Welcome back to the Scuttlebutt, pour a cuppa, while you’re at it get me a fresh one too, please, black, and sweet.
We’re going to be ranging wide today, because once again I have so many targets, and so little time.
The title today is “Fan Dance.” For those of you that haven’t seen a century flip over, and a few that have, the “Fan Dance” has nothing to do with a groupie trying to get the attention of the lead guitarist. It’s an old school Burlesque number where a gal wearing nothing but a fancy hat, and some come fuck me pumps, but carrying two great big feathered fans, tries to artfully tease without actually showing anything that will get you an indecency charge in Paduka Iowa. It’s an art form, trust me.
It’s also practiced by most of the politicians and media today, where they try to get you all excited, and believing what they want you to believe, without actually telling you anything of substance. And in this case the mainstream media fans, are covering up the absolute disaster that is modern politics.
For example, we have this wonderful quote: “We have to start doing things for the greater good of society and not for idiots who think that they can do their own research, or that they are above the law and they can break the rules.” —CNN’s Don Lemon
No shit, CNN seems to think that anyone that doesn’t just accept whatever they say is an idiot. Here’s a tip from the crusty old sailor at the table… Anyone who tells you that if you don’t just trust them, that if you want to check their “facts” you’re an idiot??? Yeah, he’s trying to sell you a bridge. It’s right up there with “if you don’t buy this right now, it’s gone! I have 50 other people that want to buy this thing” as a warning sign that you’re talking to a con man, and not even a GOOD con man. A good con man goes for the long con. This guy is out to rob you blind, fast, and get out ahead of the Vice detective that’s hot on his trail.
In this case, they want to sell you their narrative. Trouble is, more and more of us are wizening up. That curtain is getting threadbare and we can see the little man behind it pulling the levers. Or to go with my original anthology, the fan’s been in use too long, most of the big feathers have fallen out, and their ass is waving in the breeze for all to see. The recent polls all show that more and more folks are just not buying it anymore.
This is good. I’m just sorry it took this long. Take Nancy Pelosi (dear Gods, I wish someone would take that boozy old bitch) She’s been in office since 1987!
See, I was thinking last night, I have to go to DC in March, as the VP of a National Organization for Government Managers. It’s our annual convention, and as part of it, we get a “day on the Hill” where we get to have a “chat” with our elected representatives. So, I got to thinking of “what would I say, if I could say anything I want, without embarrassing my organization?” (Which unfortunately is not the case, I can’t for moral reasons embarrass the people who supported putting me forward as their mouthpiece. SO, while I can call a spade a spade, I can’t call it a fucking shovel.)
Well, one thing that occurred to me, is that I have gone through two careers, (Military, then Government service working for the military) half another one (part-time cop for ten years), and currently hold still another one (writer and general gadfly) In all this time, the same group of people, across about 40 years, have been screwing me over:
Don Young: 49 years, Republican,
Chuck Grassley, 48 years, Republican,
Pat Leahy 47 years, Democrat.
Ed Markey: 45 years, Democrat,
Dick Shelby: 43 years, he’s been both a Democrat and a Republican, anything to stay in office.
Ron Wyden: 41 years, Democrat,
Chuck Schumer: 41 years, Democrat,
Hal Rogers: 41 years Republican,
Chris Smith: 41 years, Republican,
Steny Hoyer: 41 years, Democrat,
Dick Durbin: 39 years, Democrat,
Marcy Kaptur: 39 years, Democrat,
Mitch McConnell: 37 years, Republican,
Nancy Pelosi: 35 years, Democrat,
Fred Upton: 35 years, Republican,
Peter DeFazio: 35 years, Democrat,
Richard Shelby: 35 years, Republican,
Frank Pallone: 34 years, Democrat,
Dianne Feinstein: 30 years, Democrat,
Patty Murray: 30 years, Democrat,
Jerry Nadler: 30 years, Democrat,
James Clyburn: 29 years, Democrat,
Nydia Velazquez: 29 years, Democrat,
Eddie Bernice Johnson: 29 years, Democrat,
Bobby Scott:29 years, Democrat,
Oh, and let’s not forget Joe Biden, first elected to the Senate in ‘72, and has done nothing but serve in various elected positions since! (that makes 40 years, of interrupted service, for those that are math-challenged)
Now that huge list is ONLY the people who were elected in 1993 or before! (for the record, that’s 19 Democrats, and 8 Republicans, counting one guy twice because he shifted parties) All of these folks are in their 70s, most are in their 80s for god’s sake!
Our founders didn’t intend to have a hereditary ruling class, but it seems that voters have been supporting the idea. Term limits NOW!
Well! Now that I have that off my chest, let’s move on. I could go a whole page on President Biden’s little fan dance speech about how wonderful his first year went, but that’s just too easy, it’s sort of like kicking the kid that’s laying there with two broken legs.
Suffice it to say he still thinks he’s handled COVID better than anyone else ever, anywhere; he thinks he did a great job in pulling out of Afghanistan:
Pay no attention to the naughty bits exposed from the Americans we left behind, 13 of which the Taliban killed.
Pay no attention to the titties in the breeze that are China and Russia, now convinced that we lack the national will to do anything to them, ever, no matter what they do.
And, pay no attention to his yammering on about how “a minor incursion” into Ukraine would be different than a “major incursion”, a statement that his handlers have been trying desperately to cover up with words and fan waving ever since it came out of their boss’s mouth.
On that subject, needless to say, the Ukrainian Government was not pleased, they have been screaming blue bloody murder ever since, and everyone from the Whitehouse Press secretary, to various senators, have been trying to put feathers in front of that little flash of honesty. (In reality, I suspect he said exactly what he meant. If Russia takes another little bite of Ukraine as they did in 2014, Biden will do absolutely nothing, just like his daddy Obama did then.) More on the whole Ukraine bit, later in this article.
Next, we have the CIA fan dance: It seems the CIA has determined that “Havana Syndrome” is most likely NOT anyone doing anything to our government officials, and “most of the cases can be explained by medical, environmental or technical factors — including previously undiagnosed illnesses — and that it is ‘unlikely’ that a malicious state actor is inflicting purposeful harm on U.S. diplomats on a far-reaching, worldwide scale. The broader intelligence community has varying levels of confidence in that assessment,” they continued. (quoted in Politico’s national Security daily on 1/20) This feels like still another coverup to me. There are so many mealy-mouthed, wishy-washy words in their statement that they might as well have said nothing. The fact that they DID say something, translates as “we just want this to all go away, it’s uncomfortable and would tend to point in the direction of people we don’t want to make mad.”
On the “we don’t want to make mad” front, another piece from that same source (Politico’s National Security Daily for 1/20) identifies another little item that folks would like to not have you see: According to the Associated Press’ Erika Kinetz, “At some of the world’s most sensitive spots, authorities have installed security screening devices made by a single Chinese company with deep ties to China’s military and the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party.”
Where are these sensitive spots, exactly? “The World Economic Forum in Davos. Europe’s largest ports. Airports from Amsterdam to Athens. NATO’s borders with Russia. All depend on equipment manufactured by Nuctech, which has quickly become the world’s leading company, by revenue, for cargo and vehicle scanners.”
The article goes on to say that Nuctech claims “we didn’t break any local laws” which is the common cry of someone caught doing shit they shouldn’t have… We know for a fact, because they have been caught doing it before, (as mentioned in these pages) that China uses their industry for spying on anyone and everyone, at a rate that would make the old school ‘60s era CIA blush with shame.
Imagine if everything electronic that we sold on the world market was forced by the government to act as a bug, and share data with the CIA, or the NSA. Can you even begin to imagine the hue and cry just by Americans, never mind the rest of the world???
Yet, that is just about what China is doing, and no one bats an eye. Let me emphasize, much like the Telcom companies that were giving data to the Chinese government, from the towers they installed in Australia; these guys are providing the Security Screening Devices (things that look for nuclear weapons being smuggled into the country by terrorists, look for bombs, or high tech material being smuggled out of the country and to a place that doesn’t have an “end-user” certificate for it… Things that track the movement of legitimate weapons being sent from one nation to another…) for places like the border to Ukraine. Imagine how useful that information would be to, oh say RUSSIA, as well as China. Someone, please explain why the HELL this company got the bid to make, install and service these devices?
To shift subjects completely, my favorite target, the New York Slimes just did an article (here’s the link not behind a paywall: https://agriculturalextension.com/2022/01/24/old-fashioned-inefficient-light-bulbs-live-on-at-the-nations-dollar-stores-2/ )
Where they are trying once more to demonize Trump, in this case for rolling back the rules saying you couldn’t sell incandescent light bulbs in the US. The article doesn’t really mention that these lightbulbs (the sort we’ve been using for well over a hundred years) are MASSIVELY cheaper than the LED and CFL bulbs that are the alternative. They talk about how you would save “hundreds of dollars in energy bills” with the bulbs that they want you to use.
(As an electrician by trade, let me tell you that there are a LOT of caveats to that statement. LEDs CLAIM to last ten times or more as long as incandescents. That claim is valid as long as you don’t turn either one-off, and both are run at 70 degrees F. It also assumes that the LED was properly assembled, with high-quality components, and a serious heatsink [you have to convert 110 AC into 15v DC to run an LED, and that transformer and full wave rectifier build up heat fast. They will fry if poorly assembled, or if poor quality material is used, which is to say if the bulb is from China.])
Look, LEDs are a great tool in some applications. For example, I use them exclusively in my RV, because I do what’s called “boondocking.” IE I camp somewhere where the internal batteries and the generating power I can produce via solar, wind, or generator is all I have. Long life is nice if I can get it, but the primary goal is to not have to drain my batteries. It costs me three times as much for bulbs, and I replace them almost as often, but it’s worth it not to have to run that damn genset, I don’t like the noise. Of course, the system on my RV is 12 volt to begin with, so I don’t have to do the whole transformer and rectifier thing. I also use them in places where putting a new bulb in the socket involves a ladder, and I leave the bulb on all the time. However, they’re not a great deal for something that you turn on and off a dozen times a day. They will not last much longer than an incandescent, and they just don’t save enough (literally pennies per hour) to justify their cost.
The article lauds Europe (who’s shocked?) for being ahead of the US on the change over from incandescents. I’ve been to Europe; I’ve seen the state of their electrical wiring… OH, MY GODS… If we had wiring like that in the US, the fire inspectors would shut us down in a heartbeat. I mean seriously, if I were to do any of the shit I saw in the places I rented via AirBnB in the US, I would lose my license, if I had a bond, it would be pulled, and my company would be sued into nonexistence.
If you want to make your house more energy-efficient, Yes, lightbulbs are on the list… behind insulating your house to at least R 30 everywhere, replacing your windows with triple-pane, replacing your furnace and air conditioner if you have them, turning your thermostat down to 65 and wearing a sweater, replacing your water heater if it’s more than 5 years old, replacing your washer and drier if they’re more than 5 years old, replacing your dishwasher (again; 5-year rule) replacing your fridge, and replacing your stove and oven if they are electrical. In short, for bang for the buck, and for the most savings, lightbulbs are at the bottom of the list, the amount they will save you in electricity, (unless you live in ALASKA, or somewhere else where there are 6 months of darkness) is so small as to be less important than “don’t leave the fucking lights on if you’re not in the room.” Look this article is a hit piece, pure and simple. There are no outright lies in it, but the amount of half-truths and deceptive wording puts this in the classic fan dance list.
Gosh, there’s a lot of other things I wanted to talk about, like the poll that the NYT ran on how concerned people are about COVID, and why the young are more concerned and shouldn’t be, while the old are less concerned but should be more worried. They tie it to “older people are more conservative.” Nice try… I think a more accurate thought would be that older people have lived through somewhere north of twenty “Oh my God, the World Is Ending” things. They sort of losing their fear factor after a while.
Then there’s the article in Politico’s National Security daily for 1/25 that talks about Alexei Navalny. If you don’t remember, he’s the soviet dissident Russian Kremlin critic who was poisoned by the FSB (that’s the old KGB with new paint and chrome) damn near died, had to be medevac’d to Germany… Well, it seems when he got back into Russia they (the communist party FSB) arrested him for violation of his probation for going to Germany. He’s now serving two and a half years for that charge plus the charge of being an “extremist.” These are the folks running Russia these days.
In that same issue, there’s a piece on “Vaccine Inequality.” “Poor countries aren’t getting vaccinated as fast as rich countries, and that whack job Bernie Sanders demands that we do something about this. According to CARE (the international humanitarian group), 32 of the lowest and middle-income countries have used less than ½ of the vaccines we’ve GIVEN them. The most extreme example is Burundi, which has used one percent of the provided vax. Tell me, Bernie, what the fuck do you want us to do, go over there and force people to take the jab at gunpoint??? (Oh, wait, I forgot, you want that to happen HERE. Never mind.)
There’s the German head admiral, Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schonbach, who had to step down after saying in a public discussion that “The Crimean Peninsula is lost to Ukraine, they need to get over it, and frankly, Putin wants and needs to be treated with respect, then maybe Europe will be a better place.” He went on to say that we need to make Russia happy so we can use them against China. Don’t count on Germany to back anyone in Europe’s play against Russia, Ukraine, I hope you can fight a good Gorilla war, ala the Fins in the Winter War, because if you can’t I fear you’re screwed. Germany doesn’t have your back, I’m not sure the US does, about the only people that do are the other nations that have felt the joys of being owned by Russia. As for using Russia against China, I did a piece a while back on how our original plan (as dreamed up by Nixon and Kissinger) was to use China against the USSR.
Look how that turned out.
Realpolitik is the stupidest game ever played. You can NOT make your enemy your reliable friend against another enemy. This has NEVER worked in the long (20 year plus) run, and it never will. Please let’s quit playing it!
GoFundMe is at it again, if you haven’t heard, there’s a trucker convoy called the “Freedom Convoy” up in Canada, protesting that nation’s vaccine mandates. The organizers raised 4.5 MILLION dollars. According to their GoFundMe campaign, this was to go for fuel and for lodging once all these big rigs get to Ottawa. GoFundMe has frozen the account claiming it’s not clear what the money is supposed to go for. (More fan dancing, from a company that has a record of refusing to allow funding for anyone who doesn’t agree with the Pravda as approved by the very best leftists.) The money drive is quite upfront on what the money is for, but GFM is looking for a way to keep it out of the hands of these “enemies of the state.”
And FINALLY, there’s the case of a victory for the six University of Florida profs that sued their employer, for telling them that they were not allowed (under penalty of termination) to testify against the state in any lawsuit. Now what they wanted to testify against, was the governor’s stance on COVID restrictions, which I agree with, but more than I agree with that, I agree that employers DO NOT get to tell their employees that they may not testify against the state. https://continuitynews.com/2022/01/22/judge-issues-stinging-free-speech-ruling-against-university-of-florida/ It seems that the University was afraid that having their profs testify in court as “expert witnesses” would piss off the state government, and cost funding.
The judges ruling was priceless: “Judge Walker likened that to the decision last month by Hong Kong University to remove a 25-foot sculpture marking the 1989 massacre of student protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square by the Chinese military, apparently for fear of riling the authoritarian Chinese government.
If the comparison distressed university officials, he wrote, ‘the solution is simple. Stop acting like your contemporaries in Hong Kong.’”
My take: If the state can’t defend its policies, it deserves to lose in court.
OK, I’ve blathered on more than long enough.
Take care, watch your six,
Until next time I remain,
Yours in service.
William Lehman.