastened to either the Democratic or Republican gangplank, so much hangs in the balance during this election cycle that I am guessing – really going out on a limb here – that the Left will pull any stunt in the book to get the upper hand. That much seems obvious by their duplicitous methods ever since Trump won the White House. Trump himself has demanded that the Times release the identity of the mystery writer, but of course no newspaper is under any such obligations.
Finally – and here is where it might be necessary to don our conspiratorial tin foil – the Times op-ed piece was published at precisely the same time that the ‘QAnon’ posts have been gathering not only steam, but an increasing number of faithful followers. For the uninitiated, ‘QAnon’ – a reference to top-secret Q clearance at the highest government level – is the pseudonym of an individual or individuals who proclaim to be working in the upper echelons of the Trump administration. This anonymous internet entity claims to have inside information on a number of former and current members of the US government. These tantalizing nuggets of information have been distributed sporadically through “breadcrumbs” since October 2017, and according to the disseminators of said information, if the believers “trust the plan” the fetid DC swamp will be drained as promised. With public supporters of this mystery movement starting to appear on a regular basis at Trump rallies, the mainstream media was begrudgingly forced to finally take note of the phenomenon.
It seems a bit odd and coincidental that at the same time QAnon is gathering momentum, the Times allows an anonymous White House insider to present as fact that a resistance group is waiting in the wings to “frustrate parts of [Trump’s] agenda.” Is part of that agenda going after the very people who wrote that Op-ed piece? Since we are dealing in the realm of the unknown unknowns, as Donald Rumsfeld would say, anything is possible.
In any case, if any of this is to be believed, with the news of a “resistance” group – a “sleeper cell,” as it has been called – inside of the Trump administration, it would seem that we may be witnessing from the shadows a showdown between two opposing, albeit anonymous forces. One comprised of QAnon and their supporters, and the other made up of the so-called Resistance.
Are these groups are merely wild conspiracy theories, dreamed up out of the blue – possibly as a stunt or even a psy-ops operation – or do they represent a bona-fide standoff between two battling factions competing for different agendas inside and outside of the Trump administration?
My personal hunch is we’ll have the answer to that question before the Midterms.
Quote of the Times;
The urge to denigrate is an attempt to establish your own superiority by imposing humiliation on someone else—as well as a naked admission that you have no other way to demonstrate your personal merit. – Tracinski
Link of the Times;
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/09/11/suspect-steal-car-5-year-old-back-seat-gets-shot-dead-childs-father/
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below.
She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.
She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."
The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat."
"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"
"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it's my fault."
*.*
Day in the life of a Rebel Alliance Tower Guard on Yavin 4
kocD8Secret Base on [REDACTED]
Dear Mom,
Taking a moment to drop you a line. As you know, life here in the Rebel Alliance has been kind of crazy of late, what with the whole Death Star business and everything. You hear about Alderaan? I’m not even sure if I believe the news, sounds like Imperial propaganda trying to throw us off. Has definitely caused a lot of action here on base. There’s ships coming and going like you wouldn’t believe.
As you know, I took that promotion to sergeant in the Alliance’s military police corps. It’s definitely a different world from the maintenance bays. There, we hardly had to do anything; the droids handled all the work orders and we could just hide out in the hangers playing games or sleeping. But now, we’ve got real jobs to do. We’ve been told that our orders come direct from Mon Mothma herself, which is pretty crazy.
I guess you’re probably wondering what it is we do. It’s not too much to say that we’re the real lynchpin holding this base together. Security is the most important thing, of course. We’ve got patrols and gate guards that handle things on the ground to keep our perimeter safe. Really, those X-Wing pilots couldn’t do their jobs without us, because if we weren’t there the whole base would be overrun with who-knows-what: animals and locals and Stormtroopers, probably. But we keep this place locked down. I served as shift NCOIC for our quick reaction force for a few weeks and that was pretty cool. We only got called out once because there was a malfunctioning droid that was trying to wander off post, but still: an important job.
Now I’m part of the Speed Control and Abatement Team (SCAT) which is a pretty big deal. See, safety is paramount in everything we do. In fact, according to the last briefing we had at the company level, safety is our number one priority. As Lieutenant Porkins says – he’s Red Squadron’s safety officer, by the way – “we can’t fly if we’re all dead from accidents.” And you’ve got to admit, he’s got a point. In the last safety office review, it was found that approach speeds for vessels coming to the landing pad were responsible for 73% of all ship-to-ship accidents. So now it is our responsibility to ensure that those accidents are kept to a minimum. To do that, we use scanners to analyze the ship’s approach vector and speed and if it exceeds the posted standards we ticket that ship’s captain. I tell you what, in the past three weeks I’ve written 15 tickets and there’s been a huge drop in violations. I even got Admiral Ackbar coming in too hot one time. He accused me of a speed trap but the scanner doesn’t lie. The worst chewing out I ever got was from Lieutenant Wedge Antilles, though. I almost thought he was going to draw his blaster on me, but he paid his fine in the end.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it can get pretty boring up in those towers. I pass my 4 hour shift by counting birds – although the fighter ships have really done a number on those birds with their engines. There’s dead birds everywhere. We actually have to send out details to collect them off the landing pads, otherwise they can get sucked into engines and it makes more mess than a Bantha with the runs.
Other stuff I do when not on tower duty is to do patrols to ensure everyone is wearing the correct safety gear – we’ve got this panel you wear at night that lights up so that you don’t get run over, and it’s mandatory for wear but for some reason people don’t like it. Princess Leia Organa tried to get away without wearing it but we reported her to Mon Mothma. Unfortunately, I don’t think Mon Mothma took us seriously. She will when someone gets run over by a speeder, that’s for sure.
I’m not sure the head shed takes what we do seriously. A few days ago some rogue personnel took off without clearance in a captured Imperial shuttle – no paperwork, nothing, just some made-up callsign of Rogue One. Well, I filed all the correct paperwork, hit them with a 2000 credit fine, but it got all hushed up for some reason. Later that day they scrambled like half the fleet. Still don’t know what that was about but things were crazy for a while: no manifests, no clearances, and no accountability. I don’t know what things are coming to. Blue Squadron never even checked back in.
But mom, get this! Earlier today, a Corellian freighter came in WAY over the speed limit and I saw Princess Organa get off it with some scruffy looking folks and a real Wookie! They totally do exist! And I always thought you were making them up to try to scare me into eating my vegetables. Anyways, the base has been on lockdown since they arrived and I can see a lot of movement on the flight pads. Looks like Red and Gold Squadrons are prepping for something. Wish they’d file their manifests properly.
Damn, there goes that Corellian freighter again! Gotta go, mom, lots of paperwork to do to write that guy up. I don’t know who he thinks he is.
Love to all,
Sergeant Issa Prellian
RA MP Corps
“Vigilance is a Force Multiplier”
*.*
United Airlines is raising their baggage fee to $30. Don't complain. Remember, this is the airline that changed their slogan to, "Don't piss us off."
A study says an unhealthy lifestyle is putting 4 out of 5 adults at risk for early death. Weird that everybody I hang out has to be in the 4 group.
A Scottish woman says her doctor removed a tear duct instead of a tumor, thus making her the perfect person to spill milk.
Nearly half of all millennials have deleted the Facebook app. I take that as saying, “Go ahead and post anything you want about them!”
I’ll be honest, I just burned my athletic shoes. Oh, they weren’t Nikes. It was just my way out of getting out of going to the gym.
According to CNN, over 800 people in Central Florida were stung by jellyfish last week. And, of course, since it was CNN reporting it, they blamed President Trump.
A study says 10% of all Millennials don't tip when they eat out. In their defense, why should they tip their parents?
If you like saying the phrase, “That’s the last straw”, you probably want to move to Seattle. Quickly.
The new law was supported by the Broken Backed Camels Club of America.
*.*
Top Five Reasons your Airline Tickets were So Cheap
Your seat is in the new experimental Crying Baby section.
The price did not include actually flying.
The prison work release flight attendants.
They offered peanuts. Two, to be exact.
In-flight food menu is leftovers and a food fight.
*.*
What are three words a woman never wants to hear when she's making love?
"Honey, I'm home!"
Issue of the Times;
Thank Q? New York Times’ Anon Anti-Trump Tirade Points to Deep State Desperation by Robert Bridge
On September 5th, and by its own account, The New York Times took “the rare step” of publishing an anonymous Op-ed piece. But this was not your ordinary unsigned work of art. The author was said to be a top official in the Trump administration – with a serious ax to grind against the US leader.
In the very opening line of the explosive easy, entitled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration,” the writer drops a veritable bomb by alleging: “I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”
A bit later, he – assuming the closeted author identifies as male – says “many of the senior officials in [Trump’s] own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”
And as if to preempt the predictable claim that the piece was drafted by a shady member of the ‘deep state,’ the writer had that base covered: “This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.”
Well, that’s certainly ironic. This dauntless freedom fighter expects us to believe he is part of the same “steady state” that drafts diatribes against the US Commander-in-Chief. You know, because the good old ‘steady state’ doesn’t want to rock the boat or anything crazy like that.
In any case, this Washington insider, if he is who he says he is – and I am of the opinion he is not – triggered a firestorm of speculation as to his identity. Political pundits had a field day putting forward their favorite suspect, forensic experts were duly consulted to examine the ‘fingerprints’, while late-night ‘comedians’ pounced on the soggy ammunition for yet another round of painfully and very unfunny jokes. Eventually, every high-ranking official, from Vice President Mike Pence to UN Ambassador Nikki Haley to even Ivanka Trump herself, has been fingered as the fink.
Yet all of these sensationalistic efforts to play Sherlock Holmes are nothing more than an exercise in sheer quackery. The reasons are twofold: first, it is exactly what the architects of this letter want – to spark a firestorm and sow chaos inside of the administration, thus making Trump look not only out of control, but cornered; second, in all likelihood the letter was crafted by some pimply hack in the New York Times editorial department. But the ‘Grey Lady’ hides behind the paper shield of ‘journalistic ethics,’ saying it cannot reveal its sources, which could be just another way of saying there was no source at all. Most likely, we’ll never know.
What does seem certain is that a true patriot who loves his country would not set off fireworks like some juvenile delinquent in the highest branch of government. Instead, he would have done the honorable and professional thing and quietly resigned without a fiasco. Then this official – again, if he truly exists – could go on to sign a multi-million book deal detailing his life and times spent in the White House. Predictably, however, it would be in the same vein as fact-fudger Bob Woodward and his latest bit of Masterpiece Theater, replete with innumerable nods to anonymous officials and former diplomats who would rather not have their names mentioned. You know, because security and other such delightful nonsense.
But I digress. What is so lamentable about the New York Times’ decision to publish this unverifiable diatribe is that it further erodes the foundation of the already severely damaged mainstream media colossus. The last thing that newspaper readers want or need is an anonymous opinion piece that stinks to the high heavens of political intrigue. News articles already read like Tom Clancy pulp novels, complete with fictional, anonymous characters and highly implausible plots that make substantiating the claims next to impossible. Few people would eat a can of soup that didn’t advertise the ingredients; the same thing could be said about chowing down at the media trough without knowing the names of the sources. This sort of junk-food journalism goes far at explaining, incidentally, why alternative news sites have been doing a booming business, and, moreover, why the brutal crackdown on these sites has shifted into high gear.
And then there is the very suspicious timing for the release of this mystery piece with Midterms – possibly the most pivotal one in US political history – bearing down on us like a tornado. Although it seems that most Americans are firmly fastened to either the Democratic or Republican gangplank, so much hangs in the balance during this election cycle that I am guessing – really going out on a limb here – that the Left will pull any stunt in the book to get the upper hand. That much seems obvious by their duplicitous methods ever since Trump won the White House. Trump himself has demanded that the Times release the identity of the mystery writer, but of course no newspaper is under any such obligations.
Finally – and here is where it might be necessary to don our conspiratorial tin foil – the Times op-ed piece was published at precisely the same time that the ‘QAnon’ posts have been gathering not only steam, but an increasing number of faithful followers. For the uninitiated, ‘QAnon’ – a reference to top-secret Q clearance at the highest government level – is the pseudonym of an individual or individuals who proclaim to be working in the upper echelons of the Trump administration. This anonymous internet entity claims to have inside information on a number of former and current members of the US government. These tantalizing nuggets of information have been distributed sporadically through “breadcrumbs” since October 2017, and according to the disseminators of said information, if the believers “trust the plan” the fetid DC swamp will be drained as promised. With public supporters of this mystery movement starting to appear on a regular basis at Trump rallies, the mainstream media was begrudgingly forced to finally take note of the phenomenon.
It seems a bit odd and coincidental that at the same time QAnon is gathering momentum, the Times allows an anonymous White House insider to present as fact that a resistance group is waiting in the wings to “frustrate parts of [Trump’s] agenda.” Is part of that agenda going after the very people who wrote that Op-ed piece? Since we are dealing in the realm of the unknown unknowns, as Donald Rumsfeld would say, anything is possible.
In any case, if any of this is to be believed, with the news of a “resistance” group – a “sleeper cell,” as it has been called – inside of the Trump administration, it would seem that we may be witnessing from the shadows a showdown between two opposing, albeit anonymous forces. One comprised of QAnon and their supporters, and the other made up of the so-called Resistance.
Are these groups are merely wild conspiracy theories, dreamed up out of the blue – possibly as a stunt or even a psy-ops operation – or do they represent a bona-fide standoff between two battling factions competing for different agendas inside and outside of the Trump administration?
My personal hunch is we’ll have the answer to that question before the Midterms.
Quote of the Times;
The urge to denigrate is an attempt to establish your own superiority by imposing humiliation on someone else—as well as a naked admission that you have no other way to demonstrate your personal merit. – Tracinski
Link of the Times;
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/09/11/suspect-steal-car-5-year-old-back-seat-gets-shot-dead-childs-father/
Heresy?
Why do I have to press one for English when you're just going to transfer me to someone I can't understand anyway?
*.*
TOP NAMES OF RACE HORSES THAT PROBABLY AREN'T GOING TO FINISH FIRST
Allergic to Winning
Slower than Slower than Molasses
I wouldn't bet on him
Hope He Makes It
Dead Last
*.*
Drunk hurricane calls Coast Guard at 2 A.M. asking for place to crash
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A wasted hurricane by the name of Florence has reportedly been calling at all hours of the night looking for a place to crash, according to Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads.
“She’s pretty hammered,” said Petty Officer Sam Vallin, who spoke to Florence, “She was saying things like ‘HEY! It’s me yer best fuckin’ friend. I’m shitfaced from the Caribbean and I need a place to pass out and take a fackin’ shit’.”
Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads began making preparations on the off change Florence is what they call a Category 4 Shitstorm. This means she will likely arrive blackout drunk, begin eating everything out of the refrigerator, puke in the sink, start playing trap music at full volume, start a fight with the lamp, and have sustained winds of up to 140 mph with a 24 ft storm surge.
The last reported contact from Florence was a drunk text with a blurry selfie and the message, “letz go 2 olive garden im fukin #REKT”.
The past drunk hurricanes of 2017 were devastating to the Coast Guard, costing up to $900 million dollars of all-hands-on-deck rescue and recovery operations. Hurricane Florence’s drunken arrival could add to that cost and cause extreme damage due to her erratic behavior and tendency to get really dramatic about small shit for no apparent reason.
The Coast Guard plans to prepare for the eventual arrival of Florence by supplying Extra-Strength Advil, a giant bottle of water, an extra set of blankets, and a Home Depot-sized puke bucket because nobody wants a repeat of last time.
*.*
Some upscale hotels are now offering cannabis-infused room service items to maximize relaxation for guests, and boost sales of their $40 microwave mini-pizzas.
Seen on Facebook: "I just returned a pair of Nikes to the store. I complained that they hurt my feet every time I stand for the National Anthem."
Stormy Daniels says she "may never have a normal life again." I've been reviewing her movie career. Not a whole lot of normal there to begin with.
Jaguar is building an SUV that can go 200 mph. Their slogan: "Never be late for soccer practice again."
North Korea is celebrating their 70th anniversary. Don't worry, I didn't send a card, either.
*.*
Two Newfoundlanders are drinking in a small bar in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland.
Fred says, "Did you know that Lions have sex 10 to 15 times a night!"
"Ah, shit", says Gabe. "I just joined the Knights of Columbus.
Issue of the Times;
The Unpardonable Heresy of Tucker Carlson by Pat Buchanan
Our diversity is our greatest strength.
After playing clips of Democratic politicians reciting that truth of modern liberalism, Tucker Carlson asked, “How, precisely, is diversity our strength? Since you’ve made this our new national motto, please be specific.”
Reaction to Carlson’s question, with some declaring him a racist for having raised it, suggests that what we are dealing with here is not a demonstrable truth but a creed not subject to debate.
Yet the question remains valid: Where is the scientific, historic or empirical evidence that the greater the racial, ethnic, cultural and religious diversity of a nation, the stronger it becomes?
From recent decades, it seems more true to say the reverse: The more diverse a nation, the greater the danger of its disintegration.
Ethnic diversity, after all, tore apart our mighty Cold War rival, splintering the Soviet Union into 15 nations, three of which — Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia — have since split further along ethnic lines.
Russia had to fight two wars to hold onto Chechnya and prevent the diverse peoples of the North Caucasus from splitting off on ethnic grounds, as Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan had done.
Ethnic diversity then shattered Yugoslavia into seven separate nations.
And even as we proclaim diversity to be our greatest strength, nations everywhere are recoiling from it.
The rise of populism and nationalism across Europe is a reaction to the new diversity represented by the Arab, Asian and African millions who have lately come, and the tens of millions desperate to enter.
Center-left and center-right parties are losing ground in European elections because they are seen as feckless in meeting what more and more indigenous Europeans believe to be an existential threat — mass migration from across the Med.
Japan’s population has ceased to grow, and each year brings fewer toddlers into its schools. Yet Tokyo resists the racial and ethnic diversity greater immigration would bring. Why, if diversity is a strength?
What South Koreans dream of is uniting again with the 22 million separated members of their national family who live in the North, but share the same history and blood.
This summer, in its Basic Law, Israel declared itself an ethnonational state and national home of the Jewish people. African migrants crossing the Sinai to seek sanctuary in Israel are unwelcome.
Consider China, which seeks this century to surpass America as the first power on earth. Does Xi Jinping welcome a greater racial, ethnic and cultural diversity within his county as, say, Barack Obama does in ours?
In his western province of Xinjiang, Xi has set up an archipelago of detention camps. Purpose: Re-educate his country’s Uighurs and Kazakhs by purging them of their religious and tribal identities, and making them and their children more like Han Chinese in allegiance to the Communist Party and Chinese nation.
Xi fears that the 10 million Uighurs of Xinjiang, as an ethnic and religious minority, predominantly Muslim, wish to break away and establish an East Turkestan, a nation of their own, out of China. And he is correct.
What China is doing is brutalitarian. But what China is saying with its ruthless policy is that diversity — religious, racial, cultural — can break us apart as it did the USSR. And we are not going to let that happen.
Do the Buddhists of Myanmar cherish the religious diversity that the Muslim Rohingya of Rakhine State bring to their country?
America has always been more than an idea, an ideology or a propositional nation. It is a country that belongs to a separate and identifiable people with its own history, heroes, holidays, symbols, songs, myths, mores — its own culture.
Again, where is the evidence that the more Americans who can trace their roots to the Third World, and not to Europe, the stronger we will be?
Is the Britain of Theresa May, with its new racial, religious and ethnic diversity, a stronger nation than was the U.K. of Lloyd George, which ruled a fourth of mankind in 1920?
Was it not the unity Bismarck forged among the diverse Germanic peoples, bringing them into a single nation under the Kaiser in 1871, that made Germany a far stronger and more formidable power in Europe?
Empires, confederations and alliances are multiethnic and multicultural. And, inevitably, their diversity pulls them apart.
The British Empire was the greatest in modern history. What tore it apart? Tribalism, the demands of diverse peoples, rooted in blood and soil, to be rid of foreign rule and to have their own place in the sun.
And who are loudest in preaching that our diversity is our strength?
Are they not the same people who told us that democracy was the destiny of all mankind and that, as the world’s “exceptional nation,” we must seize the opportunity of our global preeminence to impose its blessings on the less enlightened tribes of the Middle East and Hindu Kush?
If the establishment is proven wrong about greater diversity bringing greater strength to America, there will be no do-over for the USA.
Quote of the Times;
“Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. But for my part I have long perceived the nature of good and its nobility, the nature of evil and its meanness, and also the nature of the culprit himself, who is my brother (not in the physical sense, but as a fellow creature similarly endowed with reason and a share of the divine); therefore none of those things can injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading. Neither can I be angry with my brother or fall foul of him; for he and I were born to work together, like a man’s two hands, feet or eyelids, or the upper and lower rows of his teeth. To obstruct each other is against Nature’s law – and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction.” - Marcus Aurelius
Link of the Times;
https://www.infowars.com/socialist-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-wears-3500-outfit-for-photo-op-with-construction-workers/
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TOP NAMES OF RACE HORSES THAT PROBABLY AREN'T GOING TO FINISH FIRST
Allergic to Winning
Slower than Slower than Molasses
I wouldn't bet on him
Hope He Makes It
Dead Last
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Drunk hurricane calls Coast Guard at 2 A.M. asking for place to crash
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A wasted hurricane by the name of Florence has reportedly been calling at all hours of the night looking for a place to crash, according to Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads.
“She’s pretty hammered,” said Petty Officer Sam Vallin, who spoke to Florence, “She was saying things like ‘HEY! It’s me yer best fuckin’ friend. I’m shitfaced from the Caribbean and I need a place to pass out and take a fackin’ shit’.”
Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads began making preparations on the off change Florence is what they call a Category 4 Shitstorm. This means she will likely arrive blackout drunk, begin eating everything out of the refrigerator, puke in the sink, start playing trap music at full volume, start a fight with the lamp, and have sustained winds of up to 140 mph with a 24 ft storm surge.
The last reported contact from Florence was a drunk text with a blurry selfie and the message, “letz go 2 olive garden im fukin #REKT”.
The past drunk hurricanes of 2017 were devastating to the Coast Guard, costing up to $900 million dollars of all-hands-on-deck rescue and recovery operations. Hurricane Florence’s drunken arrival could add to that cost and cause extreme damage due to her erratic behavior and tendency to get really dramatic about small shit for no apparent reason.
The Coast Guard plans to prepare for the eventual arrival of Florence by supplying Extra-Strength Advil, a giant bottle of water, an extra set of blankets, and a Home Depot-sized puke bucket because nobody wants a repeat of last time.
*.*
Some upscale hotels are now offering cannabis-infused room service items to maximize relaxation for guests, and boost sales of their $40 microwave mini-pizzas.
Seen on Facebook: "I just returned a pair of Nikes to the store. I complained that they hurt my feet every time I stand for the National Anthem."
Stormy Daniels says she "may never have a normal life again." I've been reviewing her movie career. Not a whole lot of normal there to begin with.
Jaguar is building an SUV that can go 200 mph. Their slogan: "Never be late for soccer practice again."
North Korea is celebrating their 70th anniversary. Don't worry, I didn't send a card, either.
*.*
Two Newfoundlanders are drinking in a small bar in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland.
Fred says, "Did you know that Lions have sex 10 to 15 times a night!"
"Ah, shit", says Gabe. "I just joined the Knights of Columbus.
Issue of the Times;
The Unpardonable Heresy of Tucker Carlson by Pat Buchanan
Our diversity is our greatest strength.
After playing clips of Democratic politicians reciting that truth of modern liberalism, Tucker Carlson asked, “How, precisely, is diversity our strength? Since you’ve made this our new national motto, please be specific.”
Reaction to Carlson’s question, with some declaring him a racist for having raised it, suggests that what we are dealing with here is not a demonstrable truth but a creed not subject to debate.
Yet the question remains valid: Where is the scientific, historic or empirical evidence that the greater the racial, ethnic, cultural and religious diversity of a nation, the stronger it becomes?
From recent decades, it seems more true to say the reverse: The more diverse a nation, the greater the danger of its disintegration.
Ethnic diversity, after all, tore apart our mighty Cold War rival, splintering the Soviet Union into 15 nations, three of which — Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia — have since split further along ethnic lines.
Russia had to fight two wars to hold onto Chechnya and prevent the diverse peoples of the North Caucasus from splitting off on ethnic grounds, as Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan had done.
Ethnic diversity then shattered Yugoslavia into seven separate nations.
And even as we proclaim diversity to be our greatest strength, nations everywhere are recoiling from it.
The rise of populism and nationalism across Europe is a reaction to the new diversity represented by the Arab, Asian and African millions who have lately come, and the tens of millions desperate to enter.
Center-left and center-right parties are losing ground in European elections because they are seen as feckless in meeting what more and more indigenous Europeans believe to be an existential threat — mass migration from across the Med.
Japan’s population has ceased to grow, and each year brings fewer toddlers into its schools. Yet Tokyo resists the racial and ethnic diversity greater immigration would bring. Why, if diversity is a strength?
What South Koreans dream of is uniting again with the 22 million separated members of their national family who live in the North, but share the same history and blood.
This summer, in its Basic Law, Israel declared itself an ethnonational state and national home of the Jewish people. African migrants crossing the Sinai to seek sanctuary in Israel are unwelcome.
Consider China, which seeks this century to surpass America as the first power on earth. Does Xi Jinping welcome a greater racial, ethnic and cultural diversity within his county as, say, Barack Obama does in ours?
In his western province of Xinjiang, Xi has set up an archipelago of detention camps. Purpose: Re-educate his country’s Uighurs and Kazakhs by purging them of their religious and tribal identities, and making them and their children more like Han Chinese in allegiance to the Communist Party and Chinese nation.
Xi fears that the 10 million Uighurs of Xinjiang, as an ethnic and religious minority, predominantly Muslim, wish to break away and establish an East Turkestan, a nation of their own, out of China. And he is correct.
What China is doing is brutalitarian. But what China is saying with its ruthless policy is that diversity — religious, racial, cultural — can break us apart as it did the USSR. And we are not going to let that happen.
Do the Buddhists of Myanmar cherish the religious diversity that the Muslim Rohingya of Rakhine State bring to their country?
America has always been more than an idea, an ideology or a propositional nation. It is a country that belongs to a separate and identifiable people with its own history, heroes, holidays, symbols, songs, myths, mores — its own culture.
Again, where is the evidence that the more Americans who can trace their roots to the Third World, and not to Europe, the stronger we will be?
Is the Britain of Theresa May, with its new racial, religious and ethnic diversity, a stronger nation than was the U.K. of Lloyd George, which ruled a fourth of mankind in 1920?
Was it not the unity Bismarck forged among the diverse Germanic peoples, bringing them into a single nation under the Kaiser in 1871, that made Germany a far stronger and more formidable power in Europe?
Empires, confederations and alliances are multiethnic and multicultural. And, inevitably, their diversity pulls them apart.
The British Empire was the greatest in modern history. What tore it apart? Tribalism, the demands of diverse peoples, rooted in blood and soil, to be rid of foreign rule and to have their own place in the sun.
And who are loudest in preaching that our diversity is our strength?
Are they not the same people who told us that democracy was the destiny of all mankind and that, as the world’s “exceptional nation,” we must seize the opportunity of our global preeminence to impose its blessings on the less enlightened tribes of the Middle East and Hindu Kush?
If the establishment is proven wrong about greater diversity bringing greater strength to America, there will be no do-over for the USA.
Quote of the Times;
“Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. But for my part I have long perceived the nature of good and its nobility, the nature of evil and its meanness, and also the nature of the culprit himself, who is my brother (not in the physical sense, but as a fellow creature similarly endowed with reason and a share of the divine); therefore none of those things can injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading. Neither can I be angry with my brother or fall foul of him; for he and I were born to work together, like a man’s two hands, feet or eyelids, or the upper and lower rows of his teeth. To obstruct each other is against Nature’s law – and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction.” - Marcus Aurelius
Link of the Times;
https://www.infowars.com/socialist-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-wears-3500-outfit-for-photo-op-with-construction-workers/
Several animals were savagely beaten in the making of this page, including but not limited to; kittens, rabbits, zebu, skunks, puppies, and platypus. Also several monkeys where force fed crack to improve their typing skills.
And someone shot a duck.
An Images & Ideas, Inc. Service.
No Vegans were harmed in the making of this site. We're looking for a new provider.
And someone shot a duck.
An Images & Ideas, Inc. Service.
No Vegans were harmed in the making of this site. We're looking for a new provider.