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Open thread 12/15/23

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  • Snakepit Kansas December 15, 2023, 8:09 AM

    When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination. – Thomas Sowell

  • Joe Krill December 15, 2023, 8:17 AM

    Truthisms.

    America – long the freest and most prosperous, powerful, altruistic and Christian nation on the face of the earth – is on the brink of destruction.

    “The Church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscious of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority”  —–   Martin Luther King Jr.

    • Amel December 16, 2023, 8:27 AM

      Snake, preferential treatment was the hallmark of LbJ and his great society, it turned the African community into a bunch of wooses. Krill, your truthisms hit the nail squarely. Noug said

  • ghostsniper December 15, 2023, 12:55 PM

    A priest, rabbit, and a minister walk into a bar.

    The bartender asks the rabbit, “What’ll it be?”

    The rabbit shakes his head and says,

    “I have no idea, the only reason I’m here is because of autocorrect.”

  • Anne December 16, 2023, 6:54 AM

    I have reported here for several days about an event in Great Falls MT. In this event there were 3 county commissioners–all Republican. There was a newly elected (November 2023) votes superintendent–also R. HOWEVER, the democrats railed and complained about the most recent ballot having had errors of printing (not influential in the outcome). The Democrats demanded that the county remove the new supervisor and hire an “outside professional”. After 6 hours of protests from the Republican community 2 of the three R supervisors decided to remove the newly elected votes supervisor. YEP! You heard me right it only took 2 elected Republicans to surrender control over the county election system to an “outside authority”. The hearing went on for 6 hours with more than 70 people supporting the votes supervisor–it did not matter. The “well meaning” amateur Republicans surrendered what was left of our election “integrity”.
    HOWEVER, that was not bad enough. Nope–I have just become aware of the fact that this same sequence of events (same ballot errors) took place in 6 SIX other counties and guess what has happened in those counties? YEP YOU GUESSED IT. “Well meaning” Republicans trying to compromise with the Democrats also surrendered our (R) elected official election supervisor! YEP in one easy slime little strategy out of state Democrats have convinced 21 elected Republicans to hire
    “outside professional oversight” of our election system. F*&$K How easy was that? You know those Damn dumb do good Republicans–giving away the country to feel good about compromising with evil!

    • ghostsniper December 16, 2023, 7:09 AM

      Some kneecaps it seems, from birth, were designed to eventually be broken.
      If bad behavior is not balanced with pain the bad behavior will continue and grow.
      What is the point of voting for reps if they do what the dems want?

    • azlibertarian December 17, 2023, 2:48 PM

      I can empathize, Anne. I live in Maricopa County, Arizona, and our elections have stunk for years.

      I recall going to bed on Election Day of 2018 thinking that the Republican candidate for Secretary of State had won. Wouldn’t you know it, but somewhere around 2am the vote tally changed and we ended up with Katie Hobbs as our Secretary of State. Today, she is our (alleged) Governor. I don’t have a specific memory of this, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the same stunt hadn’t propelled Janet Napolitano into the Governor’s office way back in ’02.

      I don’t think that anyone thinks this way any longer, but it used to be said that Arizona was a Republican state. After years of Barry Goldwater and then John McCain, that was a reasonable thing to believe (at least on the surface). I gave the D’s credit back then–when they won, they did it by turning out their voters big time in the areas where they were strong. Now-a-days, it’s all underhanded double-counting followed by legal stiff-arms and denials. The D’s know how to play the elections game. I watched a video of one of the volunteers verifying mail-in ballot signatures. He was verifying signatures as quickly as he could punch the keys. Of course, it’s well known that D’s vote by mail (because there’s no fraud there….of course not!) and R’s vote in person on Election Day.

      Dunno how this will all end. Its going to be interesting next year. Some times I read that old adage of “May you live in interesting times” and think: “I could use less interesting, and more predictability.”

  • Anne December 16, 2023, 7:07 AM

    Here is a good review of these events I posted. Read it and weep to see how truly organized the national Democratic party is when it comes to taking over EVERY election in EVERY state!
    https://montanafreepress.org/2023/12/12/cascade-county-relieves-clerk-and-recorder-of-election-duties/?utm_medium=email

    • ghostsniper December 16, 2023, 7:45 AM

      I read that whole thing.
      What a cluster fuck.
      Only gov’t employees can fuck shit up so bad.
      They have fucked that up so bad that it may not be able to be unfucked by any means.
      But isn’t that the way with gov’t at all levels?

      Bureaucracy is most likely at the bottom of it.
      Too many rules and too many people trying to adjust to the rules and nothing productive gets done because of all the rule following and the fact that many rules are contradicting and just plain wrong.

      Ladies and gentlemen, we are fast approaching a massive stalemate.
      The point in which no movement or decisions can be made without violating rules.
      If people cannot move forward, they must stay where they are (if they can) or move backwards.

      Here’s my own little fiasco resulting from this same bureaucratic process.
      Since last June I have been working on the construction documents for a brand new chiropractors office in North Fort Myers, FL. This set of documents have been rejected from the building and zoning dept’s 6 times over that period of time. Each time I address and revise the plans and resubmit them they are rejected for more reasons. There doesn’t seem to be any methodry as to how all this rejection business is supposed to play out.

      Why don’t they go through the construction documents the first time and make ALL of the rejections and be done with it? Then I could go through the documents and make ALL of the corrections and be done with it?

      Lemme give you just one example this idiocy.
      From the very beginning my drawings show a receptionists desk and chair in the front reception-waiting area. The dimensions of the desk, the dimensions of the desk from adjacent walls, the name and model numbers of the desk and chair have been on the plan from the beginning, just like I have done on every commercial plan in the past.

      In this last run through the building dept one of the 9 rejection items was the lack of a note pertaining to the receptionists desk and chair stating that both are A.D.A. compliant. JFC
      A.D.A. = Americans with Disability Act.

      I told the chiropractor-owner, jokingly, that she should hire an illegal alien for the receptionist position and therefore the AMERICAN with Disability Act would be irrelevant.

      This project might break me. I do what I do, mostly because I have mostly enjoyed it for the past 51 years (since 1972), the money is secondary. But gov’t bio-drones trying to navigate endless tunnels of rules are making the whole process a major PITA to everyone involved. I don’t want to do commercial projects any more. Why should anyone do that which they don’t enjoy?

      I can offer no suggestion to your problem Anne for I don’t believe there is one, now.
      The problems isn’t dem or rep but rather bureaucracy.
      The whole system is grinding to a halt, and that’s a good thing.

  • ghostsniper December 16, 2023, 8:20 AM

    Megadeth, A Tout Le Monde
    =========================
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU-dKoFZT0A

    Got to thinking about this one a little while ago and decided to give it a run.

    Broke out my Ibanez JS100 (gorgeous transparent red),

    https://www.joesatrianiuniverse.com/gear/ibanez-js-guitars/js100/

    and bolted it into my Fender Stage 112 SE combo,

    https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/sn9l2n2/images/stencil/1280×1280/products/101699/637836/DSC_4682__44487.1700609843.jpg?c=2 ,

    with my Digitech RP-1 processor,

    https://www.modulargrid.net/img/modcache/17276.f.jpg ,

    and commenced to tearing into it.

    Lousy.

    I hadn’t played this in probably more than a year and I was lacking – mostly in the lead.
    Clearly I am dragging my ass these days.

    It’s my favorite toon by these folks and the only one by them that I can mostly play.

    Don’t remember where I was
    I realized life was a game
    The more seriously I took things
    The harder the rules became
    I had no idea what it’d cost
    My life passed before my eyes
    When I found out how little I accomplished
    All my plans denied

    So as you read this know my friends
    I’d love to stay with you all
    Please smile when you think of me
    My body’s gone that’s all

    À tout le monde [To all the world]
    À tout mes amis [To all my friends]
    Je vous aime [I love you]
    Je dois partir [I have to leave]
    These are the last words
    I’ll ever speak
    And they’ll set me free

    If my heart was still alive
    I know it would surely break
    And my memories left with you
    There’s nothing more to say

    Moving on is a simple thing
    What it leaves behind is hard
    You know the sleeping feel no more pain
    And the living are scarred

    À tout le monde [To all the world]
    À tout mes amis [To all my friends]
    Je vous aime [I love you]
    Je dois partir [I have to leave]
    These are the last words
    I’ll ever speak
    And they’ll set me free

    So as you read this know my friends
    I’d love to stay with you all
    Please smile, smile when you think about me
    My body’s gone that’s all

    À tout le monde [To all the world]
    À tout mes amis [To all my friends]
    Je vous aime [I love you]
    Je dois partir [I have to leave]
    These are the last words
    I’ll ever speak
    And they’ll set me free
    [2x]

    These are the last words
    I’ll ever speak
    And they’ll set me free

  • ghostsniper December 16, 2023, 11:07 AM

    Can this government and this administration fall any further?

    https://dailycaller.com/2023/12/15/staffer-caught-filming-sex-tape-senate-hearing-room/

    • DT December 16, 2023, 4:55 PM

      No need to encourage the hold-my-beer people but I suspect the party’s just begun.

  • Anne December 17, 2023, 10:15 AM

    Dear Ghostsniper: Thanks for reading about our problems in MT. It is always good to hear your thoughts. I am in disagreement with your conclusion as to what caused the problem vis a vis accurate ballots, etc. It was not the bureaucracy who thought of this strategy. It was the local democrats who lost so badly in the last election. They have pulled every dirty trick in the book and at the national level they are so well organized! The fact that this ballot inaccuracy occurred in 7 different counties makes it explicitly clear that it was a well planned strategy to take control of the vote counting process. Those counties all had ballots distinct and unique to them. It was not seven different bureaucracies making the same mistake by accident or incompetence!

  • ghostsniper December 17, 2023, 1:23 PM

    Take a look at what Oliver Solares said below.
    THAT should get his kneecaps broken by an angry motorist.
    How dare that piece of shit cause anguish to others under the delusional ASSumption that he has the right because of blah-blah-blah.

    Using that assholes theory, I can go over there and punch his ass in the face because of the ordeal in Gaza, I mean, his anguish would be minimal compared to the Gaza folks, right?

    Every jackboot on the ground that did not stop this criminality is also a criminal and needs to be capped too.
    =========

    Once, a friend was supposed to pick me up at LAX at midnight and take me to his crib. Well, he was drinkin’ and laffin’ and smokin’ and shit and fell asleep on the couch. I had to walk my ass from LAX to his crib in Lomita just off PCH (101) and Western (11). Took quite a while but I was a rigorous walker back in them days.

    ==================
    ==================

    Protesters block traffic near LAX to demand Gaza Strip cease-fire
    BY ASHLEY AHN, RUBEN VIVES, JEREMY CHILDS
    DEC. 15, 2023

    Protesters demanding a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip blocked traffic near Los Angeles International Airport on Friday night, continuing demonstrations that earlier this week saw the 110 Freeway shut down during peak commute time.

    Around 4:30 p.m., about 200 demonstrators gathered at South Sepulveda Boulevard and 92nd Street, just north of the airport entrance, and began to march toward the airport. They chanted, “Let Gaza live,” and carried a 30-foot banner bearing those three words.

    Two police cars followed as traffic began to back up.

    The group marched on the Sky Way over Sepulveda, shutting down all lanes of the bridge that feeds into the airport. Some motorists tried to turn around but were blocked by police. Others crept past demonstrators, trying to make their way into the airport. A couple dozen officers lined up along Sepulveda to steer protesters around the thoroughfare.

    By 6 p.m., the protest had looped back to Sepulveda, where demonstrators occupied the intersection at 92nd Street, provoking anger and honking among blocked motorists.

    “I’m out of my f— mind right now. I need to get to the hospital,” said one man who did not give his name before being waved forward by an officer.

    Attendee Oliver Solares, a 25-year-old graduate student, said he understood why protests such as this one that impeded traffic flow were angering drivers across L.A. But he said the problem was insignificant compared with the horrors people were experiencing in the Gaza Strip.

    “That anger is marginal to what’s happening to people across the world,” he said. “They’re being bombed, killed. Being mad at traffic for two hours is marginal. It comes from a place of privilege.”

    Jenae Lien, 35, brought her 3-year-old son to the protest so he could participate in the action, confident that it would be safe.

    “You first have to be angry to bring about change. People have different ways of expressing that anger, but I think at the end of the day we all just want a safe place to live and a good environment for our kids,” she said, motioning to her son listening to the chants in a stroller.

    Earlier Friday, as the protesters gathered, about a dozen wore yellow safety vests and were acting in the role of safety marshals to aid in “deescalation in case other people intervene” or police become aggressive, said Harp Mann, a spokesperson for the activists.

    A young man shouted into a megaphone: “Shut everything down that’s funding genocide! We have to say stop. Let Gaza live!”

    Joseph Soof, 49, held a Palestinian flag as he marched with dozens of demonstrators calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

    Soof said he has family in the West Bank and is concerned for them, and this was his way of trying to help raise awareness about the violence and hardship his family and other Palestinians are facing.

    “We want an end to this violence and aggression,” he said.

    Friday’s disruption came two days after dozens of protesters sat across the southbound 110 Freeway, blocking traffic during morning rush hour. Angered drivers were seen exiting their vehicles and skirmishing with the demonstrators at Wednesday’s action, a scene still fresh in protesters’ minds Friday.

    “Safety is absolutely the No. 1 priority for this action,” said Camilo Rafaèl Caridad Pineda, an organizer of the LAX protest. “There is definitely a lot of lessons that we’ve been learning from these demonstrations that have been taking place all over Los Angeles.”

    More than two months have passed since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing over 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostage, Israel says. The ongoing conflict has killed more 18,700 Palestinians trapped in Gaza in airstrikes and ground attacks by Israeli forces, according to Gaza health authorities. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes.

    Maria Penntock joined Friday’s protest after taking three hours to arrive at the airplane-spotting park outside LAX.

    “I took three different buses,” she said as she applied makeup. Around her neck was a Palestinian flag.

    Penntock said she hoped the demonstration would have a ripple effect that would cause Americans to pay attention to what has been happening in Gaza and demand a cease-fire.

    “My heart is broken for the Palestinian people,” she said.

    In major cities across the country, demonstrators calling for a cease-fire have taken to the streets and grown more disruptive. As President Biden and other world leaders were in the Bay Area for an economic summit last month, protesters blocked traffic on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for hours. A group called Jewish Voice for Peace shut down the Manhattan Bridge on Thanksgiving weekend, and on Thursday, that group and allies shut down major roads and bridges in Philadelphia and Washington.

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-12-15/los-angeles-international-airport-gaza-cease-fire-protest

    • Casey Klahn December 18, 2023, 5:52 AM

      The intellectual depth of the Pale protests can be observed by looking at the Tran s genders for Palestine marches. It’s inane, absurd, and stupid.

    • nunnya bidnez, jr December 18, 2023, 10:55 AM

      “Jewish Voice for Peace” is a commie front group here in NYC.
      Many of the members are jewish by birth, but they are socialists and commies first and foremost.
      They previously shut down Grand Central Station; they can frequently be seen at the palistinian demonstrations.
      They all wear matching T-shirts.

  • ghostsniper December 17, 2023, 6:31 PM

    First the traitors, then the invaders.

    If we don’t deal with the globalist traitors first, the genocidal replacement invasions of Europe and America will never stop.

    Research Kalergi Plan.

    https://westernrifleshooters.us/

  • ghostsniper December 17, 2023, 6:46 PM

    If Trump is elected next Nov you can expect the following to happen.

    https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1734679864152625626

    According to the communist, criminal dems.

    THIS is the massive SCARE tactic the gov’t-media will be slamming in everybody’s face for the next 11 months.

    And they will ramp it even higher, just watch.

    • DDuke December 17, 2023, 9:42 PM
      • ghostsniper December 18, 2023, 3:41 AM

        Thanks DDuke.
        I bookmarked that site and it may very well be a regular pitstop on my daily meanderings.

        I’m content with leaving people in general alone for the most part as long as the same is bestowed to me. But for some time now I have held the belief that a large and varied segment of the population does not believe the same. In fact, they hold me in contempt, for simply existing.

        If my next door neighbor holds me in contempt for undefined reason or wrong reason, I cannot be expected to live in fear of “what he will do next”. A confrontation must eventually occur. A confrontation in which a leveling of peace is the goal, willingly or not. I expect, no, I require, others to treat me as they require I treat them. A simple philosophy that is easily understood by all. But some, it seems, pretend to not understand and for reasons that are not clear or acceptable they choose a way in which antagonism and fear are the outcome. This cannot continue, nor will it continue.

        All across this country are legions of mostly unorganized patriots champing at the bit to find leadership or direction to the cause to do that which must be done.

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