Military Veterans and Patriots

Tag: Notes

  • Random News and Notes: Pro-Hamass ‘Protest’ Edition

    Random News and Notes: Pro-Hamass ‘Protest’ Edition

    By now you’re all at least aware of the pro-Hamass ‘protests’ plaguing university campuses across the country. Your Editor experienced one first hand this morning. My VA is located adjacent to Syracuse University, and the terrorist sympathizers had set up an encampment there yesterday.

    After a quick appointment at the VA this morning, I took a stroll across campus to see what was what. Admittedly, it was 0930 when I walked through, but there wasn’t much going on. They may be in for a rude awakening later, there are strong thunderstorms in the forecast for this afternoon.

    Anyway, here’s a quick roundup of some of the stories that amused or interested me from the past couple of days.

    Starting on the Messed Coast, some mad lad released a bunch of white lab mice in the pro-Hamass encampment at UCLA. Of course the screeching harpies had to turn it into some Zionist plot.

    https://twitter.com/SuppressedNws/status/1784995824042168535
    https://twitter.com/fuzzychimpcom/status/1785134123213877515

    Also at UCLA, the terrorist simps prevented a group of Jewish students from going to class.

    https://twitter.com/persianjewess/status/1785021873555902744

    The Georgia State Patrol does not mess around. The next few vids are from Emory University in Atlanta GA, where the GSP was called in to break up an encampment.

    https://twitter.com/iLibertyBelle/status/1784267650492781041
    https://twitter.com/TomFitton/status/1784726435959116198

    While I’m sure the first “ow you’re hurting me” was fake, all of them after the trooper picked her (?) up were not. Zip cuffs tend to dig in when they support full body weight like that. . .

    Columbia seems to have capitulated. Overnight, a group of Hamassholes stormed and occupied Hamilton Hall, the main administrative building for the University. The administrators issued a statement this morning.

    https://twitter.com/Columbia/status/1785292054928453718

    This reply sums it up quite nicely:

    https://twitter.com/NiohBerg/status/1785303013482967548

    It also seems Columbia has banned all media from campus. Fewer eyes to see the failure.

    https://twitter.com/FreeBeacon/status/1785343775226712522

    The police dismantling and encampment at ASU used frat boys as manual labor. They seemed to enjoy their work . . .

    https://twitter.com/az_resist/status/1784124442068873232

    Got a protest story you want to share? A comment about one of the stories above? Let us know, that’s what the comment section is for.

  • Random News and Notes

    Random News and Notes

    You may be seeing some headlines about an American tourist that got himself banged up in the Turks and Caicos. Ryan and Valarie Wilson were visiting the TCI when 4 rounds of ammo were found in their baggage. The couple were interrogated, and Ryan was arrested and jailed. A few years back the TCI, a self governing British protectorate, increased the penalties for gun and ammo related offenses. Possession of ammunition now carries a prison sentence of up to 12 years.

    You may be surprised that I have a slightly different take than most commentators. Ignorantia juris non excusat. That is, ignorance of the law is no excuse. It is on you as a traveller to ensure you are following the local laws. And if you run afoul of them, you pay the price for it. Do I feel bad for Ryan, Valarie and their family? Sure, but let’s be clear, this is on him. In the case of the TCI, the State Department issued a travel warning specifically about this law.

    Super Genius Alexandria Occasional Cortex felt the need to weigh in on yet another topic she is not the expert on. This time it was the law enforcement response to the Hamasshole encampments at Columbia and NYU.

    Welp, an actual expert on the subject, NYPD Chief of Patrol, John Chell, set her straight.

    The rest of the post reads:

    . I am sure you would agree that we have to teach them these valuable life skills. Secondly, I was with those “units” last Thursday that you describe as having, “the most violent reputations.” These “units” removed students with great care and professionalism, not a single incident was reported. The only incidents that day on campus were the student’s hateful anti-Semitic speech and vile language towards our cops. I am sure you agree any hateful speech is unacceptable. You should rethink your comments to a simple thank you to the NYPD and hate has no place in our society. Maybe you should walk around Columbia and NYU and listen to their remarks of pure hatred. I will ensure those “units” will protect you as they do for all NYers 24/7/365.

    Lack of accountability = consequences

    Hate from anyone, anywhere has no place in our city and country.

    I’m just going to drop this one without comment. . .

    The Supremes are hearing oral arguments on Presidential Immunity as I write. I’d been trying to follow along with some live tweeting of the arguments, but I had to step away, and kinda lost my place. Once the transcripts are available I’ll take the time to read thru them. Until then, I’m going to refrain from offering any thoughts on which way this one is gonna go. I will toss this one thing out there; the attorney for the Special Council, Michael Dreeben is an absolute idiot.

  • Random News and Notes

    Random News and Notes

    Welp, we survived the eclipse with a minimum of nonsense. I say a minimum because there were some shenanigans yesterday. Like this story out of Florida.

    A Georgia woman went on a shooting spree on I-10 near Bonifay Florida. She shot at several cars, injuring at least 2. When the Florida state troopers arrested her she had an AR type rifle and a 9mm handgun in the car. She was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and improper discharge of a firearm. You probably haven’t heard much about it in the MSM. I’ll leave it up to you to decide why that is. . .

    Speaking of the eclipse, NASA shared some really cool footage of the moon’s shadow taken from the ISS.

    The ‘adults’ in charge of the Biden camp have made a YUUGE error. One that may cost him ballot access in Ohio. From PJ Media:

    According to a report in Sunday’s Washington Post, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office has informed “Ohio Democratic Party Chair Liz Walters that the Democratic National Committee’s nominating convention is scheduled too late for Biden to make the Ohio ballot.”

    The law requires nominees to be certified at least 90 days before the general election, and Biden won’t become the official nominee until the Democrats hold their convention in Chicago — less than 90 days before the general election. Biden will miss the deadline by 12 days. 

    Whoops. . .

    In a culture war victory, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced trans athletes can no longer participate in female sports. The NAIA Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote. According to the transgender participation policy, all athletes may participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports but only athletes whose biological sex assigned at birth is female and who have not begun hormone therapy will be allowed to participate in women’s sports.

    Coeur D’alene doesn’t come to mind as an Islamic fundamentalist hotspot. But that is where the FBI arrested an 18-year-old Idaho man. Alexander Scott Mercurio is accused of planning terrorist attacks on churches as well as providing support to the Islamic State (ISIS). According to the DOJ statement on the arrest, Mercurio “pledged his allegiance to ISIS and intended to commit attacks on its behalf” and that he “planned to attack individuals at churches in Coeur d’Alene on April 7 using weapons, including knives, firearms, and fire,”. Mercurio is charged with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, Mercurio faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. 

    Got something to say about one of these stories? Got a story to share? Let us know in the comments below.

  • Random News And Notes

    Random News And Notes

    Texas SB 4 has had a rollercoaster 24 hours. SB 4 is the Texas law that would allow State and local law enforcement to deport illegals. The 5th circuit issued a stay preventing Texas from enforcing the new law in January. Yesterday, SCOTUS lifted the stay, but signalled they would allow another injunction if it were issued under different grounds. Well, the 5th did just that, less than 24 hours after the SCOTUS order dropped.

    Frankly, I don’t see this law standing up to Constitutional muster. Immigration is and always has been a strictly federal business.

    Hunter Biden associate Tony Bobulinsky testified in front of the House Oversight committee today. There were fireworks from the opening statements.

    Ranking dem Jamie Raskin, commie NY, was called out by name and had a fit before Bobulinsky’s opening statement was over. Other dem Reps had bad days too. Notably Dan Goldman and Sandy Occasional Cortex both on NY. Goldman, a former prosecutor, tried to catch Bobulinsky out over the ‘10% for the Big guy’ email exchange. And AOC claimed RICO wasn’t a crime.

    The House Foreign affairs committee held a hearing yesterday about the botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Featured were generals Mark Milley and Frank MacKenzie. I’m not a fan of Milley or MacKenzie, but their testimony was brutal for the administration. MacKenzie in particular laid nearly all the blame on the State Department. In one exchange, Milley was asked if he knew the number of Americans left in Afghanistan. He said the State department was responsible for those numbers and neither he nor anyone down the chain of command ever got a solid number from State.

    This next piece is not going to interest most of you. It probably should, at least a little, because of the ramifications. The Taoseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, has resigned citing personal and political reasons. I’m betting it’s exclusively political reasons: Varadkar had been pushing for changes in the Irish Constitution. The referendums proposed changing article 41 of the Irish Constitution. The family amendment proposed widening the definition of family from a relationship founded on marriage to “durable relationships” such as cohabiting couples and their children. The care amendment proposed replacing a reference to a “mother’s duties in the home” with a clause recognising care provided by family members.the two questions failed miserably. The yes campaign mustered just 32% support for the family referendum and 26% for the care referendum.

    Now, here’s why you should care; these changes were pushed by the globalists. While I don’t follow Irish politics as closely as I do US politics, I know that this was an absolutely gutting loss for the one-worlders in Ireland. I think Varadkar is only the first domino to fall and there will be other high profile resignations in the coming weeks.

  • Random News And Notes

    Random News And Notes

    We kick off this edition of Random News And Notes with a couple of obituaries.

    Tommy Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers, died Tuesday at 86. The musician and comedian had been battling cancer. Requescat in Pace.

    Gaston Glock, the man behind Glock pistols, died yesterday at age 94. Glock was a mechanical engineer, and his empire started with an injection molding business that made consumer goods. It wasn’t until 1980 that the company started producing pistols.

    It’s been a busy couple of days in the Bab el Mandeb and the Red Sea. DDG 58, USS Laboon, a Burke class destroyer and a flight of FA-18 Super Hornets from the Eisenhower shot down or otherwise intercepted a bunch of drones and cruise missiles launched from Yemen.

    Here’s the deal though, until the launchers and personnel doing the launching are attacked, this is going to continue. And it’s not sustainable, either operationally or financially. Just one missile or drone leaks through, and that shipping route gets closed. Again.

    Texas authorities have arrested more than 10,000 illegals for criminal trespass in recent weeks. The program, run by the Texas Dept of Public Safety, partners with border landowners. Governor Abbott signed a new law authorizing local judges to order deportation after those arrests. The new law goes into effect in March.

    As I predicted, the Colorado primary case has been appealed to SCOTUS. The Colorado GOP filed the appeal yesterday. They are being represented by the American center for law and justice, the legal foundation run by Jay and Jordan Sekulow. I can’t see the disqualification standing, but IANAL. . .

    Here’s a bit of history for you. Today in 1732 Ben Franklin published the first edition of Poor Richards Almanack.

    The almanack contained weather predictions, witty sayings, poems, proverbs, astronomical information, math exercises, epigrams, calendar information, etc. and was published until 1758.

    I remember writing about the Philly soft drink tax a few years back, and now John Stossel has an update. It’s worth the 5 or so minutes to watch:

    Ford announced they are cutting EV production by half next year. That’s just the latest in a long line of EV production cuts by car makers. There is also the issue of EV inventory on dealer lots. I saw a stat about the number of days cars are sitting on lots across all segments the other day. It seems given the current sales velocity, the average age of EVs is about 240 days. ICE vehicles average about 60 days. That gets costly for dealers, as they typically do not actually own the cars on their lots. The technical term is floorplanning, and it costs the dealer an average of about 6% of their cost for the vehicle a month. With expensive EVs sitting on the lot for 8 months, well you do the math. . .

    Got a story to share? A comment on one of mine? Let us know in the comments below.

  • Random News And Notes

    Random News And Notes

    Let’s start with the elephant in the room. The Colorado supreme court just ruled Trump ineligible for the CO primary ballot. The usual suspects on both sides have already covered this ad nauseam, so I won’t go into much depth here. I personally (IANAL) think they’re out of their ever loving minds. The legal basis they quoted is section 3 of the 14th amendment. This despite no conviction or even charges relating to insurrection. Suffice to say, this is going to end up in front of SCOTUS and damned soon.

    The crisis at the southern border is getting worse.

    If you extrapolate those numbers out, more than 5 million illegals will have entered the country by January 2025. The worst part is, these numbers are only going to go up.

    The 5th circuit court of appeals just issued a stay on the federal removal of concertina wire at the border in Texas. The court ruled that the government cannot “damage, destroy, or otherwise interfere” with the concertina wire fence erected in the Eagle Pass area. There is an exception (that I’m sure will be overused) for medical emergencies. Texas installed the razor wire as part of Operation Lone Star, a border security initiative, to stop the flow of illegal immigrants. 

    A Hamas leader just admitted what we all knew already. Ahmad Kahlot, senior Hamas member and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabaliya said that Hamas uses hospitals as bases of operations.

    The confession was made while Kahalot was being interrogated by Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security and intelligence agency.

    Terrorist supporters defaced the steps to the Lincoln Memorial last night. They wrote free gaza and other graffiti in red paint. Conservators started the cleanup as soon as the damage was discovered.

    It seems I have something new to report on the Red Sea area every time I do one of these. This time it’s the fact that nearly all large container ship has rerouted away from the Bab el Mandeb and the Red Sea. So much for Prosperity Guardian. (BTW, if you want to know what’s what in international maritime trade, Sal is your one-stop shop. He has a very good YT channel and tweets about the subject regularly.)

    Strieff over at RedState wrote a good piece on the Houthis. Part of that article covers the economics of TF 153. Here’s an excerpt with the relevant info:

    The kind of a purely defensive strategy isn’t sustainable. It does not make sense to fire missiles costing up to $4 million at a drone, but the vertical launch systems (VLS) holding the missiles can’t be replenished at sea. The disruption of the West’s supply chain is not something we should tolerate. For a few dollars more, we could level everything in Yemen associated with missile attacks and piracy.

    What he said. . .

    Got a news story to share or something to say about any of the items above? Drop it in the comments below.

  • Random News and Notes

    Random News and Notes

    It’s another one of those days where there’s a bunch going on, but nothing that calls me to write a dedicated piece about. So here are some things you should know.

    Starting out in the Philippines. The CCP is big mad that the US sent the Independence class LCS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) to the Second Thomas shoal in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The Giffords was conducting a FONOP (freedom of navigation operation) in the Philippine EEZ. The Chinese claim the entirety of the South China Sea as their own despite multiple international maritime court rulings against them.

    The area has been a hotspot for decades, with the CCP and the PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy) building artificial islands to try and claim sovereignty over the area.

    There was some weirdness about the explosion in Alexandria VA last night. The guy responsible, James Yoo, is turning out to be an extremely odd duck. I recommend you click thru and read this entire thread.

    Our next item comes from South America, where Venezuela decided they want 2/3 of the territory of Guyana. I wrote about it some here, but there’s an update. The plebiscite happened and, to the surprise of no one, the Venezuelan people voted to annex Essequibo. I don’t know what to expect now, but I’ll keep a weather eye out for any movements by Venezuela.

    I’m assuming y’all have heard of the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea already. If not, well, the Houthi rebels in Yemen launched a bunch of anti-ship missiles the other day and hit three civilian ships and sank one. The International maritime shipping insurers have taken note. The ‘war premium’ on shipping insurance went from less than .03% of the value of the ship and cargo to .5-1%. That increase adds tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a journey in that area.

    Nobody is asking me, but I think it’s long past time for the complete destruction of any and all Iran backed terrorist groups.

    Florida State got screwed. That is all.

    This next one probably deserves a separate article, but TBH I’m feeling lazy today. Senator Dick Durban D(umbass)-Il, wants to allow illegal aliens to enlist in the military. Yes, you read that right. Here it is in his own words:

    Do I need to tell you how bad an idea this is? Doesn’t anyone read history books anymore? I mean, allowing foreigners into the army was one of the proximate causes of the fall of the Roman empire. The Brits allowed non-citizens into their army, but they were not allowed to get any closer to Britain than the Isle of Guernsey.

    The land of my fathers seems to be straying from the light a little more each day. There was the knife attack on some kids outside a Gaelic school by an Algerian immigrant and subsequent riots. Then there was the absolutely tone-deaf response of the Taoiseach on the release of an Irish boy who had been taken hostage by Hamas.

    Now, the Dáil (parliament) is poised to pass some of the most restrictive speech laws since the breakup of the Soviet Union. This new law would prohibit the simple possession of items considered offensive.

    Specifically, the bill targets any “offense of preparing or possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics.” The bill defines “hatred” as “hatred against a person or a group of persons in the State or elsewhere on account of their protected characteristics”—which include national origin, “transgender” status, and “gender[s] other than those of male and female.”

    I’m just waiting for the oxygen bottle mortars and the rattle of me little Armalite to start up again.

    Got any news you want to share? Drop it in the comments below.

  • Random Notes and News

    Random Notes and News

    It’s another one of those days, quite a bit going on, but nothing deserving of its own article. So here’s a smattering of randomness that piqued my interest. But first a bit of site housekeeping. For those of you following along with my prepping series, all of those posts can now be found in the Preparedness category. Just mouse over or tap the Categories button in the header and scroll down to Preparedness.

    I’m sure most of you know about the fire that closed down a section of I-10 freeway in PeePeehobomurdertown err Los Angeles 10 days ago. Well, it reopened and now after setting extremely low expectations, Governor Hair Gel is rushing to take credit for the ‘early’ reopening.

    The chain of command at Minot AB in Minot North Dakota issued a warning to the Airmen stationed there that they should avoid an upcoming political event. The text message told the troops to stay away from the TPUSA event being held in downtown Minot.

    Calling TPUSA an alt-right group is bad enough, as they are pretty mainstream, but the threat to careers is worse. As of the time of this writing, Minot leadership had not responded to media questions.

    What the hell is wrong with young white women lately?

    Those three were arrested on a slew of charges stemming from a “protest” at an Elbit Systems location in Massachusetts where our three heroines accessed the roof of the building and tried to set it on fire. Elbit Systems is an Israeli firm with connections to the Israeli defense industry.

    I’m a bit late with this news, but the MLB postseason awards were announced last week. Yankee Aaron Judge won the Clemente award for community engagement, Baltimore GM Mike Elias won the executive of the year. Rookie of the Year Honors went to Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson in the AL and Arizona’s Corbin Carroll for the NL. AL Manager of the year went to Orioles skipper Brandon Hyde while Miami’s Skip Schumaker took home the NL honors. Yankee Gerrit Cole won the AL Cy Young and Padre Blake Snell won in the NL. The AL MVP award went to Shohei Otani of the LA/Anaheim Angels. His NL counterpart is Ronald Acuna jr, of the Atlanta Braves.

    If there is anything at all good coming out of the Israel-Hamas war it’s this; the masks are off and there are consequences for that. In the latest news, harpy Susan Sarandon just got fired by her management agency for her hate-filled rhetoric.

    https://twitter.com/giantcat9/status/1727066250441052438?s=20

    Did something else catch your attention today? Let us know about it in the comments/