And what did they do for you?

 

I would like nothing more than to see the war between Russia and Ukraine end.  I never wanted it to happen in the first place.  Of course, people in Congress make money off of it, so it won't.

As Americans suffer 40 year high inflation and thousands are without power in the middle of a horrific Winter storm, Congress gave Ukraine $45 billion dollars.  

For people traumatized by an "insurrection" on January 6, 2021, Congress seemed to have no problem waving the flag of a foreign nation in the People's House as a foreign leader made demands of the United States.

Forty-five billion dollars for Ukrainian defense while the US-Mexico border is overrun.  It makes you really wonder if the USA is too stupid to survive sometimes.

And let's not forget the $1.7 trillion bill that was 4000 pages long passed in less than a day!

Enjoy your front row seat to the collapse of America.

You could say "It was fun while it lasted!" or you can dig in and start taking it back.

Your call, America.

Argentina wins the World Cup!

 

Argentina took down France for the World Cup in what was a great game that came down to penalty kicks!

Every four years, the world watches with breathless anticipation as the world's best soccer players battle out for the title of the world's best.

Yeah, I call it soccer.  Football is something else!

I am mainly a football and hockey guy, but watch the World Cup.  The US actually made it to the knockout round and did not stay there long (no surprise) and Greece was nowhere to be seen.  Having it in Qatar was interesting and I look forward to seeing it here in the US in 2026!

Gotta have a game at Heinz Field....sorry, Acrisure Stadium!

And Emilliano Martinez should have the Golden Glove taken from him.

So a little class, man!

The election that won't end...

 

They used to use paper ballots and the entire election was decided by morning.  Now we have computers, and here we are, a month later and it is almost over.

The Georgia runoff is conducted according to that state's law, so no problem there.  I am talking about the dozen or so House elections that suddenly had "recounts" for the "mail-in votes".  Even now, Colorado has one race still outstanding despite Lauren Boebert's opponent conceding all ready.

This just chips away at democracy.  We used to have open elections run professionally and quickly,  Now we get endless litigation, recounts, and phantom ballots like this is Bolivia or some place,  In Arizona, the governor's race, fraught with vote machine malfunctions was overseen by a candidate for that office, a candidate who did not actively campaign or have a single debate.   

Democracies need to reliable and run like clockwork as well as being sane.

We have not seen a lot of that over the last two years.

Time to pull back or we plunge into Weimer style collapse.

If you don't think it can happen here, take a good look around.

Hopefully we pull back in time.

Happy Thanskgiving!

 

The Russian missile attack that wasn't

 

Do you think I was going to let the Associated Press off the hook?

They reported, through an anonymous source (of course...), that a Russian missile landed in Poland and killed two people.  NATO was ready to call for an Article 4 meeting to gather to discussion an Article 5 over whether this was attack or what to do next.

Only it never happened.

Odd how there were no photos or independent confirmation through satellite or ground sources or even a picture of the impact site.

 Of course, Ukraine got $38 billion in aid and I bet none of it made it to Kiev.  NATO has desperately tried to remain relevant and Russia's resurgence is the life raft they found.  As NATO prattles on about Russian aggression, Western campaigns against Serbia and and Libya are pushed under the rug.

NATO does not want a war with Russia or vice versa.  They want to keep the tensions so that the flow of weapons sales and "foreign aid" is not cut off:  

I am worried about a 1914 rerun.  No one wanted a war then either, but the political leaders of a century ago led a regional crisis get out of hand and the worst war in history broke out.....until the next one.

Given the low quality of political leadership in today's world, it could happen again.

Let's hope  history does not repeat itself.

North Korean sheniggans

 

It would be funny if there were not for the fact that nuclear weapons were involved.

North Korea, a threat to most of Northeast Asia in the best of times, became a nuclear power in 2006.  With the ability to launch nuclear-tipped nukes, North Korea is now a Pacific-wide threat, able to hit the US West Coast.

Considering the growing instability on the planet, worse case Russian attack west, Chinese attack on Taiwan, Iranian assault in the Persian Gulf, and North Korean attack into South Korea would be the ultimate nightmare,  Given the low quality of Western leadership at this point in history, the scenario gets scarier. 

Fortunately, Russian and Chinese leadership has not been all that impressive in 2022 as Russia's bog-down Ukrainian venture and China's sound and fury over Taiwan, basically just launching missiles into the water despite threats of force.

The problem is North Korea.

If they were to attack into South Korea, a second Korean War could pull everyone into a conflict that could turn into the scenario above. That is how the First World War started.  Terrible leadership that lost control of a local Balkans crisis that turned into the nightmare of 1914-1918 and set the stage for the a worse war twenty years later.

Big difference between then and now are the nukes.

If everyone loses control (if they had it to begin with), the war comes to everyone's home.

Alberta apologizes

 

Danielle Smith, the new Premier of Alberta, officially apologized to vaccinated Canadians were were oppressed during the COVID pandemic.  After all of the mandates, restrictions, and general idiocy promulgated by the Canadian government (not even going into reaction to the Freedom Convoy), one of the country's largest provinces just admitted it was all an overreaction. 

Meanwhile Arthur Pawlowski and Christoper Scott, heroically keeping their church and restaurant open in the face of oppression that violated their rights enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights, went to court and had COVID-related charges thrown out.  

Now, Alberta apologizes.  

Better late than never.

Now let's wait for the other provinces and the Canadian federal government to follow suit.

On the other hand, bugger them.

Never forget they tried (and failed) to shut down businesses, churches, and family holidays, tried to create a Nazi-style vaccine passport ("Papers, please!") to go in a store, and made people watch Gram die on Skype.  

Never forget and never let it happen again!

They basically tried to run Tuskegee 2.0.

If you are not sure that that is, look it up.

Use the computer for something other than pornography! :-) 

And have a fun life!