FIFY

h/t WRSA

Israel, while never admitting it, is largely acknowledged to have possessed nuclear weapons for 50 years or so. To date, they've never used one, and haven't provably even tested one.

By contrast, you'll know the day Iran gets one, because it will go off at the head of an Iranian-launched missile headed for Tel Aviv. Which reasonably enough, Israel's government considers unacceptable.

To this point, the only thing they've done wrong is to not nuke Tehran proactively. And maybe a few more cities in Iran, just to make the point unmistakable. They may yet do so, and would be no more despised if they did so than they are now, and yet they restrain that response, rather than risk a wider, and perhaps inevitably global, nuclear conflict.

And every time they spank Iran, a dozen Arab nations, and the governments thereof, hand them cash, prizes, and sincere thanks, backchannel or under the table, because they want a nuclear Iran even less than Israel does.

Iran has been the bleeding ass sore of the Middle East since 1979.

We should have been flying Arc Light rounders to their cities from Diego Garcia hourly for the last 50 years, but we've been too chickenshit to man up and do what's both deserved, and long past necessary.

Israel lacked the ability to do what they did yesterday as anything but one-way suicide missions, until they were sold US KC-135 tanker aircraft during Obozo's administration.

Israel can't wait until after there's a mushroom cloud overhead to act. It's an existential luxury, and asinine to expect it of them. So Wikileaks should either STFU, or quit the charade by just putting on a pointed white hood, and get their true feelings out in the open.

They could be that stupid once, but to stay this stupid perpetually is the calculated and deliberate act of someone maliciously hoping they could see all of Israel smoked under a rain of nuclear destruction, partly as wishcasting, and secondarily as a shout out of affirmation to their fellow mouth-breathers worldwide.

Like the internet was short of that at any point since it started existing.

20-Dimensional chess move: while Trump's hands are clean in Israel's strike, one consequence of it now has Iran cutting off drone sales to Russia, because they need them to attack Israel. So in one move Israel has cut the Houthi terror pipeline, yet again severely crimped Iran's nuclear ambitions (as if exploding nuclear scientists and Stuxnet viruses weren't enough), and taken some heat off Ukraine - supposedly by accident.

That's what diplomats and the E-ring at the Pentagon call a hat trick.

Sunday Music: Good Vibrations

 

There was no way we could know the week we picked Kokomo as Sunday Music would be the same one in which Brian Wilson passed away a few days later. But it's definitely the reason we're putting this classic up as today's choice the Sunday after that, having also been written and produced by Wilson, with lyrics by fellow Beach Boy Mike Love, after becoming the longest and costliest studio track in production history to that point in time. After taking most of 1966 to nail down, it was released in October of 1966, and became the Beach Boys' third ever #1 hit by December of that year, spending seven weeks at the top of the charts, and eventually becoming one of the most influential singles of all time after double platinum status.

Some Thoughts On AI

h/t Wilder

Regarding JW's essays on AI, we offer the following:

Reality Check:

AI doesn't think, it aggregates, which only mimics thinking.

It doesn't learn, it merely aggregates and averages, over time.

Think of it this way: AI brings you water out of your pool.

The problem is, you, your neighbors, and everyone you know is pissing and crapping in your pool every day.

Because it doesn't think, it aggregates, so AI keeps pumping the product out of your pool and delivering it as drinking water. And that's the best versions of AI.

And every day on the internet, more neighbors from farther away come to your pool to relieve themselves.

Bottoms up, friends.

AI doesn't screen out bad info. It doesn't, for example, take every smiling jackass who thinks chemtrails are a conspiracy theory, and sh*tcan their input, and only accept info from people that have even a grade-school understanding that the products of hydrocarbon combustion are CO2 and H2O, since ever, and that the H2O contrails at altitude is nothing but the ice crystals of that water vapor flash-frozen at 35,000 feet, like we've seen since we flew B-17s, FFS.

This is the reason AI can't screen the poo and pee out of that swimming pool. It just adds them to the mix it considers, and averages them out.

So take any comment section from anywhere, on any topic, and realize that on its best day, AI is giving you the input of the 51st percentile of IQ there, multiplied by how many idiots post that level of discourse.

Which is why, 0.2 seconds after AI is turned loose on any topic, you can expect that it will sound like someone with kneejerk "Joooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosss! Run for your lives! They're everywhere!!!" to a level generally and formerly found only on Stormfront websites.

AI has no BS filter.

And any BS filter constructed will be nothing but the manifestation of the biases of the programmer(s).

So it's always going to be ten pounds of sh*t in a five pound bag, no matter what anyone wishes.

It will replace, and sound smarter than, the people at about the 60th percentile of IQ.

That's 103, bog-middle of average.

But it will be dumber than f**k compared to anyone at the 70th or better.

IOW, compared to AI, an Army 2d Lt. outperforms it, 24/7/365, because they have to have a 110 IQ.

So AI will make the 80 IQ crowd obsolete, except as ditch-diggers, because AI can't do manual labor.

(Until Skynet makes robots it controls.)

You can teach it to play chess, and beat you, but it can't think its way out of a pyramid of crap any better than a sh*thouse rat trapped in an outhouse cesspit.

This is therefore only a problem for the people on the internet who think sh*t is a substitute for brains. (I could name any number of examples you all know, who post incessant crap, but I won't embarrass them any further than their bloviations have already done.)

It's a threat to the left half of the IQ bell curve.

To anyone 1/2 an inch beyond the peak middle on a 20-foot IQ bell curve, AI is, and always will be, a joke.

And the only way to change that is an AI aggregation pool that's only people with IQs at least two standard deviations above the mean (about 130), which is less than 3% of the population. Three deviations (145) is less than 0.5% of the whole planet.

That would be an AI where all your neighbors pee and poo in their own toilets, instead of your pool.

One idiot in the mix, and it's Caddyshack, and AI is Carl Spackler eating a Baby Ruth out of the pool, every single time. Except it won't be a Baby Ruth, 99.9% of the time.

And there will never be enough smart people posting within AI's aggregation pool to overcome the number of thoroughgoing jackasses spewing bullshit by the metric fuckton, every time they fire up their keyboards, which is why most blogs and websites worth reading eventually have to moderate comments, just to keep the sanitation level tolerable.

It's also why ABCNNBCBS and print urinalists, substituting equally dipsh*t editors for AI, have become unreliable and intolerable piles of raw sewage, 24/7/365.

Because at the end of the day, AI isn't Artificial Intelligence. 

(Artificial Intelligence is an oxymoron.)

It's Artificial Stupidity, with a thin patina of the genuine article.

Which only fools people for whom indoor plumbing and electric lighting seem like witchcraft.

QED

Follow Up: Medical References

 

From a question in comments to the previous post today.

In order:

First Tier

1. The ACEP First Aid Manual Start here. PERIOD.

2a. Wilderness Medicine: Beyond First Aid, Forgey 

2b. The Prepper's Medical Handbook, Forgey

3. Special Operations Forces Medical Handbook 

4. Survival Medicine Handbook, Alton and Alton

5. Auerbach's Wilderness Medicine (2 vol.)

6. SOF Combat Casualty Care

7a. Where There Is No Doctor *Medical care for the Turd World, but that may be you someday.

7b. Where There Is No Dentist *One of the only texts I know of that deals with dental care under austere circumstances.

Honorable Mentions:

The entire medical section in the classic SAS Survival Handbook.

Also, any Red Cross medical handbook from before 1960, solely for the sections on bandaging and splinting, which cover techniques that still hold up, and are no longer covered by anyone currently. Forget anything from that era having to do with snakebite treatment, or whatever CPR was called then, but the bandaging and splinting techniques, though old, are just as good now as they were then, and you won't find them easily too many other places.

Secondary

There are a ton of second-tier texts out there, seldom actually bad, but not anywhere near the same league as the above texts. If your favorite isn't listed above, bummer. I've seen a lot of books that are okay, but the ones I named above are comprehensive, and good. You can do worse, but you won't do better.

You may find some utility in military medical manuals, for some purposes. Other than the two I mention last, there may frequently be found some utility in learning geared towards someone who dropped out in 9th grade, working in Turd World conditions. As long as the text isn't pre-Vietnam, you might get your hands on something worthwhile in some aspects. But check anything found against the comprehensive and modern references listed at the top of this post first.

The next level is actual medical texts, used by doctors, if you have a licensed practitioner (MD, PA, RN) in your midst.

The go-to for my career field is Tintinalli's Emergency Medicine Handbook.

2160 pages, $189, and geared for an ER doc with access to Xrays, ultrasound, CT scanners, MRIs, plus a lab and a pharmacy. But still how residents learn how to do ED medicine.

Other good choices would be a nursing pharmacology handbook, and standard medical manuals on primary care and diagnosis, orthopedics, an atlas of skin disorders, and on and on.

Anything beyond primary and preventative care is either going to require definitive treatment beyond what you can do yourself (which you may or may not have access to), or your patient(s) are going to have problems ranging from chronic to terminal. You're not going to solve surgical problems, most infectious diseases, major burns, or most critical traumas, because you don't have the resources to do much beyond initial stabilization, which assumes access to secondary and tertiary care.

Which means if you're beyond access to 1st world care, including anesthesia, antibiotics, and general pharmacy needs, like you will be in extreme circumstances - people will die, including those nearest and dearest to you, and you can't prevent that.

So mortuary texts on handling bodies, prevention of outbreaks after people die (potentially with infectious diseases), and strong disinfectants, aren't a bad idea. Burial and cremation activities become more important as life spans shorten, in austere circumstances.

Bottom Of The Barrel

Books that are mostly a complete waste of time and money, except as historical reference:

Special Forces Medical Handbook ST 31-91 (1982) - any version

50 years out of date, this is about as currently useless as medical texts from the Civil War, or ancient Greece. If you want to learn things from 1982, go ahead on. After you're completely fluent in the first ten or so books at the top of this post. In your ample spare time.

Emergency War Surgery

If you're a doctor, you know better medical texts. And if you aren't one, you aren't going to be doing anything in this book, and if you do, your patient will die. Either screaming, or from the inevitable infection from trying to do 21st century surgery under 17th century conditions. Just...don't.

We're not trying to get you through medical school here, just get you up to speed on fundamentals of primary care, both in the field, and in an off-grid (short-term or longer) situation.

Get all the knowledge and experience you can now, while it's both cheap, and easily available.

When you're 5000 miles from help up Schitt's Creek, or in a Turd World/Civil War era medical situation, it's too late to crack a friggin' book, or take a class.

Let's Revisit The SHTF Med Kit From 2014, Shall We?

 

So 11+ years ago, we gave Baby Brother a blueprint for a SHTF Medical Kit. (He's still a smiling idiot, and after getting the list, never did another thing about it.) But we were wondering where, with inflation, the current price point for it is.

FTR, it was circa $850 in 2014.

_____________________________

1. The divider set and lid liner for your Pelican 1600 case

$153.15 268.95

1605EMS EMS Accessory Set (Lid Organizer and Divider Set) | Pelican Official Store

2. Quickclot ACS Gauze Pads Quickclot EMS Dressing

(3) X $9.99

https://www.chinookmed.com/06734pa/z-medica-quikclot-ems-4x4-dressing.html

3. Quickclot Combat Gauze Rolls Quickclot EMS Rolled Gauze

(2) X $25.30

https://www.chinookmed.com/05245/quikclot-ems-rolled-gauze.html

4. Asherman Chest Seals

(2) X $14.80

https://www.chinookmed.com/12102/asherman-chest-seal.html

5. Combat Application Tourniquet

(4) x $29.99 $31.59

https://www.chinookmed.com/01294/c-a-t-tourniquet-gen-7.html

6. NP Airways 1 ea 28Fr/30Fr/32Fr/34Fr

(3) X $3.74 $3.99

(1) X $5.00

https://www.chinookmed.com/02120pa/nasopharyngeal-airway.html

7. Surgical lubricant for using NP Airways,  (6) 3gm packets

$4.95 $1.04

https://www.chinookmed.com/?page=item&id=801520

8. SAM Splints

(2) X $12 $12.50@

9. Israeli Emergency Bandage 4"

(4) X $6.29 $8.95

https://www.chinookmed.com/05130/israeli-emergency-bandage-4.html

10. Israeli Emergency Bandage 6"

(4) X $6.56 $9.35

https://www.chinookmed.com/05131/israeli-emergency-bandage-6.html

11. PriMed Compressed Gauze Bandage Responder Compressed Gauze Bandage

(6) X $2.44 $2.98

https://www.chinookmed.com/023297/responder-compressed-gauze.html

12. Israeli Emergency Abdominal Bandage

(2) X $12.12@ $17.87@

https://www.chinookmed.com/05150/israeli-abdominal-bandage-8-wide-w-12x12-pad.html

13. Muslin Triangular Bandage

(6) X $0.47@ $8.75@

https://www.chinookmed.com/05001pa/berry-compliant-cravat-triangular-bandage.html

Nota bene: And these are the cheapest ones. This is govt. contract ripoff pricing. Go to WalMart or the local fabric store, buy about 4 yards of the cheapest olive drab or dark brown cotton broadcloth you can find (or repurpose 3 old bedsheets), and cut it into triangular bandages yourself. Fold or roll each to a compact size, and put them into 6 ziplok snack bags. And save yourself $40 out of the $50+ buying them would cost. If you're paying 9 bucks apiece for triangular cravat bandages, you're rich, an idiot, or both.

14. BZK antiseptic towelettes (100 bx)

$3.44 $9.50

https://www.chinookmed.com/05111pa/antiseptic-towelettes.html

15. Povidone-iodine prep pads (6s)

$6.88 10 X $1.33

https://www.chinookmed.com/01911pa/povidone-iodine-prep-pads.html

16. Bottles of Bactine and Betadine solution (3-6oz.)

$10@

WalMart, CVS, Target, etc.

17. Burn kit

$61.95 (2) x $35.99 

https://www.chinookmed.com/01402/chinook-burnpak.html

18. Water jel burn gel

(12) X $0.53 $8.16

https://www.chinookmed.com/500000/burn-jel-2oz.html

19. Triple antibiotic ointment (Generic Neosporin, 6 x 0.9gm packets)

(3) X $4.30 (12) X $1.82

20. Military casualty space blanket

(2) x $19.67 $15.99

Casualty space blanket

 21. Band Aids Assorted (100)

$9.49 $8.48

Band Aids Assorted (100)

Band Aids 1"x3" (100)

$8.29 $9.33

Band Aids 1" x 3" (100)

Band Aids Extra Large (10)

(2) X $5.49 $4.15

Extra Large Band Aids

Knuckle Bandages (40)

$3.49 (4) x $4.14

Knuckle and Fingertip Bandages 10+10

Butterfly bandages (100)

$5.99 $7.99

Butterfly bandages

22. Self-adhering 3" 2" bandage wrap (36)

$30.59 $136.44

https://www.chinookmed.com/200017/coban-wrap-bandage-elastic-tan.html

23. 1" First Aid tape        silk (12s)

$14.19 (12) X $1.75@

silk first aid tape

                                            plastic (12s)

$12.99 (12) X $6.09@

plastic first aid tape

24. Gauze sponges 4"x4" (200)

$5.69 $8.46

4"x4"s

                                    2"x2" (200)

$1.69 $6.88

2"x2"s

25. Gloves, nitrile

$10

WalMart, CVS, Target, etc.

__________________________________

Around $850  $1200, out the door.

There's 11 years of inflation for you. Over 40%, although some items decreased in price, the total for almost the same load-out has gone up. 

And all the links are updated. You're welcome. Here's the rest of the OP. Best wishes.

__________________________________

You can trim back some of the spendier high-speed tactical stuff to save a few bucks, but it's your ass (or someone near and dear to you), and I don't think you want to run out of supplies before you fix all the holes.

 

Notes:

Drop the money on the divider. It's the reason the EMS Pelican is another $150. It gives you small clear pockets for the small stuff, and 18+ pockets in the bottom for the big stuff.

 

I set this up so you could handle the most likely emergency problems (cuts, punctures, burns, sprains & fractures), including the TCCC {look it up!} supplies most likely to save your or someone else's life if someone catches a cowboy load at the range, as well as GSWs after the Zombie Apocalypse. Dual utility.

The plain gauze, tape and band-aids are for the far more frequent little stuff, to prevent turning it into bigger problems.

 

I didn't source (but you should add) two things:

* A good AAA LED headlamp, because you'll really appreciate light and both hands free when it's dark. My personal favorite ( I have 3 of them) is the Petzl Tactika Plus Headlamp. I get mine at REI for about $46 or so. http://www.rei.com/search?query=petzl+Tactika

Runs on 3 AAA, has a red lens that flips on or off, and has 4 light settings - econo, medium, bright, and flashing.

* * * 2025 UPDATED INFO: The current comparable model now goes for $129.95:

Petzl three-level red light and strobe headlamp  * * *

 

* The other thing is a good disposable CPR face shield, so you don't swap cooties in CPR. I'd get one in case you need to do CPR on family members, or them on you, but otherwise, I can't see you doing rescue breathing on anyone not on the cover of the Sports illustrated Swimsuit issue, so I left it out.

 

Until such time as you re-acquaint yourself with First Aid, bear in mind that it's still mostly what you learned in boot camp in the prehistoric era: Stop the bleeding, start the breathing, protect the wound, and treat for shock.

 

Direct Pressure, Pressure dressing, elevate the limb, tourniquet (don't be shy - unlike in the 1980s, they now know tourniquets like the CAT applied early is a lifesaver for bleeding extremities).

For minor holes, pressure with the 2x2s or 4x4s, then clean with the BZK/Bactine (same thing, except Bactine has low-dose lidocaine to make it sting less!), clean any penetrating trauma with Betadine and sterile non-preserved saline, then sterile dressing and clean bandage. pressure and pressure dressings, including Israeli bandage, or plain old ACE wraps, and if necessary, a tourniquet as well.

 

Airway is simple once 911 isn't an option: either a nasal trumpet, lubed outside with the Surgilube, up one or both snotstrils will open it, or they're going to die.

If you want to learn about TCCC needle decompression, and cricothyrotomy airways, we can talk. There are actual military/medical training vids on YouTube right now.

 

But outside of civilization, you aren't going to save anyone with CPR after 30 minutes, unless they were immersed in frigid water. If they stop breathing for other reasons, and you can't get them breathing again after half an hour, and help isn't on its way, that's probably a hint to go through their pockets for loose change, and collect one of their dogtags.

 

And in any victim unable to move around afterwards, whip on those space blankets, either for shade, or for warmth.

 

I also left out things like C-collars and anything diagnostic, until such time as you learn how to use it.

If you get a wild hair up your ass, find out who's doing basic EMT training at the local CC out there, and consider doing the class.

Training is the only thing you can't pull out of a kit, and some things, you just have to learn.

 

If you want, I can teach you how to measure blood pressure in about 20 minutes, but you need a stethoscope (A $20 Sprague works fine) and an adult cuff (manual, with a squeezy bulb, not one of those pieces of electro-garbage.) Let me know, anytime you want. One of the $60 fingertip pulse oximeters gets you pulse and O2%. Add a good thermometer, and you've now mastered the same triage vitals done in every ER from coast to coast.

 

A couple of good tweezers for splinters (a flat set, and a pointy set) are always a good idea, and you can grab those at any decent drugstore. Several small sewing needles work great for working out splinters and shallow stuff imbedded at the surface of the skin. An X-acto knife if you're feeling daring. Note that the large burn kit has a pair of good EMT shears in it, to use anytime you need to cut clothes open or off, so no need to buy a separate one.

 

*** 2025 UPDATE: That's changed. They're not in the current kits. Buy a pair of good, SHARP EMT shears. ***

Resist the urge to get a "kit, instrument, surgical". They're overpriced, under-useful, and you could get better instruments just by visiting a gun show.

And unless you know what you're doing, you don't need the toys to go poking around in holes, or start yanking things out until you know what they're into. Anything deeper than your range of sight needs to be left in a hole until someone with better training decides whether it can come out or not, verstehen sie?

 

When you get the box, and the goodies, not everything on that list can or should fit inside it. And adhesives don't like hot cars. So put some of the items inside, and replenish as you use them, or annually check them and replace the crusty ones.

 

DO put the kit in your truck, because if you need it at a shoot, or on the highway, it won't do you any good at home on top of the gun safe, right?

 

I hope you have stashed/are stashing a cushion of any family Rx meds by any means possible, including "oops, I lost my meds and need a whole month's replacement!" provided you're footing the bill, or any other legal way possible. Cycle through the overstock first in/first out, so you eventually always have 3-6 months of fresh stuff in reserve. Imagine a major earthquake, and no pharmacy for a month or three. Let alone anything more dire.

 

Note also I didn't include any meds except topical wound stuff.

I'm a big fan of getting the unit dose packages of whatever you already use, like Tylenol, Motrin/Advil, Tums, Pepto, and anything else. OTCs don't magically go bad after three years, so don't throw them out, just don't give them to anyone not related to you by blood. Except for certain antibiotics, most pills remain useable for 10-30 years if stored properly (cool, dark, dry).

 

Don't forget sunscreen, chapstick, and high DEET percentage bug juice.

Any questions, fire away.

 

__________

Always Use Enough Club

Some folks are worried there will be a nationwide repeat of Los Angeles this weekend. And that those will be provocations, to create another George Floyd poster martyr for the entire Wetback Protection Movement.

Pish-tosh. Exceed their expectations. Instead of one martyr, give them a million such. See how that fits into their plans.

Give them 10M, and the problem goes away for 100 years.

Give them 60M-70M, and it goes away forever.

The surest way to success, as every businessman will tell you, is to under-promise, and over-deliver.

And the best way to solve a multi-generational problem is to leave your enemies dead by the metric fuckton, with surprised looks on their faces. The beauty of deportation is that it doesn't matter to the deporting country whether it's dead, or alive.

QED

Follow me for more strategic advice.

RELATED:

Go to the 5:42 mark, and it gets really good at the 7:00 point.

Hoo buddy, fucktards, please riot in red counties like Brevard County FL.

The videos will go viral.

And BTW, we warned you turning a blind eye to endless wetback infestation would bite everyone in the ass, since before this blog began. But you kept electing endless Lindsay Grahamnestys and Marco ScrewYoubios from the GOPe RINO slate, writing endless attempts to make the invasion permanent and perpetual, and kicking the can down the road. Because the problem was just California. Now you're all Califrutopia. Ain't it hard when you discover that they really weren't where it's at, after they took from you everything they could steal? How does it feel?

R.I.P. Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson, the creative heart and soul of the Beach Boys, died yesterday at age 82. Despite lifelong mental health and substance abuse issues, and a recent dementia diagnosis, he was one of the most innovative and prolific hit-making singer/songwriter/producers of the 20th century, creating a new sound, and at times doing everything on Beach Boys songs except for the other members' vocals. He was still touring and working on projects up until his death.

IANAL, But This Sounds Like A Splendid Approach

Make Insurrection And Sedition Penalties Great Again

8 U.S. Code §1481:

(a) A person who is a national of the United States whether by birth or naturalization, shall lose his nationality by voluntarily performing any of the following acts with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality—

 ...

(7)

committing any act of treason against, or attempting by force to overthrow, or bearing arms against, the United States, violating or conspiring to violate any of the provisions of section 2383 of title 18, or willfully performing any act in violation of section 2385 of title 18, or violating section 2384 of title 18 by engaging in a conspiracy to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, if and when he is convicted thereof by a court martial or by a court of competent jurisdiction.

For the link-impaired those three sections are Rebellion and Insurrection, Overthrow, and Seditious Conspiracy against the United States.

Everyone attempting to hinder ICE raids, or vehicles and government agents undertaking them, qualifies under those provisions, under 18 USC §2383:

Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

So the government is perfectly justified in declaring martial law, rounding up anyone who does so in the future, and finding them at a court martial guilty, stripping them of their American citizenship, and shipping them to Gitmo, as upon conviction they lose all rights of US citizenship, and the Constitution and its protections no longer apply to them.

The rest of 8 USC §1481 helpfully notes that anyone who performs any such act is considered to have done so voluntarily, and performing the acts renders one guilty under that statute until proven innocent. Literally. So getting rounded up at such an incident justifies stripping you of your US citizenship, putting you in prison with other non-citizens, and sentencing you to death, in short order. Yes, really. One declaration from POTUS, and we could be shipping people to Gitmo and hanging them by Friday!

That could even be applied to Gov. Gabbin' Nuisance, L.A.'s derelict and full communist Mayor Karen Basshole, and any federal judge who attempts to stick their nose into the government's business.

As a bonus, the president, without let or hindrance from anyone else, can unilaterally declare martial law in Los Angeles or any other city similarly besieged UFN, which takes the entire purview of the subsequent business out of the jurisdiction of both the federal courts and the DoJ, leaving weak sisters like Kash Patel and Pam Bondi - not to mention 677 federal district judges - wholly irrelevant to further activities, and puts the chain of command directly from the president to SecDef Hegseth and the military tribunals the designated local commander establishes, putting the entire area under the jurisdiction of the UCMJ, which treats sedition rather harshly, under Article 94. The time to appeal any decisions out of the military trial system to where civilian authorities could have a say could be accounted in years, by which time whole swaths of former US citizens could already be sentenced. Or worse.

BTW, any such citizenship-stripping act merits 10 years in federal prison, but sedition, which is any action of violence or disturbance against the civil authorities, adjudicated by a military court martial, can be used to invoke the death penalty.

Be still, my beating heart! We could skip Air Pinochet, and just go with gibbets in ranks ten abreast.

Pour encourager les autres.

L.A. Postage Stamp Overnight Riots

 

Some folks wanted (or expected) we'd have something to say on the blog about the Sunday Night festivities in a few square blocks of Sh*thole Los Angeles (the part you wouldn't visit most of the time even for money), that no one cares about most days even at high noon, let alone after dark. There is no instrumentation yet devised that could measure our total lack of interest for the burning of that portion at the corner of Woketardia and Migraville. Mayor Karen Basshole, and governor Gabbin' Nuisance made their bed, and they deserved to lie upon it. Now the adults are back in charge, and the festivities are cancelled UFN. 

So, no, IDGAF about riot/arson/looter's one-night silliness.

The rioting was confined to the tiny part of downtown generally ruled by homeless wastes of skin and mestizo illegals 24/7/365, and even if they burned all of downtown Los Angeles to the ground, most of Califrutopia would send them a thank you note in response.

Even five miles away, no one gives a shit. And we're currently much farther from Sh*tholia, CA than five miles. In fact, it all becoming Sh*tholia in the first place is mostly why we left that entire county twenty five years ago. (A fiancée was also involved.)

And it was officially over at dawn Monday, when the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Marines were deployed there.

People not wanting to test the resolve of the Marines is exactly why presidents send the Marines to such places, over and over again, and in preference to any other part of the military, since...ever.

The header video explains this beautifully. Would that we had a similar scene from Los Angeles. If it happens at any point, we'll be properly ecstatic.

So if you have a problem you'd like the Marines to solve for you, and you have the opportunity to let them address it, we highly recommend it.

They're not only eager (to the point of frothing at the mouth) to solve it, they're probably sharpening their bayonets on the drive to the problem, in hopes they'll get to charge with them fixed, just for the practice.

Trump knew this when he sent for them. So do the rioters. They're retarded, but they're not suicidal. They're done f**king around, because they know what the FAFO Medal looks like when it comes with the star denoting a posthumous award.

Game over.

QED

Oh, and for Comedy Relief, I could watch this on an endless loop:

About Those "Unjammable" Fiber Optic-Controlled Drones...

File that info away for future reference.

Looks like not much has changed since Private Reese was dealing with Skynet.

Any Day Now™: Day 1200+

Nota bene for the 80 IQ contingent, once their fingers come out of their ears:

This does not therefore = "Ukraine Is Winning", something which we've never said, unless you think France "won" WWI, after having its countryside obliterated, sacrificing 40% of its domestic production, as well as 1.4M military dead, 4.2 million wounded, with 1M of those crippled for life, as well as another 250K civilian casualties, and thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance from both sides littering the countryside, still going off to the present day. Furthermore scarring the French national psyche to the point it has never really recovered, and tilting the economic slope straight into Depression as soon as the euphoria of the end of the conflict wore off, and teeing up an even bigger battlefield do-over in just 20 years. That's the "winning" Ukraine has to look forward too, even if Putin retreated tomorrow unilaterally.

It simply points out that Putin's ongoing megalomaniacal folly has Russia headed to the exact same place now, and at warp speed. The dictionary is going to have to make "Putinic victory" the upgrade from merely "pyrrhic".

But hey, what's a little thing like 40-60x the casualties of their ill-advised 1980s Afghanistan debacle in only 1200 days, between friends? Keep huffing that hopeium hookah, kids.

Related: Russia is now tying ending their latest Ukrainian invasion with NATO withdrawing troops from the Baltic NATO-member states. Sh'yeah, that'll happen, when monkeys fly outta Trump's butt.

This is like a surrounded third-strike bank robber saying he'll only release the hostages if the police throw down their guns and go home. Clearly, Put-poleon isn't the only delusional psychotic in the Russian government.

Sunday Music: Kokomo

 

One last trip around the bases for the Beach Boys, as their first new hit in 20+ years, and their last Top 40 hit. Dropped as a single in 1988, and also part of the soundtrack for the Tom Cruise flick du jour, Cocktail, and despite critical disdain, the Beach Boys rode it all the way to platinum certification, and #1 on the charts that year.

Musk Rat: Shots Fired

h/t WRSA

So, evidently, Elon Musk has chosen to self-delete himself from further participation in this administration, and he's going to take all his toys, and go home.

Dear Elon,

DLTDHYITAOYWO

Nobody elected you to anything, and they aren't going to do so in the future.

So you should probably take a deep breath, and never pass up a good opportunity to STFU.

- signed, 

the whole country

This isn't the first time Musk has had to have his head kicked lose from his ass to break suction. (And our commentary there still applies, with full force.) But as far as the 47 admin is concerned, it'll be the last time as anyone connected with this White House. Trump, at this point, might piss on Elon, but only if he was first allowed to light him on fire.

We could pile on, but the relevant fact is that the list of people who took Trump on and got their ass (and usually, career) handed to them on a platter makes everyone else with a list blush from embarrassment at the small size of their list, except Hillary Clinton's list Of Dead Former Associates, and Jeffrey Epstein.

For most people, considering the number of people who have crashed and burned after taking Trump on, going back to 2015, signing up to be the next contestant would give one pause. Unless he goes public with being Iron Man, he can also look forward to getting drubbed in every WH press conference until he learns to STFU, slink off, and let it go.

But Elon's fatal flaw has long been hubris, right along with being a billionaire, so one must suppose it's only fitting that his flame-out and smoking hole is going to look like a meteor crater in Arizona before this all dies down.

Bon Appétit!

h/t Wilder

You don't get to sanity by convincing crazy people to vote with you.

You get to sanity by ignoring the crazy people.

People who don't get this, without receiving the 2x4 Of Knowledge over the head, have been co-opted by idiocy and Common Core teaching. They're the exact problem, and the reason the entire republic is currently eating a 20'-long party sub shit sandwich, 24/7/365, in every realm of endeavor. Foreign policy, domestic policy, economics, education, health care, crime, the border, taxes, spending, the military, and all politics in general and in specifics, for two generations.

STOP SUCKING UP TO LUNATICS.

Dear idiots: Kissing the asses of Crazy People isn't bipartisanship. It's ass-kissing. If bipartisanship is such a great thing, let them come over to our side, and kiss Trump's ass. Not the other way around.

Word To Your Mother: Trump shits on bipartisanship, and tells fucktards they're fucktards, and then doubles and triples down. This is why Trump won. Three times. And it's WORKING. So if him doing all that is why you have TDS and a scorching case of butthurt, you're the fucktard in the equation.

If this concept is too hard for you, STFU until you can suss it out for yourselves. You want to hug the crazy people? Go to a BLM rally, or downtown Portland, and bring a Fucktard home to live with you. Get back to us on how that works out. Meantime, fuck off with yapping about "bipartisanship". It's not 1910, and the Democommunists are not the Loyal Opposition.

They're simply a bunch of communist motherf**kers who want to burn the entire country down, because "this time, communism will work!"

If you don't get that by this point in history, you're too short for the Internet, and too stupid for this conversation.

Kindly unfuck yourselves, and shut up until you grow up. 

In the meantime, step aside, and let the adults carry on the conversation.

Including, if it comes to it, "politics by other means."

The time for pearl-clutching and smelling salts was...oh, wait, that was Never.

And nobody has time to buy you another case of tampons until you figure that out.

Another Biff Tannen Soopergenius

h/t WRSA

It's evidently going to be a full day of this sort of happy horsesh*t, cleaning up after a whole weekend worth of silliness.

We cheerfully announce yet another brilliant sub-80-IQ Biff Tannen Make Like A Tree™ award-winning meme/post*:

We have just a couple of questions for PatriOsarein LackOfRectalContrOl 

(FIFY, slick, given your propensity to shit all over yourself like this):

1) Please inform the class regarding health statistics from Haiti as having been considered accurate and reliable since...when, in recorded human history, exactly? Please show all work on this.

2) You have noted a large expat Chinese population on that half of the island of Hispaniola, and copious numbers of potentially-infected outsiders arriving into that accursed Caribbean sh*thole, have you...?? Again, show all work.

So maybe, after staring at the chalkboard until someone sneaks up on you with the 2x4 of Knowledge and cluebats you back into reality, take a shot at explaining a couple dozen other possible explanations for this imaginary "Haitian COVID miracle". You tripped over it at the start: "This is absurd." Then you picked yourself up and stumbled off and over the Cliffs of Insanity.

RFK is a functional retard at many things. So, evidently, are you.

Best wishes on finding a crowbar to pry your head out of deep up your own ass, and enjoy your Biff Tannen "Make Like A Tree" Award™, with our profoundest compliments. And thanks a pantload for nailing down the left side of the IQ bell curve, soopergenius.

The photo ID assuring all and sundry of your prize-winning intellect can be obtained after wiping up and before flushing, at any men's room stall in the nearest municipal transport station.

I know Ike: let's have a spelling contest.

*(Strictly speaking, the massive brainfart-in-question began its life as a post on X/Twatter/whatever. But once it gets screen-shotted and posted standalone, it becomes a meme, thus eligible - in this case, overqualified - for consideration for the BTMLAT Award. -A.)

PSA

Comedy Relief Alert: Wander over to Cmdr Zero's blog. Your attention is directed to the comment stream - now closed - on the linked post. Put away any beverages beforehand, unless you have a spare keyboard.

Apparently, Micah Jones is off his meds, and doesn't care who knows it. And he's convinced that the entire internet is talking to him, and that everyone online needs to clear all information with him. He's helpfully let us all know that he's in Tampa, and knee-jerk posted his contact phone number everywhere, with all the thoughtful circumspection of a dog with diarrhea shitting wherever it walks. He's lonely, and apparently needs a phone buddy or three to give him a call. Up to you, gentle reader, to decide whether or not you need your own pet whackadoodle chat partner. To be fair, we're pretty certain Micah may already be having several conversations, before the phone ever rings. YMMV.

(Anyone who gets ChatGPT to start crank-calling him and occupying his time 24/7 with an endless AI PShrink convo is a tech wizard. Just saying. Failing that approach, perhaps Florida readers, being more familiar with Florida Man in his native habitat, could give a shout out to the local Tampa area mental health crisis team? Before Micah has a stroke, or ends up in a tower picking off random passersby...)

This is an actual - and frequent - psych diagnosis IRL.
If the straightjacket fits...

Micah went from zero to Psych Job in 0.2 seconds, with such regrettable single-mindedness, that CZ evidently felt there was nothing else to do for it but to close comments on a post, something AFAIK unwitnessed in living memory on CZ's blog.

Random whackjobs is why nearly everyone on every blog moderates comments, and as in this case, is proof of why we can't have nice things. The internet has proven, over time, to be a 100% predictor of the prevalence of undiagnosed psychiatric malfunctions in society, to six decimal places, and demonstrates to anyone looking that the greatest unaddressed market niche is developing a dart gun with ammunition that comes in human doses of Haldol, Geodon, Zyprexa, and Valium flavors. (Ruger, Smith & Wesson: I'm looking at you. Call your office.)

(Micah, Word To Your Mother: Lighten up, Francis. I know you've had quite a week, on your first three days on the internet. We all get that you're bat-shit cray-cray. It's okay, brother. Acknowledging the problem is the first step to solving it. But I'm heart-attack serious here:

The computer monitor is not talking to you, 

street drugs are not your friends, 

and getting back on your regular meds is the only way you're going to keep yourself out of the rubber room at the local hospital. Hand to God.

Do the hard thing, and get back on your meds, man. Srsly. It's going to be okay, if you just stop listening to The Voices In Your Head. No need to reply here. We've clocked out of work, and we don't do freelance mental health care and counselling on this blog. Maybe call the White House switchboard instead. (Or, not. Your choice.) Operators are standing by, and I promise if you do, you'll rapidly have all the attention you seek, and 24/7/365 access to the mental health professionals you need. Probably for the next 30-50 years. BTW, we heard someone at the White House has been fucking Jodie Foster. Are you going to let that guy get away with poaching your girlfriend like that?)

Sunday Music: Blue Bayou

Linda Ronstadt spent her entire career doing mostly covers of other peoples' songs, this one being no exception. It was originally by Roy Orbison, but Ronstadt's incredible voice turned a middling track into a #3 platinum smash hit in 1977, becoming one of her signature songs. Despite the infirmities of age now stilling her voice, recordings like this ensure that her vocals will live on long afterwards.