Cleaning the Decks

Welcome back to the Scuttlebutt. 


For those of you participating in the “no booze January,” there’s some virgin apple cider on the bar. For the rest of you reprobates, you know where the liquor locker is.


This post is going to be my way of getting rid of the last issues I was saving from 2022, that I wanted to mention, so that I can put that year to bed, clean out my “grist for the mill” file and allow the cat to bury what remains of a pretty sucky year.  


Ready? Let’s go!


New York was in the news again, though it was pretty well buried. The state demanded that all schools in the state remove any Indian mascots or references to Indians, from their names, logos, etc, or lose all state funding… Typical liberal position, remove the Indians, keep the land.


“ALBANY, N.Y. — Schools in New York state must stop using Native American references in mascots, team names, and logos by the end of the current school year or face penalties including a loss of state aid, the state Department of Education said.


“Arguments that community members support the use of such imagery or that it is ‘respectful’ to Native Americans are no longer tenable,” the department said in the memo, issued Thursday.” Source. And the courts went along with it.  The problem is that the INDIANS don’t like it. “I … spoke with other Native Americans in the community, all of whom agreed with my sentiments that the District’s long-standing mascot and logo represents Native American strength, honor, (and) pride, just as it is a source of identity, strength, honor, and pride for students and alumni of the District. To me and many Native Americans in the Cambridge community, the ‘Indians’ nickname and logo has always been a positive symbol to portray the strength of Native American heritage.” But of course, New York doesn’t give a rat’s ass what “those savages think” they just want to appear enlightened! “Shut up,” they explained, “we, the white people, know whether or not you have been offended, you’re too ignorant to realize it, so just set back and let us take care of you.”  


Chiefs Little Turtle, Blue Jacket, and Buckongahelas: Red courtesy phone, please. Winners of the Battle of a Thousand Slain, red courtesy phone, please. (if you don’t know, look it up, it will do you good.)


I’ve never understood the complaints about the use of Indians, or any other group as mascots.  You don’t pick losers, idiots, or cowards as mascots, you pick mascots that are designed to strike fear in your opposition: People like Vikings, Cavaliers, Lancers, Tigers, Pirates… 


Oh, wait, some folks do pick losers, idiots, and cowards. There are, after all: the Ottawa Senators, the Washington Commanders, The Washington Capitals, and the Anaheim Ducks… But for the most part, it doesn’t happen. 


New York got another entry here, for a new law that took effect the first of the year, compelling websites and apps to “regulate online speech that anyone anywhere finds ‘humiliating’ or vilifying.’  Now personally I find this law to be humiliating. I’m pleased to say there’s already a lawsuit against this shit.


And the organization sponsoring it, FIRE, is doing what the ACLU was designed to do, but won’t because they are a wholly owned subsidiary of the DNC.  They could use your support. 


Next on the hit parade, we have San Francisco which has fired (well technically “refused to renew the contract” which amounts to the same thing,) their elections Director, one John Arntz, for the sin of being white. Source.


In 2021, the Elections Commission wrote to the mayor that “San Francisco runs one of the best elections in the country and we believe this transparent process has allowed us to continue to improve our elections.” In 2020, it wrote Arntz a commendation “for his incredible leadership … The Department successfully ran two elections this year while facing significant challenges, including national threats to election security, mandatory vote-by-mail operations to all registered voters, anticipated increase in voter participation, budget cuts, and the COVID-19 pandemic.”


Now those same folks are saying: “Our decision wasn’t about your performance, but after twenty years we wanted to take action on the City’s racial equity plan and give people an opportunity to compete for a leadership position,” reads an email sent from commission president Chris Jerdonek to Arntz. “We also wanted to allow enough time for a fair and equitable process and conduct as broad a search as possible.”  


Reverend King, was this what you had in mind? Really?  Another worthwhile piece on leftist racism and revisionist history can be found here.


I’ve got several articles on Joe and the Ho (I’m sorry but I’m not even going to pretend to respect the office anymore, Biden has proven himself to be a completely senile meat puppet who can’t even remember when his kids died, or where.) and their gaffs on guns, their attempts at gun grabbing, their lies about anything and everything under the sun, from the economy to their support for censorship (“The first amendment is not absolute”) Their international relations failures, their energy policy failures, the border, and SOOO many other fuckups, but hell, there’s always going to be more, and if you haven’t figured out by now that those two are the worst disaster in the history of US politics, as well as the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people, well, you’re hopeless, so I’m just going to move on.


Then there’s the whole Twitter censorship thing.  Now, I’m fine with an individual newspaper, blog site, billboard company, or other private entity including TV stations, Radio, and any other media saying “this we will not carry, this we will not report on.  I think it’s a bald-faced lie to claim to be a news source and then decide not to report on news that doesn’t match your particular bias, but… It’s your right to do so.  


However,


When the Government is putting its thumbs on the scale, saying “we want you to cancel these accounts, we want you to “shadow ban” Oh, I’m sorry, the Twitter management called it “VISIBILITY FILTERING” accounts, well that’s something else again. 


Internal records show that at the close of 2017, Twitter made a key internal decision. Outwardly, the company would claim independence and promise that content would only be removed at “our sole discretion.” The internal guidance says, in writing, that Twitter will remove accounts “identified by the U.S. intelligence community” as “identified by the U.S.. intelligence community as a state-sponsored entity conducting cyber-operations.”


The second thread shows how Twitter took in requests from everyone — Treasury, HHS, NSA, FBI, DHS, etc. — and also received personal requests from politicians like Democratic congressman Adam Schiff, who asked to have journalist Paul Sperry suspended. Source who has all of Twitter’s internal records, as provided by Mr. Musk.


Look, at any other time, this would have suddenly and rapidly become a grand jury investigation against various employees of the Federal Government, followed by trials, and a lot of people being fired, fined, and doing time.  It still may, though I doubt it.  The Democrats have enough power to shelter the criminals from the ramifications of their actions.  The trouble is, that power is “political power.” Not “legal power.” If the pushing and shoving, sharp elbows, and body checks of partisan politics ever go to the sort of Partisan Warfare that the Balkans is oh so familiar with, it will be because political animals protected criminals when they violated the law and were caught at it.


What it all comes down to can be summed up by an editorial in the Seattle Slimes and other rags as compared to the opinions of the people in “fly over country.”  


Take this piece by Naomi Ishisaka who is: “The Seattle Times’ assistant managing editor for diversity, inclusion, and staff development. Her column on race, culture, equity, and social justice appears weekly on Mondays.”  This individual is somewhere to the left of Lennon (either one, they weren’t very far apart ideologically) and I often have to shower after reading her dreck.  I only read it to “Know thy enemy” and make no mistake, this individual is my enemy.  This piece is classic Ishisaka.


Basically (to save you the trouble of swimming through this sewer… But hey, if you’re a masochist, feel free, that’s why I provide the link.) She’s hacked off that people are using “Go Fund Me” to get money for things.  See, she thinks that all of the stuff that anyone wants money for from a Go Fund Me account should be provided gratis by Uncle Sam. The money shot is this quote:  


“Individual acts of charity will not result in a society that meets the needs of all. The unwillingness to accept this reminds me of the famous saying by Brazilian archbishop Dom Helder Camara, ‘When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.’” 


At the same time, the Boston Globe awarded an honorable mention for “Bostonians of the Year” to the citizens of Martha’s Vineyard for putting 49 illegal aliens in their church basement for about 45 hours before getting them bussed off the island.  Source.


I compare that to my recent trip back to the heartland, where people that, in my memory were ambivalent at best about firearms, (eh, you can have one if you want, but don’t bring it into my house, I see no need for them) are now carrying, and arming up.  And the thing about that is this:


It’s NOT JUST the Midwest. Out here on the coast, a lot of people are arming up and getting serious too, they’re just really quiet about it.  A lot of folks don’t want to tell “Bertha Better-than-you” that they don’t agree with her, because they need the social approval that kowtowing to the left requires, to keep their jobs, positions in various NGOs, and so on. Whether it be a position with a .edu address attached, or with some charity, a position with a “public-facing profile” or maybe a real estate gig, if you don’t solemnly rub blue mud when the leftist masters tell you to, “you’ll never work in this town again.”  Privately many of these folks are stocking up on guns and food, and what they say doesn’t match how they vote.  More and more of those are talking among themselves, comparing notes, and looking at claimed election totals.  They’re getting more and more unhappy about it.  


I’m begging the left, with tears in my eyes: please stop pushing. I don’t know where the breaking point is, but I can hear the creaks and groans. The mooring lines are shedding water in a spray all the way around and smoking. You REALLY do not want to see what it looks like when people no longer trust the ballot box, the soap box, or the jury box, you just DON’T.


There’s a lot more that I could say about the end of the old year, but instead I’m going to copy a question I was asked on Quora.  Yes, it’s relative, because the difference between a “kamikaze drone”, and a modern civilian hobby drone, is about 45 minutes with an electronics guy, and some fairly easily procured explosives.


Why is there all this talk about kamikaze drones when cruise missiles, and any other guided and propelled munition could be considered “kamikaze drones”?


That’s sort of my point as well.  The only differences between a cruise missile and a drone with a warhead onboard are:


Speed: Cruise missiles are usually considerably faster.


Cost: Numero UNO in the “Big Differences” category. Drones are in general, significantly cheaper than cruise missiles. Yes, there are exceptions, like the Reaper, but those aren’t “suicide drones” either, they are armed and after shooting, return to base. They are more accurately comparable to a manned fighter/bomber, and are again, cheaper than the alternative, though not as flexible.


Control mechanism: A drone is usually remotely piloted, as opposed to being “fire and forget” this is number two of the three biggest differences and a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it allows you to launch the drone on speculation that there MIGHT be a target in the area, or to do reconnaissance. Then, if you find a target you already have ordinance there, and you can take it out immediately. On the other hand, soon (about next Tuesday) some clever bastard, probably educated in the US, will figure out a way to take over a “suicide drone” in flight, and won’t THAT be fun?  


I say US trained because we have this propensity for allowing foreign nationals, often people that hate our system and our nation to attend college and get advanced degrees from our universities. This is done for two reasons:
 

1) we can charge them more, and the college administrators are greedy and don’t give a damn who they educate, as long as the revenue stream keeps flowing, and 
2) The naive and misguided belief that “exposure to our system, will make them converts.”  These people are often the ones “on top” in a rigid hierarchy.  They are no more going to support toppling that system that gives them power, money, prestige, and sex than I would advocate going to a communist system.  Take most of the bomb makers for the various Radicalized Islamic Organizations… Yep, western trained.  Seriously, how stupid can we be? But I digress. 


Loiter time: The ability to “hang out” above the battlefield, while looking for the perfect target to take out.  This is the third big difference, though it’s not completely true, some cruise missiles have this capability as well. Finally:


Propulsion system: most missiles (some cruise missiles again are exceptions to this rule, and in fact are that wide grey band between “missile” and “drone”) are non-airbreathing. They use a solid, or rarely, a liquid propellant, and are AIP. Drones use either an air-breathing engine or an electrical propulsion system.


Well folks, I think I’ve blathered on long enough, 
keep your head on a swivel, and your weapons clean, and loaded. 
Until next time I remain,
Yours in service.
William Lehman.

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