vxbush 11/29/2023 5:54:17 AM

1

The Democrats have a serious problem. This story was out last week, but it's still pretty incredible.

New: Astonishing Number of Black Voters Would Bail on Biden for Trump, Including BLM Leader

The Benjamins are definitely more important than the pronouns. 

vxbush 11/29/2023 6:05:17 AM

2

Explosive Report: US and UK Military Contractors Launched Initial Censorship Group that Later Morphed into the Censorship Industrial Complex After 2016 Trump Election

It looks like every part of the federal government was out to get Trump and block Americans from supporting the candidate they wanted for president. What did they call themselves in this censorship group? The "Hogwarts school for misinformation and disinformation." Barf.

vxbush 11/29/2023 6:15:39 AM

3

Reply to vxbush in 2:

Whoops, forgot to quote a key part: 

The whistleblower alleges that a leader of CTI League, a “former” British intelligence analyst, was “in the room” at the Obama White House in 2017 when she received the instructions to create a counter-disinformation project to stop a “repeat of 2016.”

So this goes back to Obama setting a time-delayed bomb before he left office.

JCM 11/29/2023 8:39:07 AM

4

Seattle is getting wild!

Shootout in Seattle's Central District leads to rollover crash, stray bullets hit nearby homes

lucius septimius 11/29/2023 8:40:31 AM

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Reply to JCM in 4:

Did you see about the Macy's employees going out on strike because of the shoplifting chaos?

Occasional Reader 11/29/2023 8:48:17 AM

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Occasional Reader 11/29/2023 8:49:01 AM

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Reply to JCM in 4:

Gun violence!  Caused by violent guns!  There is only one answer here: confiscate JCM's guns. 

Occasional Reader 11/29/2023 8:49:38 AM

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In #5 lucius septimius said: Did you see about the Macy's employees going out on strike because of the shoplifting chaos?

It's those "youths" and "teens" and "young people" again, isn't it? 

vxbush 11/29/2023 9:37:50 AM

9

In #6 Occasional Reader said: I fear that Israel is getting caught further and further in the "ceasefire" trap, such that Hamas will be able to 1) dribble out hostages bit by bit, while 2) getting their own terror fanatics released in exchange, and 3) re-arming and regrouping.  I would love to be proven wrong. 

I don't remember where I read it (Ace, perhaps?) where he was speculating that Bibi is more beholden to fitting into the western leaders group than actually protecting his people, and thus he will go along with the ceasefire because that's what they want, rather than doing the harder thing of preventing Hamas from ever doing this again. Not many people are comfortable killing a bunch of Palestinians because of the barbarity of the attacks, and this may give him the out he needs.

JCM 11/29/2023 10:26:40 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 5:

The companies are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The city won't conduct law enforcement, and it is dangerous both physically and from a liability perspective to try and stop shoplifting.

I don't blame the workers that much, but there pickets should be at City Hall the they should ask any customers if they work for the City or County and refuse them service.

vxbush 11/29/2023 10:32:06 AM

11

OR--

Going back to that BBC article, I had a thought--I would have expected the IDF to have moles planted within the Hamas organization, especially people who would be in the groups that drilled the various methods used on October 7. I wouldn't expect the IDF to admit this publicly now, but I'm concerned that they have made the same mistake we made by just going to satellite surveillance and not having eyes and ears on the ground. 

vxbush 11/29/2023 10:34:44 AM

12

In #10 JCM said: I don't blame the workers that much, but there pickets should be at City Hall the they should ask any customers if they work for the City or County and refuse them service.

Weren't police in some of the "defund police" cities going to do the same thing with city council members during 2020?

Occasional Reader 11/29/2023 10:42:40 AM

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In #11 vxbush said: I'm concerned that they have made the same mistake we made by just going to satellite surveillance and not having eyes and ears on the ground. 

I've seen references to exactly that sort of mistake, although more about optical sensors along the border fence in place of human observers.  The Israelis seem to have convinced themselves that the only thing they needed to worry about from Gaza were very limited incursions, small teams to carry out small terror attacks.  This was literally a "failure of imagination"; the cliché is true, it seems, in this case. 

JCM 11/29/2023 11:18:48 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 11:

Humint. Spies, informers, etc... always get minimized during times of relative peace. Politicians love the technical intelligence, geewhiz hi rez pictures. Tape recordings of foreign leaders being indiscrete etc....

Photos can give indications of how many planes the other guy has. But you need the informer in the bar next to the base, or better yet the disgruntled mechanic complaining about the lack of parts to learn that out of all those planes only a fraction can sortie.

It happens every time. The hard work is Humint. People are messy, spies get caught, or killed. Spies lie, spies turn double agent. Politicians don't like messy. 

vxbush 11/29/2023 11:37:40 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 13:
Reply to JCM in 14:

Okay, so I'm not that far off. Good to know. 

Next, I'm expecting some enterprising defense contractor to claim they have applied AI to the sensors, videos, and microphones and can now greatly improve the quality of the surveillance, and we'll have the exact same failure to understand the true nature of events on the ground. 

JCM 11/29/2023 11:52:49 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 15:

The same pattern repeats in the militaries. Peace time the bureaucrats take over, readiness goes down. The Warriors get shuffled aside for being "reckless", "cowboys", "out of control".

Shit hits the fan the bureaucrats are standing around with the pants around the their ankles, looking like idiots. The Warriors all say "told you so".

Then the military has to shift gears, which takes time and resources, the bureaucrats fight losing power, which even slow the response down further.

Finally the Warriors get cut loose and things get turned around.

The longer the peace the deeper entrenched the bureaucrats are.

JCM 11/29/2023 3:12:32 PM

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Oh, I know lets reduce renewable energy production!

Court filings reveal secret agreement between Biden admin, eco groups seeking to tear down key power source

buzzsawmonkey 11/29/2023 7:04:55 PM

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Kosh's Shadow 11/29/2023 7:11:49 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 18:

Once upon a time there was a blogsite

Where we used to blaze a path or two

Remember how we read Buzz's parodies

And think of all the great things the US could do

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd post and reply for many a day

We'd have the thoughts we choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were right and sure to have our way

Then Barack Obama got elected

Bloggers got banned and thrown away

When we ran off to blogspot

We'd post until C2 gave us our say

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd post and reply for many a day

We'd have the thoughts we choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were right and sure to have our way

Then C2 vanished beneath us

Nothing was the way it used to be

In Rude Bridge we saw a reflection

Was that lonely poster really me?

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd post and reply for many a day

We'd have the thoughts we choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were right and sure to have our way

Jukebox