The 1945 Wehrmacht was in better shape

The military was relying on civilian helicopters for tactical troop transport and the soldiers on the battlefield lacked even the basic equipment such as body armor and overalls, the annual report published by the German parliament’s military commissioner, Hans-Peter Bartels, said. The report found that “often less than 50 percent of the Bundeswehr’s tanks, ships and aircraft were available at any one time, either for training or operational purposes.”

…

As German business daily Handelsblatt reported in January 2017: “Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has invited senior officers from Germany’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, to a groundbreaking workshop on sexuality.” The workshops titled “Dealing with sexual identity and orientation in the Bundeswehr” included eminent speakers such as the minister herself and “a sex therapist who supports transsexuals in the army.”

https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/01/german-army-lacks-basic-equipment-and-recruits-official-report-says/#more-272505

There is a special place in Hell…

…for those who hurt children and those who take advantage of old people.

Jazz Jennings “was assigned male at birth,” Wikipedia says. That means (1) he had male parts, and (2) some people believe birth parts don’t matter in determination of sex. Wikipedia also says Jazz was “diagnosed with gender identity disorder at five years old.”

My understanding is that Jazz was raised as a girl, principally by his mother. Both parents, medical doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists are responsible, then, for the boy’s belief that he is really a girl. His parents and dozens of educated people made the boy into a girl.

It is not my place to decide who goes to Hell and who does not. But if I had a vote, all those people who made the boy into a girl would at least have a front row seat.

6,000-year-old stone circle…isn’t

Ashley Cowie

At the end of last year archaeologists in Scotland celebrated the rare discovery of a complete stone circle. Now, however, a farmer has come forward declaring that he built it himself in the 1990s.

Last year the current owner of the Aberdeenshire farm in Leochel-Cushnie alerted the Aberdeenshire Council about the presence of what appeared to be an ancient stone circle, and it was treated as a significant archaeological discovery by Historic Environment Scotland.

A Press and Journal article on 17th December said that, “Neil Ackerman, a historic environment record assistant at Aberdeenshire Council, visited the site along with Adam Welfare, Alison McCaig and Katrina Gilmour from Historic Environment Scotland.” An excited Mr Ackerman told reporters that, “This amazing new site” added to archaeologists knowledge of these unique monuments and of the prehistoric archaeology of the region in general.

And while Mr Ackerman could be accused of not having done sufficient research before making such a claim, he was somewhat misled. A Live Science article in December quoting Ackerman said, “One member of a local farming family, now in her 80s, remembered seeing the stone circleat some time in the 1930s.” With no reason to dispute the old lady’s claim he believed in the authenticity of the stone circle and it was heralded as one of the rarest archaeological finds in the UK last year.

Now, a former owner of the Leochel-Cushnie farm has come forward explaining that he designed and built the stone circle in the 1990s.

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/scottish-replica-stone-circle-0011363

Link at woodpilereport.com

We free

The present Democratic Party is death to freedom.

https://blexit.com/

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/01/21/exclusive-inside-the-inaugural-blexit-rally-the-black-and-latino-community-will-save-america/

30 intellectuals agree…

Europe “coming apart before our eyes.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/25/europe-coming-apart-before-our-eyes-say-30-top-intellectuals

Well, dang, it must be true. And a lot of people want it that way, because the Europe that is coming apart before the eyes of real smart people is a Europe without borders, a Europe that does not hold to almost two centuries of people finding their own way.

Like others among the over-educated, under-experienced, those 30 intellectuals live and speak only to and among their own. How others believe does not matter.

Those 30 are like Progressives and Liberals everywhere: We are smarter than you, so just shut up and do as you are told.

The subhead – “Fight for Europe – or the wreckers will destroy it” is straight out of Soviet Communist slogans of the 1920s and 1930s, substituting “Europe” for Stalin’s USSR. “Wreckers” were targets of several Stalin-approved programs before the Great Purge.

Link at maggiesfarm.

Vote for Socialists!

And keep your arms handy.

“Look at Venezuela and understand that you can vote yourself into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out of it.” – John Hayward, quote at maggiesfarm.

You won the prize puzzle!

Part 1 of Unlikely, but honest, trip descriptions.

HOST: We’re sending you to London! Tell her more, Jim!

JIM: That’s right, Miriam. You are going to historic London, where you will see first-hand the result of unlimited Muslim immigration! You will tour Thames bridges, where jihadists use lorries and automobiles to run over infidels! We’ve included tours of London street markets, as well,  where coreligionists of the attack lorry drivers armed with knives stab and slash unwary tourists, all in the name of Allah! Yes, you will be a part of history as you see for yourself the sinking of Western civilization into the toxic mud of globalism.

Brussels tells Hungary to raise cigarette taxes

European Union regulations say cigarette tax must be at least 60% of average retail price.

“The European Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Hungary on Thursday, calling on the government to raise the tax on cigarettes to at least the minimum threshold required by the relevant EU directive.

“According to the EU regulation, member states must levy an excise tax on cigarettes of at least 60% of the average retail price.

“The Commission allowed Hungary a transition period but this ended on December 31, 2017.

“Hungary has two months to act before the Commission sends a reasoned opinion to the government.

“Only Hungary is not in compliance with this EU regulation, Napi notes.
The excise tax in Hungary is Ft 18,200 per 1,000 cigarettes plus 24% of the weighted average retail price.

“The average price of 1,000 cigarettes in Hungary was Ft 55,936 in July, of which the excise tax accounted for Ft 30,184, or 54%, according to EU statistics.”

https://www.xpatloop.com/channels/2019/01/ec-tells-hungary-to-increase-tax-on-cigarettes.html

Psst. Want a college degree?

Not a difficulty in Bosnia.

“When Azra Omerovic embarked on an assignment to get a degree at a medical technical school, she knew about Bosnia-Herzegovina's open secret on buying fake degrees. What she didn't expect was how quick and easy it would actually be to get her own diploma.

“Seventeen days and 2,500 marks ($1,450) later, she was a graduate of the Medical Technical School from Sanski Most's two-year requalification program, certified to practice as a medical technician locally and in the European Union. No classes. No tests. No problem.”

https://www.rferl.org/a/no-classes-no-exams-no-problem-for-students-at-bosnia-s-degree-mills/29732838.html

Nothing is easy in former Yugoslavia countries. Blame it all on the Serbs.

Mamas’ mistakes killed in robbery attempt

By Kaley Johnson

Police shed more light on the deaths of two men in Fort Worth who were shot in a Home Depot parking lot in far south Fort Worth, saying the shooting might have occurred during a robbery.

Zyshonne Dunkley, 20, and Olynthus Davis, 19, died from gunshot wounds on Jan. 17, police said.

Police believe Dunkley and Davis were attempting to rob someone in a car in the parking lot when the person or people in the car shot them, Detective C. Watson with Fort Worth police said.

“It appears that they were shot by who they were trying to rob,” Watson said.

https://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=84511

Zyshonne? Olynthus? When the mothers gave those names for birth certificates, somebody should have said, “Why don’t you just take them straight to the police department and have them arrested, because that is their only future.”

Some of that toxic masculinity

“After returning unscathed to Britain, Wg Cdr Gatward wrote in his logbook: ‘Paris - no cover - 0ft. Drop tricolours on Arc Triomphe & Ministrie Marine. Shoot up German HQ. Little flak - no E.A. Bird in STBD oil radiator.

‘Returned Northolt and on to command 61 photos. Heavy rain over England. France fair to light.’"

“The bird in question was a French crow that clattered into Wg Cdr Gatward's Beaufighter plane as he approached Paris.

“Upon his return to England, he removed the dead bird and laid it to rest at RAF Northolt.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/britain-at-war/9705446/The-RAF-pilot-who-dropped-the-Tricolor-on-occupied-Paris.html

Wing Commander Gatward flew down the Champs-Elysees at second-story level, dropped a Tricolor on the Arc de Triomphe, and then shot up Gestapo headquarters before returning to England.

A feminist would never consider such an act, lacking testosterone and all that.

Link at neveryetmelted.

UK police no longer looking for man

A news lead I’ve not seen before.

“Police are no longer looking for Ian Scott in connection with burglaries at pubs in Basildon after police arresting and charged two men.”

https://www.basildonstandard.co.uk/news/15686884.two-men-charged-following-spate-of-basildon-pub-burglaries/

Did Ian Scott know police were looking for him? Seems like shining the spotlight of perfidious publicity. Of course, Mr. Scott might be a frequent flyer in police circles. There is this Ian Scott:

'Armed robber jailed after 24 days of crime'

"Ian Scott, 44, carried out the robbery during a 24-day crime spree between November 25 and December 18, 2009, which involved knife-point robberies of stores and a woman being kidnapped and forced to withdraw money from a cashpoint, escalating to robberies and failed hold-ups of banks and building societies, including Barclays in Market Street."

https://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/crime/armed-robber-jailed-after-24-days-of-crime-1-2332816

Mr. Scott's mug shot indicates a struggle ensued when police took him into custody.

The stories are somewhat dated, but interesting nonetheless. 

Iron Felix

"We stand for organized terror - this should be frankly admitted," said Dzerzhinsky in a chilling quote in 1918. "Terror is an absolute necessity during times of revolution. Our aim is to fight against the enemies of the Soviet Government and of the new order of life. We judge quickly. In most cases only a day passes between the apprehension of the criminal and his sentence. When confronted with evidence criminals in almost every case confess; and what argument can have greater weight than a criminal's own confession."

https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/how-kgb-founder-iron-felix-justified-executions?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3

Link at maggiesfarm.

A more honest statement would have been: “We won.”

Destroying an eco-system in the name of conservation

“The Ocean Cleanup says it wants to protect animals at the ocean’s surface from plastic, but neuston is the ecosystem of the ocean’s surface. There is a reason turtles and sunfish eat floating surface plastic: It looks like neuston. Using these wall-like barriers to collect plastic in spite of the neuston is like clear-cutting a canopy in the name of helping a forest. There is no point in collecting plastic if by the end there is nothing left to conserve.”

A different approach: “Place a modified design closer to plastic sources—river mouths and bays—to catch plastic before it enters the open ocean. Choose a place where it can be monitored and corrected for environmental impact. It seems too great a risk to disrupt the whole surface ocean ecosystem so severely, when it is also one we barely know. The neuston is an alien world, as bizarre as it is beautiful. It’s still possible to avoid destroying this strange ecosystem, wedged between sea and sky.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/ocean-cleanup-project-could-destroy-neuston/580693/

Them that’s got vs. them that needs

Twenty-something years ago, Northeast Texas investor and chicken magnate Bo Pilgrim reached agreement with the Sulphur Springs Economic Development Corp. and the city council to build a pork processing plant in Sulphur Springs. Supporters of the measure said Pilgrim would employ more than 500 people.

The words “pork processing” led to immediate protestations concerning quality of life, overburdening water treatment and wastewater treatment and increased enrollment in city and area schools. Muted and quiet-stated protests also alleged that thousands of Mexicans waited just south of the Rio Grande, ready to storm north as soon as the first shovels of dirt were turned at the construction site.

All of those protests dimmed, in my mind, with a statement by a woman from my wife’s church congregation. At a dinner, conversation about the plant began. The woman said, “Nobody I know will work for $10 an hour.” She added, “Everybody I know has a job.”

That is the separation between them that’s got and them that needs.

The city council later withdrew its approval of the plant, when council members counted heads at the community protests.

Our rulers never thought they would see this revolution

Looking so much at money and accepted status, talking only to each other, the elites could not see the coming storm.

“One illustration of this cultural divide is that most modern, progressive social movements and protests are quickly endorsed by celebrities, actors, the media and the intellectuals. But none of them approve of the gilets jaunes. Their emergence has caused a kind of psychological shock to the cultural establishment. It is exactly the same shock that the British elites experienced with the Brexit vote and that they are still experiencing now, three years later.”

…

“The cities themselves have become very unequal, too. The Parisian economy needs executives and qualified professionals. It also needs workers, predominantly immigrants, for the construction industry and catering et cetera. Business relies on this very specific demographic mix. The problem is that ‘the people’ outside of this still exist. In fact, ‘Peripheral France’ actually encompasses the majority of French people.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-21/gilets-jaunes-are-unstoppable-now-elites-are-afraid

It is the same in the US of A, in all Western countries. The elites want specific kinds of workers, based on the hired help employed by their parents and grandparents. Colored women to clean; colored men for landscaping lawns, golf courses and corporate “campuses;” slightly colored men (subservient Indians and Pakistanis) for IT; young Scandinavian or German women to watch rich babies. These specific kinds of workers live within the walls of the cities, but not close to the elite neighborhoods.

Is there a peaceful answer to the yellow vest “problem?” Probably not.

Don’t fly Spirit Airlines

 Casey, our youngest, booked a flight from Atlanta to Tampa. He chose Spirit because of its alleged lower ticket prices.

Initial cost might be lower, but add-on charges raised Casey’s payout higher than a Delta flight, he said.

Casey spent around $260 for a round-trip ticket. On the airline web site, he clicked a box to choose a seat. Picking a seat was an additional $45.

While continuing his flight arrangements, he learned he could not check any luggage, and that a carry-on would be another $45. Casey decided not to take carry-on, but would buy clothes here, at less cost than the $45.

Sunday, Casey phoned Spirit to verify his return flight. Spirit said the airline had sold his seat, because he did not check in at least 24 hours in advance of the flight. He spent another $45 to get a different seat.

That was $350 for a $260 ticket.

So, if you want an airline that has real customer service, use anyone but Spirit.

People to government:

What part of hell, no, do you not understand?

"In Connecticut, the boneheaded state government passed a law demanding the registration of certain firearms, and the people of Connecticut, perhaps communing for a moment with their independent-minded Yankee forebears, mainly refused to comply. On the other side of the country in the heart of California’s technology corridor, the city of Sunnyvale demanded that residents hand over all firearms capable of accepting magazines holding more than ten rounds — effectively, everything except revolvers and some single-shot rifles — and the good men and women of Silicon Valley responded by turning in a grand total of zero firearms. Similar initiatives in other jurisdictions have produced similar results."

...

"The horror at 'gun culture' is about the culture — rural, conservative, traditionalist, patriotic, self-reliant or at least aspiring to self-reliance — much more than it is about the guns. It’s the same sort of dynamic that gets people worked up about Confederate flags or poor white people with diabetes who shop at Walmart."

https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/12/gun-control-laws-connecticut-california-new-prohibition-same-totalitarianism/

Link at http://knuckledraggin.com/2019/01/an-irish-democracy/

American Communists breathing dead air

“For us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while for many people in the West, it is still a living lion.” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/425970-america-the-new-socialist-frontier

Link at http://knuckledraggin.com/2019/01/america-the-new-socialist-frontier/

The dead dog roars louder than a lion in the US of A in 2019. Just like international Communism, though, the US version is headed for the trash heap of history.

The new and the old

“Basically, the news media is now on the journalistic level of Ancient Aliens.”

http://ace.mu.nu/

Yes, a century from now History will have a narrator saying, “Some ancient journalism theorists believe…”

As I alluded to below

Those who think Rep. Omar (D-Minn.) should be penalized for bigotry: “The problem with punishing Ms. Omar is that she is just one of many anti-Semitic, anti-Israel Democrats in office.  Even if they were motivated to do so, the party could never censure all of them.”

https://lidblog.com/democrats-have-too-many-anti-semites-to-punish-ilhan-omar/

And why should the Democratic Party be “motivated” to censure any anti-Semite within its membership? Anti-Semites enable the Democratic Party to reach more potential voters. The only anti-Semites Democrats are interested in punishing are those few in the Republican Party.

Link at maggiesfarm.

Democrats just about full-on anti-Semite

Democratic Congresswoman Ilan Omar in 2012 speech:

“Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. #Gaza #Palestine #Israel.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/bds-backer-ilhan-omar-given-seat-on-powerful-house-foreign-affairs-panel/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2019-01-18&utm_medium=email

She is now a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives.

Anyone who calls Israel “evil” fits easily into the anti-Semite puzzle board.

Look for more anti-Israel pronouncements from this Congress.

What are the odds?

Two 1987 Buick Grand Nationals, sequential VIN, 600 and 900 miles on odometer.

https://www.automobilemag.com/news/pair-1987-buick-grand-national-barn-find-barrett-jackson/?wc_mid=4035%3A15421&wc_rid=4035%3A917961&fbclid=IwAR0v6tm94SdRpKo14T6yQclzIQnKWBD0__j4K_SrxoutpzcPLe2bpXk2uK8&_wcsid=F2712C5281DDCDE687D50AAB9F2A35C501427444780FF4AD

Link at http://knuckledraggin.com/2019/01/nice-find/

Atchafalaya River Catfish Capital of Louisiana

That is how Melville brands itself.

Melville is in St. Landry Parrish, in south central Louisiana. The town’s largest-ever population was 1,987 in the 1970 census.

The 2010 census showed 1,041 people in the town, a decrease of more than 24% from the 2000 population of 1,376.

Of Melville’s residents, 51.9% are black, 45% are white, with the remaining 3.1% native American, Asian, two or more races, Hispanic or Latino.

Melville is not a prosperous town, showing 35.6% of families and 40% of the total population living below the poverty line, including 47.2% of those under age 18 and 37.7% of those older than 64. That’s poor.

Wikipedia says: “In 2010, Melville had the 12th-lowest median household income of all places in the United States with a population over 1,000.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melville,_Louisiana

A place we do not want to be

“In extreme form, urban people live like colonists running a profitable trading post by way of royal charter. While their trade is attractive, they themselves are not. They assume their standards to be universal by celestial warrant, much as did the arrogant collectivists from DC that infested Appalachia in the 1930s. Although it was they who were intruders, it was we who were outside the consensus.

“It's far worse now. Urban America feels duty bound to misunderstand and misrepresent the rest of the country in support of their cultural template. Where the sidewalks end the ‘other’ begins, so no insult is too outrageous, no lie too preposterous. It's almost understandable, moderation may signal weakness to the circling cullers of the herd.”

http://www.woodpilereport.com/

Our rulers build walls to keep out the peasantry. Most of us do not want in, anyway.

FDR's best and brightest intended to save the poor through government jobs and forced relocation, leading to collective farming. An almost unfathomable idea today, the farming part. But the rest still remains. Urbanists want to end the Electoral College, taking all political power from non-city folk. Listen to the new Democrats in Congress, but only long enough to hear their words, not take in their beliefs. 

Comparing hot rocks with limousines

The new gov of California took his cabinet on a tour of Central Valley. Gov. Gavin Newsome is pushing a drinking water tax to pay for “safe and affordable drinking water.”

That’s right. Californians who want clean water would pay not only income taxes, sales taxes and whatever else the legislature has given them, as well as a tax on the water they use for drinking, cooking and bathing. Gavin’s proposal is 95 cents a month, not much until you consider what can be imposed can be raised. And what about downtrodden Californians who can’t afford a water tax? I’m certain money can be found in other ways, maybe a surcharge to the tax, or a volume tax.

While in Central Valley, Newsome said, he and his cabinet “met with residents who cannot drink or bathe with the water in their homes — while paying more for it than those in Beverly Hills.”

https://www.weaselzippers.us/408202-california-governor-gavin-newsoms-budget-calls-for-new-tax-on-drinking-water/

If the governor truly believes a gallon-for-gallon comparasion of water in agricultural Central Valley vs Beverly Hills is logical or accurate, he needs to resign his office and go back to school.

Neanderthal plaque points to true paleo diet

“The true paleo diet is eating whatever’s out there in the environment.” – Laura Weyrich, University of Adelaide

“By harvesting and sequencing that DNA, Weyrich has shown that there was no such thing as a typical Neanderthal diet. One individual from Spy cave in Belgium mostly ate meat like woolly rhinoceros and wild sheep, as well as some edible mushrooms. But two individuals who lived in El Sidrón cave in Spain seemed to be entirely vegetarian. The team couldn’t find any traces of meat in their diet, which consisted of mushrooms, pine nuts, tree bark, and moss. The Belgian Neanderthals hunted; the Spanish ones foraged.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/neanderthal-dental-plaque-shows-what-a-paleo-diet-really-looks-like/518949/

Stone Age diet: I’ll eat anything that doesn’t eat me first.

This is not your great-grandfather’s world

That brings us to the final point of comparison. Britain’s Telegraph recently reported that UK schools are teaching British children that “Trans boys and men and non-binary people may have periods” and that “menstruation must be inclusive of all genders.” You read that right.

In the span of 100 years, Britain has gone from producing men who were so eager to fight and die for their country that 16-year-olds lied about their age to enlist when the minimum age was 19, to teaching primary school boys that they can have periods just like girls and offering feminine hygiene products in boys’ bathrooms. This phenomenon isn’t unique to the U.K. U.S. colleges, like the University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota, and Brown University offer menstrual products in their men’s rooms, in the name of “menstrual equity” and as a sop to a miniscule “transgender” population.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/01/10/peter-jacksons-restored-wwi-footage-underscores-flaccidity-todays-culture/

The men who won World War I would not put up with modern notions we are supposed to accept as normal..

Was a time…

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Northeast Texas got one, maybe two, hard freezes every winter, when the temperature at night dropped to the low 20s, high teens. We got ground-covering snow maybe every five years.

When weathermen forecast a hard freeze, my job was to drain the pipes. My family lived near Rocky Branch, Texas, then, seven of us in a two-bedroom, one-bath house. The house had a well with a pump and running water, indoors. That was the first house we lived in that had indoor plumbing.

On nights of a hard freeze forecast, after all us kids had a bath, my mother washed the tub and then filled it with water, so we could dip water and fill up the toilet tank and flush the toilet. Then, she would fill up all the cook pots and a couple of wash basins, giving us drinking water and water to heat on the stove, if the water pipes remained frozen.

Somewhere between 10 and 10:30 p.m., I turned off the water pump, and, with a flash light and a crescent wrench, went to the north side of the house, where there was access to the water pipes. I pulled the piece of tin roofing from the hole there and took off the pipe cap at the junction. Water remaining in the pipes drained onto the ground. Thinking nowdays, it seems the night was always extra dark and moonless, and colder than ever.

These days, from posts by family and friends, Northeast Texas has three or four or five hard freezes every winter, and more ice storms and snow than we used to get.

We would like to hire you for our Women’s Studies Program

OMG! You’re pregnant?

“A professor of women’s studies is suing a university after, she claims, the women’s studies department there retracted its employment offer after learning of her pregnancy.

“Evangeline Heiliger says that Wichita State University’s Center for Women’s Studies ‘retracted an employment offer after she told them she was pregnant and asked about campus childcare options,’ The Wichita Eagle reports.

“Heiliger, who is a visiting assistant professor at Oberlin College, applied for the position at Wichita State in late 2017 and was interviewed last February, The Eagle says. She was later offered the job by the center’s director, at which point she revealed “that she was pregnant and also inquired regarding the on-site childcare available at Wichita State,” the lawsuit states.

“A few days later the dean of the department contacted her ‘indicating that he had become aware that she was no longer available for the position and that they were removing her from consideration.’”

Heiliger says she never indicated she was unavailable for the job.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/01/womens-studies-prof-sues-school-for-allegedly-retracting-employment-offer-over-pregnancy/

 A pregnant woman teaching Women’s Studies? Oh, the horror!

About those T-34s we loaned you

Loaned Battle Tanks Return to Russia from Laos

Dozens of Russia’s T-34 tanks are making their way home after being on loan to Laos as Moscow reportedly negotiates a new arms deal with its Southeast Asian ally.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu traveled to Laos in January 2018, where he was said to have negotiated the return of 30 T-34 tanks.

“The equipment has traveled more than 4,500 kilometers by sea and arrived in Vladivostok,” the Russian military said Wednesday.

The military said the tanks are "in entirely good condition" and will continue onward by rail to the Moscow region.

The Soviet-era tanks will be displayed in World War II Victory Day parades, donated to museums and used in the filming of World War II sagas, the Defense Ministry added.

Meanwhile, media reports have said that Russia began deliveries of “several dozen” Soviet-made T-72B1 battle tanks to Laos for an unspecified sum last month.

Laos’ defense minister had told Russian media that Moscow was also due to send it Yak-130 combat trainers.

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/loaned-battle-tanks-return-to-russia-from-laos-64082

So France thinks it runs Europe?

Well, only those parts where the citizens don’t speak French or German as their first language.

The Macron government has been all over Italy for not letting in more invaders from Africa and the Middle East, a stance Italian politicians see as interference. Which it is, except that France has appointed itself decider of things legal and moral. With German government approval, that is.

“Tensions increased between Paris and Rome this Tuesday as Italy showed support for the yellow vest movement.

Luigi Di Maio, Deputy Premier and Labour and Industry Minister said Macron compared our government to leprosy!’ in response to being told to ‘butt out’ by the Minister of French European Affairs, Nathalie Loiseau.

“Both Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, have given their backing to the yellow vest movement with Di Maio saying his 5-Star Movement (M5S) was ‘ready to provide support to the Yellow Vests’, and later responding to Loiseau ‘Maybe she is forgetting that her president, (Emmanuel) Macron), compared us to leprosy when talking about our government.’”

And what has the EU to say?

“The European Commission supports President Macron and the French authorities, who have our confidence to put into practice the programme the president was elected on”.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/01/france-warns-italy-over-supporting-yellow-vest-movement/

I mean, anyone of sense doesn’t take on France, right? Well, except Hungary, Poland, Austria, and a few other countries in Eastern and Southern Europe.

Workplace accident injures Palestinian terrorists

That should be a standing headline, given the number of times Palestinians don’t get a chance at “Oops” before the bomb goes Boom.

 “At least four Palestinians were injured on Saturday evening in an accidental explosion that wrecked three houses in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, medics, security officials and eyewitnesses said.

“Four residents of Rafah town were moderately injured in the blast, said Ashraf al-Qedra, health ministry spokesman in Gaza.

“Eyewitnesses said rescue teams are still searching for survivors, while police and security forces have closed the area and launched immediate investigation.

“Security officials in Gaza said the explosion came as a result of a technical error when militants were preparing an explosive device.”

Xinhua News Agency link at https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/01/reports-work-accident-blows-up-home-of-senior-terrorist-in-southern-gaza/

People faint when near Ukraine president

Eat your heart out, L'il Kim.

http://englishrussia.com/2019/01/07/multiple-cases-of-people-fainting-when-poroshenko-coming-cl

President Poroshenko doesn't have to fake rocket launches. 

Brain damage

In March 1986 a vein burst in my brain. I was in a hospital for two weeks, allowing blood pressure and other things to return to normal before doctors cut open my skull and went in and placed a stainless steel, spring-loaded clip on the aneurysm.

I was awake maybe 30 minutes of the two weeks.

While in the medically-induced coma, I drowned a Russian poet. The drowning occurred in a small clearing in a hardwood forest. A stream raced and bubbled across the clearing. There was moss on rocks at the place where I drowned the Russian. I held the Russian’s head under the water until he stopped producing bubbles of his own.

Another time, two Egyptian soldiers captured me somewhere southwest of El Alamein. The Egyptians put me in a GAZ-69. That model truck was similar to the U.S. jeep, but looked more police than army. It had a metal frame supporting a canvas top that covered the cargo area and the driver/passenger area. The Egyptians handcuffed each of my hands to the frame. I was thirsty. The Egyptians wouldn’t give me any water.

Russia claims US kills women, children in Syria

Not making light of the claims, but there is something disingenuous with Russians making noise over deaths of Chechens and Dagestanis. Only the Russian government is supposed to kill people from the Caucasus.

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/2-russians-killed-in-us-led-airstrikes-in-syria-official-says-64042

And the repatriation of “Russian children” from Iraq? What are the odds the 72 children of “jailed or killed Islamic State members” will be reunited with their families?

The Army did it right with Vietnam helicopter training and tactics

The last paragraph in the story sums up Army rotary-wing aviation in Vietnam, a “’Wild West’ culture among Army Aviators perhaps not unlike what one may imagine was true of service in the horse cavalry regiments serving in the American West during the ‘Indian Wars’ of the 1800s.”

https://www.quora.com/How-did-US-helicopter-pilots-in-Vietnam-become-so-amazing-How-much-was-by-training-versus-through-experience

Link at http://knuckledraggin.com/2019/01/how-did-us-helicopter-pilots-in-vietnam-become-so-amazing-how-much-was-by-training-versus-through-experience/

The first four months of my time in Vietnam (1966-67), I was an infantry sergeant in Aero Rifle Platoon, Air Cav Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry. The final eight months I was assistant flight operations NCO, learned about and flew with pilots and crews who had transported and picked up us grunts on air assaults. Vietnam helicopter pilots were faced with problems never imagined by any other pilots in other wars, and almost always overcame those problems. A few years ago I was talking with a 1st Cav Division 1965 gunship pilot who said he flew a Huey Slick one time on an air assault mission. “When the flight starts in to the LZ, you’re gonna land,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what’s coming up from the ground, you’re gonna land.” He was flying left seat, and when the Slick started its descent, “I got as far down behind the seat armor as possible.” Seeing pictures of 1970 pilots, you have to say, “The Army was enlisting teenagers?” Yep. And they were the ballsiest of the ballsiest.

Nazis murdered 14,000 Jews a day at peak of Holocaust

German National Railway records used in determining transports.

“In August, September and October of 1942, … German forces and their allies in Poland killed at least 1.32 million Jews. That averages out to 14,348 per day, every day. Virtually all of the victims were from Poland and its immediate neighbors.”

Of those 1.32 million, “An estimated 292,000 … were killed with bullets by special mobile shooting squads called Einsatzgruppen.”

https://www.sentinelsource.com/mcclatchy/at-the-peak-of-the-holocaust-nazis-murdered-more-than/article_acbd0b1d-8d53-58a6-b08a-f5872c90b1c8.html

Link at http://knuckledraggin.com/2019/01/14348-a-day/

D.C politics 2019

Politics is theater, when it’s not busy being reality. 2019 will be an interesting year as the Democratic Congress steps on its (male part) and talks from its (female part) over and over, every I-wanna-B-prez Progressive hammering first Trump, and then other Democratic wanna-bes. The real wierdos might just bring truth in their comments and accusations, and Democratic voters will see how dipstick crazy are Pelosi, Mad Maxine, Schumer and O-C, the Dumbest Woman Ever Elected to Congress. We will spend our days laughing and WTFing. It's going to be a wild ride.

A ‘So what?’ headline

‘AWFUL! ONLY 5 COUNTRIES IN THE EU SPEND MORE ON ALCOHOLIC DRINKS THAN HUNGARY’

https://dailynewshungary.com/only-5-countries-in-the-eu-spend-more-on-alcoholic-drinks-than-hungary/

Who is the headline writer to label “AWFUL!” Hungarians’ decisions on spending their own money?

Get it right

My wife arrived at the book club meeting a little early tonight. In the clubhouse were a friend of hers and Las Vegas cousins of the friend, all playing poker. 

The friend introduced her cousins to my wife. 

My wife said, "I hope y'all have a good time here." 

One of the Vegas cousins looked at my wife and said, "Where are you from?"

"Texas," my smiling wife replied.

"I thought it was somewhere like that, when you said 'you all,'" the Vegas woman said.

My still-smiling wife said, "I didn't say 'you all.' I said 'y'all.'"

Donald Trump and Wheel of Fortune audience

Both want people to succeed. The Wheel of Fortune audience always cheers for the contestants. The audience wants every bonus round contestant to win big money -- $50,000 or $100,000 and especially the $1 million prize.

Donald Trump wants the same for all Americans. He wants each of us to have a job. He wants all of us to do well.

Democratic leaders and too many Republicans want dependency. They want people to depend on the government for jobs. What they want is far closer to feudalism than to federal republicanism. 

Lessons

GySGT Rzezckowski

Never get drunk and play strip poker with strangers.

Never tell Them everything, but let Them think you did.

Never, ever, assume anything.

Just because it’s quiet on all fronts, it does not mean there are no Snakes waiting in the bush to shoot you.

When people want to make fools of themselves, get out of their way. Record it for posterity.

https://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=83855