Quotable Quote

 

Joe Biden is a dingleberry on the rectum of the Democrat party. — Fletcher

STAND UP TO DINGLEBERRIES!

Powerline Pic

 

STAND UP FOR TWO GENDERS!

Green New War

The Green New War is not going so well under the rules of engagement as dictated by AOC and Greta Thunberg:

- Our tanks and armored personnel carriers are getting bogged down as the enemy is choosing battlefields away from the charging stations.

- Our solar-powered planes are losing out to the enemy’s jets because they are slow, can’t fly at night and can’t carry any armaments.

- Our soldiers crossbows and broad swords are proving ineffective against machine guns, hand grenades and bazookas.

- Our sail-powered aircraft carriers can’t launch airplanes into the wind … and our sail-powered submarines are easily detected.

- Our vegan and gluten-free MREs apparently cannot maintain the necessary energy levels of our troops to effectively defeat the enemy.

But all is not lost Pilgrim … for John Kerry has started passing out pink bicycles to our troops!

STAND UP TO STUPIDITY!

Fractured Definition

 

Poppycock — somewhat silly rooster remembering Flanders’ fields.

STAND UP FOR REMEMBERING!

Headlines

 

British Virgin Islands officials arrested in Florida, charged in drug conspiracy

Elon Musk sold around $4 billion  of Tesla stock as he moved to buy Twitter

Biden asks Congress for $33 billion to support Ukraine through September

GDP shrinks 1.4% …Amazon plunges on weak forecast … Layoffs begin at Netflix …

Feds seek $3M from Paul Manafort for failing to disclose offshore accounts

Apple shares dip after company warns of possible $8 billion hit from supply constraints

Durham: ‘Tech Exec-1’ in ex-Clinton lawyer Sussmann case may have committed fraud

Oklahoma passes 6-week abortion ban …

California’s budget surplus has exploded to $68B

Russia cuts key interest rate to 14%, says inflation could hit 23% this year

Sen. Markowski acknowledges she may lose to Trump-backed challenger

Lake Mead falls to unprecedented low …

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Miss Disinformation

Mary Poppycock …

STAND  UP FOR KARAOKE!

Interesting Factoids

 

Factoids that have caught my fancy:

- Most manufactured aluminum products contain a small amount of lithium

- The Biden admin creating The Ministry of Truth in DHS under Mayorkas

- After Elon Musk won his bid to take over Twitter, Donald Trump Jr.’s followers increase by 200,000 overnight. Were these all shadow banned?

- The Nasdaq  is down over 20% … this translates into a bear market for Big Tech

- The U.S. GDP declined 1.4% in the first quatprter of 2022. One more quarter of negative growth means that a recession is underway.

- Putin could declare WW3 in two days

STAND UP FOR FACTOIDS!

Bug Toenail of Clay

 

Pilgrim, perfection is unattainable. No matter how charismatic someone may seem … he/she always has at least a big toenail of clay. — Fletcher

Afterward: Of course, there are many more who have both legs fully of clay.

STAND UP FOR REALISM!

QuotableQuote

Humanity is divided into two camps — the takers and the givers. — Fletcher

STAND UP FOR THE GIVERS!

Evolving Epigram

 

Free speech is not free … in fact, its down payment is  $44 billion. — Elon Musk

STAND UP FOR FREE SPEECH!

Headlines

 

It’s Trump vs. Cruz in Ohio and PA Senate races

Facebook forecast points to possible revenue drop for the first time after decade of growth

Mayorkas: DHS creating Orwellian ‘Disinformation Governance Board’

CDC, FDA ‘altered’ guidance under political pressure …

Trump endorses Lombardo in Nevada governor race

Putin threatens ‘lightning fast’ retaliation if nations intervene; UK says West must ‘double down’ on Ukraine support

Sheriffs’ Association shock: We simply have ‘no border left’

Can Musk still afford Twitter after Tesla wipeout?

Britain’s Foreign Secretary: NATO should protect Taiwan

Denmark becomes first country to halt its COVID vaccination program

Emails show Hunter Biden trashed Bill Clinton, slammed Clinton aides as ‘greedy’

CA raising gas tax; already highest in nation …

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Powerline Charts

STAND UP FOR STATISTICS!

Evolving Epigram

 

Give me liberty, or give me a lobbyist contract.

STAND UP FOR PATRIOTISM!

Evolving Epigram

Why can’t a woman be more like a man … and visa versa?

STAND UP TO GENDER FLUID!

Headlines

 

Muslim voter turnout grew in 2020

Adjustable-rate mortgage demand doubles as interest rates hit highest since 2009

Collapse: Biden’s net approval underwater in 40 states, including coastal Democrat strongholds

America ‘out of pandemic phase’ …

The Pope may pray for Putin, but he’s clinging to neutrality on Ukraine

Russia accused of ‘blackmail’ as it halts gas supplies to two European countries

Georgia elections chief hints at organized effort behind ballot harvesting

Can Musk still afford Twitter after Tesla wipeout?

Poll: Hershel Walker dominates Georgia GOP Senate race …

Cawthorn cited for having a loaded gun in North Carolina airport

Space-X launches Crew-4 mission for NASA; has now sent 26 astronauts to space in under 2 years

Visitor logs: Hunter Biden’s business partner made eight additional White House visits

58% Americans have [COVID] antibodies …

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Melting Snowflakes

 

To the huzzahs of many on the right, Elon Musk has apparently won his effort to take over Twitter. This has caused a frantic paroxysm on the left. And the company that Musk is taking over is chock-a-block full of melting snowflakes.

And so, kind reader, I think that Musk might have a challenging job transforming this company into one espousing free speech … since I suspect that he cannot inspect the computer coding for this internet site … and the snowflake sabotage could come in waves to thwart his noble intentions.

Now, obviously, Elon Musk is a good manager. but is he good enough to overcome all the technical mischief he is likely to face?

For more, see: Powerline post.

STAND UP FOR FREE SPEECH!

Logical Logic

If Elon Musk is correct and what is happening in the world today is nothing but a simulation performed in some mega quantum computer many years hence … then sleep easy Pilgrim … for, if things were to go haywire and Putin were to start a nuclear war that spun out of control with the annihilation of our world … then how could this mega quantum computer creating this final Armageddon ever come into being?

(Ot course, Musk could be wrong …)

Afterthought: Is Zuckerberg’s metaverse an embryonic version of Musk’s notion of this mega quantum computer simulation?

STAND UP FOR LOGICAL LOGIC!

Evolving Epigram

 

Pomposity, thy name is Kerry.

STAND UP TO POMPOSITY!

Headlines

 

Dr. Oz: ‘We cannot move on’ from the 2020 election

The threat of nuclear war is real, top Russian official says, U.S. wants to see Moscow ‘weakened’

Twitter accepts Elon Musk’s buyout deal — Trump says he’s not returning

Twitter workers fear future …

Most of Beijing to be tested for COVID amid lockdown fears

Biden reverses Trump move to open up more oil drilling in the Arctic

Federal judge temporarily blocks Biden from ending Title 42

American voters haven’t been afraid like this in a long time …

DeSantis signs bill creating one of the nation’s only election police units

Jeff Bezos takes a swipe at Musk’s Twitter takeover, suggesting it might give China ‘leverage’

Economist: World is in the early stages of ‘very significant’ recession

NY judge holds ex-president in contempt …

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Obsession

Isn’t it rather ironic and worth pointing out that many Democrats are manically obsessed with canceling ex-President Trump for, among other things, his obsession that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. — Fletcher

Why is one obsession bad … yet the other good?

Afterthought: Pilgrim, I’ve mentioned this before … claiming Trump was trying to “overturn” the election is now the popular (obsessed) narrative … when all his efforts were directed toward a “remedy” to the obvious election fraud. See how language … in this case, a single word … can sway things … just as George Orwell had warned us.

STAND UP FOR OBSESSION?

Evolving Epigram

 

We have nothing to fear but the fear of climate change.

STAND UP FOR DENIERS!

Headlines

 

Heavy weapons pour into Ukraine as commanders become more desperate

Macron has won France’s presidential election. But the far right is upping its game

Twitter reconsiders Elon Musk takeover offer

Macron remains Europe’s de facto leader …

‘Not good idea’: Ukrainians  dumps on U.N. chief’s planned Putin meeting

The U.S. wants to see Russia ‘weakened’; Blinken says Moscow has ‘already failed’

6,000 illegals in Tijuana waiting to rush U.S. border when Title 42 ends

Global military spending reaches record levels …

Biden remembers American genocide with seeming nod to Ukraine

Central banks need to put rates into the ‘pain zone’ — but the Fed won’t do it, fund manager says

Most Americans identify economy as top issue — and only 34% approve of Biden’s handling of it

Showdown, Chinese naval base in Solomons a ‘red line,’ Australian PM says …

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Evolving Epigram

In the Big Crapple

That which does not kill us is made legal.

Afterthought: Even the “fatal” no-no is disappearing.

STAND UP FOR SANITATION!

Fractured Definition

Clatterbags — large paper sacks containing metal roller skates, cymbals, pots and pans.

STAND UP TO GOSSIP!

Evolving Epigram

 

Everything comes to he who goes into politics.

STAND UP TO CORRUPTION!

Headlines

 

Getting out alive: Ukrainian civilians flee the Russian onslaught

As the market slides, does the Fed want or need stocks much lower?

Don’t  mess with DeSantis: Disney stock loses nearly $50 billion since declaring war on Florida’s anti-grooming law

France braces … Record blank votes? Poll: Macron in lead …

Playbook: Trump heads to Ohio amid backlash against Vance

Orin Hatch, longest serving Republican U.S. Senator, dies at 88

Texas and Missouri AGs say Biden admin trying to thwart border security efforts in Texas by envoking Endangered Species Act

Shock claim: World to run out of food in 27 years

Top U.S. officials heading for Kyiv as war shifts focus

U.S. labor board sues Starbucks over union retaliation claims

Biden met with one of Hunter’s business partners in the White House

Elon compares Bill Gates to pregnant man emoji …

STAnD UP FOR AMERICA!

Business in Politics

From Woodsterman blog

The business of America is business. — Calvin Coolidge

Until one of them thinks it runs things. — Fletcher

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Evolving Epigram

Neither a borrower nor a lender be … except for student loans which will be forgiven by Biden to buy your vote.

STAND UP FOR RESPONSIBILITY?

The Difference

 

Under Trump, except for COVID, things kept getting better.

Under Biden, including COVID, things keep getting worse.

STAND UP FOR THE DIFFERENCE!

Renewal

 

From reddit Pics

A single crocus

Slips through Winter’s detritus

Vanguard to the Spring.

STAND UP FOR SPRING!

Headlines

 

GOP lawmakers deeply involved in Trump’s plans to overturn election, new evidence suggests

Netflix and Facebook have given up most of the last few years’s gains since November’s tech peak

Witch Hunt, Marjorie Taylor Greene takes the stand in re-election lawsuit from political opponents

McCarthy: Trump acknowleged ‘some responsibility’ for [Capitol] rampage …

Bannon is helping a Vermont crypto bro get elected to the Senate

Zelensky says Ukraine invasion only the beginning; another apparent mass grave found near Mariupol

13 things that lasted longer than CNN+

Europe to slap new regulations on Big Tech, beating USA to the punch

A chaotic day in Florida’s Capitol

Elon Musk says he confronted Bill Gates about shorting Tesla

Suspect in murder of NYC Mom is in country illegally

‘Bloated and slouching’ Putin grips table amid cancer rumors …

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Evolving Epigram

 

It is better to light a doobie than to curse the wokeness.

STAND UP TO WOKENESS!

Quotable Quote

“If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.” —Nicholas Nassim Taleb

STAND UP FOR TRUMP!

Reader Contribution

Air Force Raises a Last Glass to the Final Doolittle Raider

The children of Lt. Col. Dick Cole say farewell to the last of 80 men who flew the historic 1942 mission.

Tara Copp

BY TARA COPP

SENIOR PENTAGON REPORTER, DEFENSE ONE

APRIL 18, 2022

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla.—Eighty years ago, on April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25B Mitchell bombers heavy with fuel, munitions, and little else launched off the flight deck of the USS Hornet on a one-way mission to Tokyo. 

The U.S. Army Air Forces’ Doolittle Raiders became instant heroes, energizing a country still reeling from Pearl Harbor. Eighty men flew the secret mission; 61 survived the war. In 1946, they held their first reunion, sharing a bottle of 1896 Hennessy VS cognac in honor of the birth year of mission leader Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle. 

Every Doolittle Raider had a silver goblet engraved with his name. At the annual reunions that followed, survivors would raise a toast of Hennessy to Raiders who’d passed the year before, and then turn those Raiders’ goblets upside-down in their velvet-lined case. 

Today, the final goblet was turned. 

“To those who have gone,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said, drink raised, as the children of Lt. Col. Dick Cole, the last Doolittle Raider, took out their father’s goblet, turned it over, and placed it for the last time in its plush blue casing. It was the centerpiece of a ceremony in which Air Force leaders and generations of Raider family members said a final goodbye to all 80 of the crew. 

The Doolittle Raid succeeded because planners and crews alike refused to believe the difficult was impossible. B-25 Mitchells, designed to fly from conventional airstrips, took off that day in less than 500 feet—from a wet and heaving flight deck while bearing a ton of bombs and extra fuel bladders. The Navy gave the Army aviators what help they could by timing each launch to give the plane an extra push into the sky.

The bombers themselves were engineering feats. Doolitte and his crews stripped everything of excess weight—even the classified Norden bombsight—off the aircraft. They’d be flying too low in the surprise attack anyway and the bombsight worked best at higher altitudes. Off it went; a makeshift bombsight of light wire was hand-designed in its place. They stripped 230 pounds of radio gear, replaced the rear guns with wooden dummies, and designed a novel bladder that would collapse as fuel was consumed, giving each crew of five a little more elbow room. 

The morning of April 18, 1942, Cole was assigned to fly as Doolittle’s co-pilot. He was on his way to breakfast in the ship’s mess when the Raiders were ordered to their aircraft. They were still several hours and 200 miles away from their launch point when the Navy detected a Japanese ship and feared they’d lost the element of surprise.  

“The PA announced, ‘Army pilots, man your planes!’” Cole told HistoryNet.com  in a 2014 interview. The seas were rough and “water was coming up over the bow and causing problems, with the airplanes beginning to slip around on deck,” Cole said. 

At the Florida ceremony, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown, Jr. said it was notable that Cole was on the lead aircraft, not only because he and Doolittle were leading the mission to Japan, but because as the first plane off the Hornet, they had the least amount of runway.  

But those rough conditions and wind also helped all 16 bombers get off deck and reach their target. Flight deck crews timed the release of each bomber just as the carrier was cresting, so as the bomber gathered speed, “the carrier just dropped out from underneath the airplane,” Cole told HistoryNet. 

Not all of the 80 men who took off from the Hornet made it home. Three died as the low-on-fuel bombers raced to reach China’s coastline before crashing. Eight were captured by the Japanese in China; of these, three were executed and one died of starvation and mistreatment as a POW. 

Cole gave the last Raider toast for the group in 2017, when he became the group’s final surviving member. He’d also built the wood and velvet-lined carrying case that held each of the goblets, and is now cared for by the National Museum of the United States Air Force. 

And when former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James announced that the nation’s future B-21 stealth bomber would carry the Raider name at a 2016 Air Force Association conference, Cole was in attendance.

Thanks Earle and Wayne P.

STAND UP FOR LT. COL. JIMMY DOOLITTLE!

Powerline Pic

STAND UP FOR ORGANICS!

Evolving Epigram

 

A trillion dollars saved is a trillion dollars earned.

STAND UP FOR FISCAL RESPONSIBILTY!

Headlines

 

Audio: McCarthy told colleagues that he would try to get Trump’s resignation after Jan. 6

Florida votes to dissolve Disney’s  special district, eliminating privileges, setting up a court fight

LOL: CNN+ Streaming Service announces termination after 21 days

Masks back on: Los Angeles …

Macron courts Muslim voters in last ditch appeal

Sanctions threaten to cripple Russia’s multibillion-dollar crypto industry

White House does damage control after Biden confuses Title 42 with transportation mask mandate

Putin’s plot to invade Moldova …

Philadelphia to end mask mandate, days after reinstating it

Powell says taming inflation ‘absolutely essential’ and a 50-point hike possible for May

Biden admin ignores order compelling them to continue Trump-era remain in Mexico policy

Fewest Americans collecting jobless aid since 1970 …

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Evolving Epigram

He that lies down with Fauci will end up with a hefty NIH grant.

STAND UP TO CORRUPTION!

Jeopardy!

Long ago there was a major scandal surrounding “The 64 Thousand Dollar Question” where chosen celebs were given the answers in advance. Pilgram, you must by now know that your friendly blogger is a conspiracy nut.  So when Jeopardy has had a rare run of four double digit winners, I begin imagining why this might … I repeat, might … be so.

Here are the possible misfeasance and malfeasance options:

- Answer constructors know a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of the champ and other contestants … so, the answer categories could be directed toward the strengths of the returning champion. (Misfeasance)

- The returning champion could be given a fraction of a second advantage on the buzzer. (Malfeasance)

- The answers could be changed behind the Daily Double question between hard and easy … all depending on who is supposed to ask the question … the champion or the challenger. (Malfeasance)

- Preferred contestants could be prefed answers or answer categories. (Malfeasance)

Repeat … I am not accusing this game show of these irregularities, but it could easily happen. Ratings are everything.

Perhaps it is I who has the criminal mind?

STAND UP FOR ALEX TREBEK!

Silver Lining

Do never-Trumpers ever stop to reconcile their hatred for The Donald with the fact that a record 74 million Americans voted for him in 2020?  Either all these MAGAs are truly deplorable (a dangerous Hillary-like conclusion) or perhaps the reason they had chosen Biden was really just a vote against Trump … refusing to entertain the possibility that all these fellow citizens saw Trump follow-through on his campaign promises as the silver lining to his personality cloud?

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Evolving Epigram

 

To err is Hunter, but to forgive is his dad.

STAND UP TO THE BIDENS!

Headlines

 

Israel, Gaza militants trade fire as tensions mount

Amazon opens up Prime delivery system to other retailers in its latest move against FedEx and UPS

Spygate colluders scramble to cover up their tracks in court

Trump meltdown … McConnell ‘stupid’; Pence ‘weak fool’ …

Capitol police backtrack on airplane threat after ordering evacuation

Putin cancels plan to storm last stronghold in Mariupol;  Russian ramp up ahead of May 9

Russian forces carry out over 1,000 strikes in eastern Ukraine

Obamas split with Spotify …

Trump campaign ordered to pay $1.3 million for Omatosa legal fees

How Ukraine’s mud became a secret weapon in its defense against Russia

Florida Senate passes bill to end Disney’s self-governing power

Amazon Europe unit paid no taxes on $55 billion in sales …

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

 

Leadership

Number one and number two …

STAND UP FOR EPIGRAMS!

Headlines

 

‘What else have they been missing?’ Massive infant formula recall raises questions about FDA inspections

Netflix estimates 100 million households are sharing passwords and suggests a crackdown is coming

CNN+ looking increasingly doomed

Colorado gov slams Florida gov’s ‘Socialist attack on private enterprise

Boris Johnson tries to lure India toward the West

Fed’s Bostic expresses caution about the pace of interest rate hikes

Biden admin to appeal ruling that ended travel mask mandate

UK court issues order to extradite Assange to USA …

Russia pours in more troops and presses attack in the East

Dr. Oz has close ties to the du Pont family heirs, and they’re backing his Senate run

Psaki cries over Florida’s anti-grooming bill

‘Earthquakes keep coming.’ Another shakes SoCal …

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Migrant Economics

It is reported that the Mexican cartels control our southern border … and charge all those illegals who want to enter America  thousands of dollars.

I have a question … if someone has paid these coyotes all that money and is returned to Mexico by our border agents, does the cartel give them their money back? If not even a make-good, must they pay these same hefty passage fees if they try to re-enter?

STAND UP FOR FAIRNESS!

Obvious Truth

Donald J. Trump most often is right on about WHAT he says … but, unfortunately for America, he is too often he is right off over HOW he says it.

STAND UP FOR ORATORY!

Today’s Poser

Is Russia committing suicide … and will it take the rest of the world with it?

STAND UP FOR SURVIVAL!