This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Reality Check

  • Dumber Than a Box of Rocks

    This story, at first glance, makes you wonder not “What were they thinking”, but rather “WERE they thinking?” I”m not sure any of the people involved in this were thinking. This is both comically dumb, and disturbingly stupid. Definitely not planned, but some sort of fly-by-wire operation.

    From The Hill: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/404786-wife-of-ex-nra-head-tapped-accused-russian-agent-to-secure-jet-fuel

    The wife of David Keene, a former president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), tapped accused Russian agent Maria Butina to secure a jet fuel deal with Russia, according to hundreds of emails obtained by The New York Times.

    Donna Keene, a Washington lobbyist, asked Butina and her boyfriend at the time, GOP operative Paul Erickson, to secure five million barrels of jet fuel in exchange for $1 million, the Times reported. Keene reportedly connected Butina and Erickson with prospective buyers, including Israeli-American salesman Yoni Wiss.

    Butina is currently in a Virginia jail awaiting trial.  The 29-year-old allegedly told unnamed people in the U.S. that she targeted the NRA because they have a “central place and influence” in the U.S. and that they are the “largest sponsor of the elections to the U.S. Congress.”

    That’s a brief version. The real lowdown is at the NYT site here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/us/politics/maria-butina-russian-spy.html

    From the NYT:

    Federal prosecutors have depicted her (Butina) as a character out of “Red Sparrow,” the spy thriller about a Russian femme fatale. Ms. Butina, supported by Russian intelligence, managed to infiltrate conservative groups and advance Moscow’s interests in the United States, prosecutors say.

    In their telling, she used gun rights — Ms. Butina had started a pro-gun group in Russia — to gain a toehold in American conservative circles, and then struck up a romance with a far older Republican operative to open doors further. She has denied the allegations.

    Fair warning: the NYT will probably want  money from you, so you might want to just go to their site and read the full article there.

    I admit to some curiosity on  my part: the alleged volume of jet fuel, per the article is far more than Russia’s refineries can export in one month. In addition, the NYT article indicates that there is no port anywhere that could handle the amount of oil this group intended to obtain. I’m impressed with their consistent use of “trigger” words: inflitrate, gun rights, pro-gun, gain a toehold, open doors further.

    It’s meant to stir your curiosity. Oooh! Is this a spy novel??? No. Sorry.

    To add to the curious nature of this, Ms. Butina aligned herself with a Russian coffee bean trader and a public relations consultant with rather sketchy ties to Vlad Putin’s political party, for no visible reason, other than “Russian”.

    Apparently, this rather oddly comic adventure began when Ms. Butina ran into the Keenes and they all met with someone as yet unnamed who wanted to import 5 million barrels of Russian oil, for a finder’s fee of $1,000,000, in addition to Yoni Wiss who indicates that not one of these people had the faintest idea what they were doing, such as how to find a market for this product, which is where you start.  If you sell the products without researching the market, that’s kind of like being stuck with Amway’s things.  And besides, isn’t Libyan oil still being stolen and sold? That’s a much higher profit margin, y0u know.

    Gee whiz, people, if you’re going to try to pull off some kind of Spy vs. Spy stuff, which this is nearly imitating, at least read Follet and Ludlum novels first about the spy business. Or watch Walter Matthau in ‘Hop Scotch’. You might learn something.

    I’m just glad that nobody got hurt, no splinters in the fingers, and no broken nails out of this. Ms Butina, as is indicated, is sitting in a jail cell awaiting a hearing.

    Is this “investigation” into tomfoolery kind of a hint that the Demos are scrambling to find a way to prove, once and for, all that the Russians ran our elections in the fall of 2016? It does look that way to me. But they didn’t, so….?

    In retrospect, this NYT pile of “evidence” about a bird-brained attempt at making big sales in the USA commodities market with neither the experience to do it, nor the faintest idea how trading commodities works, is simply a tempest in a teapot. The real story is this nitwitted attempt to break into “something big” without the right training or tools to do the job. If Ms. Butina, who had a somewhat inflated view of her place in things, had bothered to check the financial and commodities markets, she might have seen seen that she was completely out of her depth. She had no connections with Gazprom, Russia’s oil contractor, and no real connections to Vlad, who may be snorting with laughter over this dustup. And she had not researched her proposed market ahead of time, in order to make the deal work.

    Note that on the sidebar in the “Hill” article, there is a link to something that says the Democrats will “bring sparks to the Kavanaugh hearing”. Is this connected to this oil business nonsense? Yes, in a vague way, because that will somehow sneak into the hearings.

  • China is Targeting US? No, really??

    Attention on deck! Listen up! It appears that China, our esteemed trading partner, and manufacturer of multiple hundreds of thousands of brands of US-bound electronics junk, is not only forming its very own Nuke Triad Club, but is also targeting our very own turf, the island of Guam.

    https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/08/17/pentagon-china-close-to-nuclear-triad-has-practiced-targeting-us/

    Ain’t that just sweet???  After all those stories about the Norks in Norkiland targeting the US’s left coast and Guam, now we have to worry about the Chinese doing it, too?

    From the article:

    “The Pentagon, for the first time, has publicly reported what commanders in the Pacific have known about, and kept a wary eye on, for some time: China is practicing long-range bombing runs against U.S. targets.

    “While the Defense Department annually reports on the rapid growth in capabilities of China’s air, land and sea forces, the 2018 report is the first to acknowledge the direct threat to U.S. territory.

    “Recent developments on China’s H-6K variant of its Badger bomber give the bomber “the capability to carry six land-attack cruise missiles, giving the PLA a long-range standoff precision strike capability that can range Guam,” the report said. It also acknowledged frequent bombing practice runs that U.S. commanders at the newly renamed U.S. INDOPACOM in Hawaii have watched expand in numbers and distance.”

    — Military Times article

    There is a link in the article to another article on how China has been practicing bombing runs against the USA territory of Guam. Now, that’s just rude.

    Here’s another link to an article regarding the proposed $716 billion DoD budget for FY2019. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2018/08/20/this-week-in-congress-us-senate-debates-pentagon-spending-bill/

    Maybe we should stop sending our technology to China for manufacturing. You know, keep it close to the buttons on the front of your blouse or shirt.

    We did talk about that the other day: bringing all US manufacturing home to Mama, but no one brought up this very subject, which could have been addressed.

    I know it would run up the cost of the iPad for Applefans, but – well, they’re obsessed with Appletoys, anyway, and I’m so unimpressed with all of that stuff that I’m still using a 15-year-old computer.

  • Air Force Veteran Reality Leigh Winner

    Air Force Veteran Reality Leigh Winner

    I have never been in Reality and I cannot stand a leaky Leigh, Winner has lost.  I doubt this poor girl had much of a chance from birth.

    Prosecutors say a Georgia woman who pleaded guilty to mailing a secret U.S. report to a news organization faces the “longest sentence” ever for a federal crime involving leaks to the media.

    Ex-National Security Agency contractor Reality Winner is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 23 by a federal judge in Augusta. She pleaded guilty in June.

    Winner’s plea deal calls for a prison sentence of five years and three months. The judge isn’t bound by that agreement, and the charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.

    Prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday their recommended sentence is stiffer than punishments in prior leak cases.

    Winner’s arrest last year was announced the same day The Intercept published a story on a classified NSA report on Russian hackers and the 2016 election. She is a former Air Force linguist who speaks Arabic and Farsi and had a top-secret security clearance.

    I thought they stopped arresting people who leaked information to the press.  Link to story HERE 

  • Meanwhile, in that “Socialist Paradise” Called Venezuela . . . .

    It’s old news that Venezuela is having a bit of economic difficulty these days. Well, everyone who’s not part of the Venezuelan Communist leadership ruling elite is having economic difficulties; the Communist leadership ruling elite is doing OK.

    For most Venezuelans, though, even TP can be difficult to find; ditto many foodstuffs. The same is reportedly true of many if not most common household items.

    Predictably, this has led to a substantial increase in crime. But conditions in Venezuela have now become truly grave.

    Literally. In Venezuela today, even grave markers are being targeted by thieves.

    I’m not joking.

    But obviously, this must be America’s fault. The fact that Venezuela’s Communist dictators ruling elite are trying to involuntarily impose – by dictat – an economic system that’s failed everywhere it’s been tried has nothing to do with Venezuela’s current economic problems.

    In fact, I seem to remember someone who would be happy to come here and tell us – using that inane “superior” Leftist Poodle Logic – why Venezuela’s problems are all America’s fault. He also could tell us why Socialism will soon fix all of Venezuela’s economic and social ills.

    Well, he could if Jonn hadn’t gotten fed up with him and dropped the ban-hammer.

  • Former Navy sailor pardoned by Trump says he’s suing Comey and Obama

    USS SSN
    Fox News News reports a former Navy sailor is planning to file a lawsuit against Obama administration officials, charging that he was subject to unequal protection of the law.

    Former First Class Petty Officer Kristian Saucier served a year in federal prison for taking photos of classified sections of the submarine on which he worked, and claims that the same officials who meted out punishment to him for his actions were lenient with Hillary Clinton for using a private email server for handling classified information.

    His lawyer, Ronald Daigle, told Fox News on Monday that the lawsuit, which he expects to file soon in Manhattan, will name the U.S. Department of Justice, former FBI Director James Comey and former President Barack Obama as defendants, among others.

    “They interpreted the law in my case to say it was criminal,” Saucier told Fox News, referring to prosecuting authorities in his case, “but they didn’t prosecute Hillary Clinton. Hillary is still walking free. Two guys on my ship did the same thing and weren’t treated as criminals. We want them to correct the wrong.”

    “We’ll highlight the differences in the way Hillary Clinton was prosecuted and how my client was prosecuted,” Daigle said. “We’re seeking to cast a light on this to show that there’s a two-tier justice system and we want it to be corrected.”

    Saucier, who lives in Vermont, pleaded guilty in 2016 to taking photos inside the USS Alexandria while it was stationed in Groton, Connecticut, in 2009. He said he only wanted service mementos, but federal prosecutors argued he was a disgruntled sailor who had put national security at risk by taking photos showing the submarine’s propulsion system and reactor compartment and then obstructed justice by destroying a laptop and camera.

    Saucier said that he recognized he had erred in taking the photos, which he said he wanted to show only to his family to show them where he worked. But he lashed out at Obama officials, saying that his prosecution was politically motivated, prompted by sensitivity about classified information amid the scandal involving Clinton’s emails.

    “My case was usually something handled by military courts,” he said. “They used me as an example because of [the backlash over] Hillary Clinton.”

    Saucier, 31, said that the pardon has enabled him to pick up the pieces and rebuild his life with his wife and young daughter.

    Well, good for him. He screwed the pooch and paid the price, no sympathy here. That being said, I wish him well in in his endeavors to expose the double standards that currently exist between the hoi polli and the elites. 30,000+ subpoenaed emails destroyed? Cankles McPantsuit has some ‘splainin’ to do.

  • Socialism, History – and “An Inconvenient Truth”

    Here are two quotes.  They’re both from the same individual.  Before I tell you who, take a guess.

     

    Socialism as the final concept of duty, the ethical duty of work, not just for oneself but also for one’s fellow man’s sake, and above all the principle: Common good before own good, a struggle against all parasitism and especially against easy and unearned income.

     

    We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions

     

    So, who did you guess?  Lenin?  Marx?  Eugene Debs?  Some other famous Socialist or Communist figure from history?

    Well, they are indeed direct quotations from a Socialist historical figure.  But he’s not one that usually comes to mind.

    The speaker in each of the above was none other than . . . Adolph Hitler.  The quotes above are historically verified, and they show insight into just how Hitler viewed himself:  as a Socialist, with a mission to implement his concept of Socialism in his society.  His views concerning the desirability of Socialism were essentially the same as those of Lenin and Stalin, as were his methods.   Even his economic policies were broadly similar.

    Not convinced?    Here are a few more verified historical quotes from Hitler regarding his views on how his movement (the Nazi party) embraced Socialism.  I’ve added a bit of emphasis here and there.

     

    We are convinced that socialism in the right sense will only be possible in nations and races that are Aryan, and there in the first place we hope for our own people and are convinced that socialism is inseparable from nationalism.

     

    After all, that’s exactly why we call ourselves National Socialists! We want to start by implementing socialism in our nation among our Volk! It is not until the individual nations are socialist that they can address themselves to international socialism.

     

    For we [National Socialists] too are considered ‘upstarts’ and ‘leftists’ by those same reactionaries. They are only too eager to apply such terms as ‘enemies of the fatherland,’ ‘Bolsheviks,’ and ‘inferiors.’”

     

    Since we are socialists, we must necessarily also be antisemites because we want to fight against the very opposite: materialism and mammonism . . . . How can you not be an antisemite, being a socialist!  (bold emphasis present in source)

     

    However, Hitler’s version of Socialism was different from that of the Soviets in one key respect.  Hitler viewed the implementation of Socialism as most properly being an internal national matter.  He rejected internationalist ventures (except for conquest, of course; like the Soviet Union, he wanted to expand his empire).  Lenin and Stalin had the opposite viewpoint.  Plus, Hitler appears to have been more extremely racist – as well as closer to being absolutely full-blown bat-sh!t crazy – than either Lenin or Stalin.

    So, whenever someone trots out the claim that Nazis were “not Socialists” or were “a creation of the Right”, show them the above quotations from Hitler and ask them to explain them.  And if their heads don’t immediately explode and they instead begin to splutter incoherently or spout inane leftist apologia, just smile – and walk away.

    The claim that National Socialists were “not Socialists” and “were a creation of the Right”,  in plain language, is bullsh!t.  The Nazis were simply yet another band of authoritarian Socialists who managed to attain political power.  Along with extreme nationalism, the Nazi movement had Socialist (as well as racist) principles as its core beliefs.

    Nazi economic policies were Socialist in nature and were and centrally-directed.  Their police-state methods were effectively the same as those used by the Soviet Union during the Great Terror.  Ditto their suppression of ethnic minorities and political “undesirables”, as well as their use of mass imprisonment and mass murder.  And they created one of the most repressive – and murderous – authoritarian Socialist police states in human history.

    Bottom line:  the Nazis saw themselves as a Socialists.  Their founder openly admitted it.  Their policies. tactics, and methods were similar to – or the same as – those used by other authoritarian Socialist regimes.  Both the Nazis and Soviet Communists sought world domination under Socialist rule.  The only essential difference between them was who would rule the resulting Socialist world each sought to create.

     

    Author’s Note:  For convenience, the above quotes were taken from WikiQuote.  However, authoritative primary sources for each quotation are cited there and can be used for verification of the quotes.  Feel free to do so if you like.

    And spare me any leftist apologia explanations that “those quotes don’t really mean what they say”.  Hitler’s words above speak for themselves quite clearly.  He was indeed a Socialist – of a particularly evil, authoritarian, and racist bent.

  • News from Venezuela

    Erosion is underway in Venezuela’s military. Small groups of military members are retaining their weapons or acquiring them from armories and going off on their own, posting videos addressed to Venezuelans in general to oppose Maduro and his dictatorship.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/world/americas/nicolas-maduro-venezuela-military.html

    I see reports that the opposition has given up and others that it has not. Being on the outside looking in, I can’t make a judgment on this, nor would I do so.  I would guess that the opposition people, those who protested in the streets, are simply worn to the bone.

    However, some of the reports indicate that the newly-elected assembly has now declared itself all-powerful and the opposition congress illegitimate. I can speculate on the direction this will take, because we’ve seen it happen before. But quite frankly, these things don’t end well.

    Foreign ministers from 17 Western hemisphere nations are rejecting Venezuela’s new assembly.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/the-latest-venezuela-opposition-urges-nationwide-protest/2017/08/07/a9272ef8-7bd0-11e7-b2b1-aeba62854dfa_story.html?utm_term=.c00e4f32559f

    Venezuelans are leaving their own country by any means possible. Delta and Avianca suspended their flights to Venezuela at the end of July. I believe that leaves 10 airlines still making stops there.

    http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2017/07/28/venezuela-sees-delta-avianca-halt-flights-to-country-amid-political-and-economic-turmoil.html

    Avianca has completely suspended all flights to and from Venezuela, while some South American countries are expanding visas for Venezuelans who are leaving the country.

    In addition to all of this, Venezuela is on the verge of defaulting on its bond payments.

    http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/07/news/economy/venezuela-debt/index.html

    $251 million can just be kissed goodbye, because Maduro doesn’t have it. Citgo’s refineries will not be getting any more Venezuelan oil, so that’s out as a resource. Maduro may have made a deal with Rosneft, but it is not cast in stone.

    Without cash, with a bankrupt treasury, Maduro has no money to buy imported foodstuffs like grains. In a country with good farmland, which Venezuela does have, you have to ask why it is dependent on external sources for basic necessities… but then, go back to when Chavez took over and Venezuela stopped being self-sufficient.

    Meanwhile, people have been scrounging through trash to find something – anything – to eat for weeks while that fat slob Maduro sits in his palace, stuffing himself.

  • The Axe is Falling….

    Maduro has gone beyond being a bully and a dictator.

    Luisa Ortega Diaz, Venezuela’s legitimate attorney general, has been barred from her office by security forces, and replaced with Tarek William Saab, who was recently sanctioned by the Trump administration for his failure to protect protesters from abuses, in his role as Venezuela’s top human rights official.

    http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-venezuela-assembly-session-20170805-story.html

    In my view, this simply leads next into executions of ‘enemies of the state’, meaning whoever Maduro spies with his piggy eyes, along the same lines as Pol Pot’s destruction of Cambodian society, Mao Tse-Tung ditto, and the current despicable regime in North Korea under Fatty Kim da T’ird. I could also bring up the despotism of Peron and Pinochet, but it all boils down to the same thing: Maduro is just another version of Stalin or Pol Pot or any of the other thugs that have seized power and destroyed their countries in the process.

    Ortega Diaz is barred from leaving Venezuela and her bank accounts have been frozen. If she is officially barred from leaving the country, it can mean one of two things: she will be in hiding, or she is under house arrest and will be imprisonned before long.

    Public executions of people like Ortega Diaz will not surprise me at all.  People simply disappeared under Peron and Pinochet.

    The people of Venezuela do not deserve this.