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Open thread 5/21/22 — 57 Comments

  1. Georgetown must be quite the party school: the Lincoln Memorial had to be closed for a few hours this morning so that the National Park Service could clean up the empty wine bottles and other debris left behind by “celebrating graduates”: “The mess was found littered across the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. NPS officials did not indicate what local university the celebrating graduates were affiliated with.” Maybe the NPS kept mum, but it’s all over the Web that the school in question is Georgetown.

    https://www.fox5dc.com/news/lincoln-memorial-briefly-closed-saturday-to-clean-up-mess-left-by-celebrating-university-graduates

  2. A question: Does anyone know the name of the actress who accused Frank Langella of sexually inappropriate touching in a romantic scene in the Netflix production of “Fall of the House of Usher” which got Langella fired and consequently closed down the production? I’ve looked and don’t find any identification, and more’s the oddity not even in Langella’s public letter defending himself. Why such blanket sensitivity here? What’s being hidden, and why?

  3. Re: UFO Hearing cont’d–

    I almost missed the most significant thing that resulted from this Hearing, which was a disaster for those at DOD (and elsewhere) trying to block any information about the reality of UFOs, and all of the research that has been done on them over the decades from being revealed, and from coming to the notice of the general public.

    A guest at the Hearing, Representative Mike Gallagher, the Republican Representative for Wisconsin’s 8th district, asked both witnesses—very high level government officials–if they knew of any government or contractor “technical or engineering” research directed at UFOs, and while both witnesses danced around the subject, and talked abut not knowing of any programs which were not “contractual,” or “programmatic,” or “official programs brought to their attention,” they both, in essence, said “no.”

    Gallagher then asked unanimous consent to place the “Admiral Wilson Notes” into the Record, and, “without objection” this was done.

    What are the “Admiral Wilson Notes”?

    The “Admiral Wilson notes” were discovered among the personal effects of deceased Astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, who died in February of 2016, and were subsequently uploaded to the Internet by someone, and while these Notes are well known within the limited confines of the “UFO community” these Notes were, up until their introduction into the Hearing Record, hardly household words. *

    The Notes were written in October 2002, by scientist Dr. Eric W. Davis, memorializing a long conversation he had with Vice Admiral Thomas Ray Wilson (now retired) who had a long, varied, and very distinguished military career and who was, from Nov. 1994 to Sept. 1997, the Vice Director for Intelligence (VJ2) and, then, in March 1998 Director of Intelligence (J-2) for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and from July 1999 to July 2002 the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. **

    The Note dealt with, most notably, Admiral Wilson’s discovering among the DOD’s records of their various Special Access (SAP) programs the existence of a deeply buried secret SAP program he was not familiar with, one he was to be told was a longstanding program which was trying to reverse engineer the contents of an intact, retrieved Alien UFO.

    Wilson told Davis that, in the spring of 1997, when he traveled to the private company which was doing the research, and despite his argument that as J-2, head of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he should have access to and oversight over this program, he was refused access to this program by the civilian “gateway keeper” officials there, and he was mad.

    Moreover, Wilson said that, when he returned to the Pentagon and complained about being denied access to a program, which—according to law and regulations–he should have had access to and oversight over, he was threatened by the DOD officials in charge of these Special Access programs with blockage of his possible promotion to become the Director of the DIA, and with demotion and early retirement, if he did not drop his inquiries. ***

    This is the best evidence so far for the existence of a rogue—out of control, and answerable to no one—government/private corporation research program, or more likely programs, on UFOs.

    One wonders. who are the beneficiaries of any potential knowledge and power to be gained from such secret research, the American people, or the people, the corporations running these secret research projects, and their allies in and out of government?

    * For the text of the Notes see https://imgur.com/a/ggIFTfQ

    ** For an extensive review of the Admiral’s career see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_R._Wilson

    *** For a detailed overview and analysis of the Notes see https://www.ufologyweb.com/admiral-wilson-documents/

  4. In 1957 I saw an F2H Banjo, flown by a Marine captain from Papy Boyington’s old squadron, VMF-214 Black Sheep, explode in midair. The airplane went from intact to a bunch of flying debris in a blink of an eye. My first thought was, “What the **ck happened.” My second thought was, “Poor ba***rd!” After what seemed like a long time, but was mere seconds later, a parachute appeared just below the flying debris. Yep, it was the Marine safely descending to a splash down near the carrier USS Hancock. WoW! One lucky Marine.

    The background was that the Air Group was putting on a fire power demo off Hawaii for some VIPs. Planes were strafing and rocketing a target about 100 yards off the portside of the carrier. The F2H Banshee (often called the Banjo) was, at that time an obsolescent aircraft (The Marines always got the short end when it came to aircraft.) that had some electronic issues. In this case the rockets misfired and blew up under the aircraft’s wing. If I hadn’t seen it, I would not have believed it. The ubiquitous video cameras of today would have recorded it, but only eyewitnesses saw this one.

  5. it was supposed to have been where st elmo’s fire was filmed in part, seeing this is where sandra fluke, went to law school, you can just use more imagination, sandra fluke and the dunham chick, just very nauseating,

    cnbc and marketwatch the latter is cbs, often does what taranto used to say ‘ask questions no one was interested in investigating,

  6. Thanks PA…wild story, both about the trans-cult AND the commie-cult she exited before. She’s not wrong.

    It’s all classical cult/mass-formation psychosis stuff…and scary as hell when viewed against the large swathes of people who are all-in…especially the impressionable younger generations.

    Old fellas like me have work left to do.

  7. Chuck, great video and comments as well.
    Snow on Pine, thanks for the ufo info.

  8. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney wants NATO to bring Slim Pickens out of cryostasis and prepare for a nuke exchange with the Rooskies. Which answers the question ‘What do you do when you can’t get over getting buggered by Candy Crowley on national television, and want to end it all by taking the world with you?’

    Alas, poor Mitt.

  9. Chuck, by comments I mean the comments that accompany the video. Some are very informative and some are hilarious.

  10. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney wants NATO to bring Slim Pickens out of cryostasis and prepare for a nuke exchange with the Rooskies.

    It’s the Russian government which has been threatening to use nuclear weapons. This isn’t that difficult.

  11. Banned Lizzard:

    Here’s a clue for you. Was your Rossia a threat in 2008? Is it a threat now?

    Even Blind Squirrel Mittens figured that out, you appear unable to do so.

    Ask your man Vlad about his precious bodily fluids. Your strange love for Roosia is showing.

  12. Om, what’s wrong with having a love for Russia?

    Nothing.

    Now could Russians at various strata of society be satisfied with the sum of territory they have and quit giving succor to the political elites who are using Russian soldiers as cannon fodder in an effort to conquer the Ukraine?

  13. Eva Marie:

    That would be a good thing if Vlad and the oligarch’s power is waning. Some here have the fanciful conception that the current despots in Russia (the Roosians) are fighting the Left/WEF/Davos. Do you root for smallpox when tuberculosis is endemic?

  14. The end of fossil fuels leads to.numbers as high or even larger, australia has fallen to these maniacs its not by accident that the world is getting poorer and more desperate and that is schwabs point he has put it 500 pt font, this war just furthers that goal

  15. Vlad and the Roosian state he leads is not the same as Russia, the Russian people, or Russian literature and better parts of Russian culture, but that’s just my opinion.

    Regarding metaphors and diseases, choose your malady? Should I have chosen F. malaria and TB?

  16. i’ve read enough russian history to know this, I also know that even those ‘good czars’ like peter the great, were vicious to the cossacks,

    I know as well, that the ones who keep pushing this war, seem indifferent to the way the regime poisons the soul of children, watches our institutions wither and day, looks on famine, and that’s not an exaggeration of what is being wrought, as something we will do when we come to it, mcconnell, mccarthy cornyn scalise, the last is most pitiful, because the mung beetles thought to murder him, but he goes on january 6th, not the murder of ashley babbitt, and rosalynn boyland, but how it looks, all of these parasites at the Capitol, an eldritch horror, secured by fraud,

  17. its regretable what happened in buffalo, as it was with denver a year ago, and waukesha, just months ago, but only one matters, has prompted a bill of attainder that will likely go digital, when it could have been prevented by the smallest degree of diligence from the local authorities, not to mention the security services who have managed to be anatomically ill focused, (how’s that for a turn of phrase) if they are not provoking these events, because there must be ‘blood price’ for them to hold on to and expand their power, to crush their opponents,

  18. joe biden, when he was pretending to be cogent was for the nuclear freeze, so was john kerry, just another barnacle, oozing on the world stage, so was leon panetta, for every ubl strike he greenlighted, he also sanctioned the uranium one sale, they keep getting promoted up the chain,

    those putatitively on our side, sarc like mcconnell are all for throwing more coal on this caucasus fire, but when it comes to any other priority about our grieving nation, they are silent as basenghi,

  19. The Caucassus ain’t Ukraine, that was Vlad’s earlier mischief (Georgia).

    Why can’t he get along with his neighbors? A profound mystery, must be us.

  20. the Caucasus run from Georgia through to Ukraine, the steppes, are part of the main landmass, what I learned from Grossman’s Love and Fate, the war and piece of the Great Patriotic War

  21. Otay, and Roosia runs from the Baltic, to the Black, to the Arctic, to the north Pacific but it is never enough. Wonder why?

    Caucusus Mountains, and the Caucususes as a region, but to be specific, Vlad invaded a particular country.
    Ukraine. You have noticed that specific? Sort of like Castro and the Caribbean, vs Cuba?

    And he has been F’en around in the Caucuses (Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine (including Crimea), Azerbaijan/Armenia)
    for 20 years it seems. Details, details, just can’t seem to get along with his neighbors, almost as if he doesn’t want to.

  22. Thank you for that MoPo primer link Griffin, and a *well done!* to the Doc explainer.

  23. Do you know the first use of auto-tune in a Big Hit record? (I didn’t)

    Tom Grey:

    I knew that one. I remember seeing Cher on TV at the time. She had had some fresh “work” done. She didn’t look quite human. She looked like her face had been auto-tuned as well.

  24. Cher.
    a.k.a. alt-Barbie IRL. Live sexy-doll.

    Looking to be attractive to hot young studs up to 20 (30?) years younger than her.

    Great voice.

  25. Art Deco & om:
    It’s all well and good for us at our inconsequential level to debate which nuclear power is doing the most nuke rattling. Hopefully, the Russians are discounting Mittens as a player due to the aforementioned psychological damage at the sadistic hands of Candy Crowley. Otherwise, it is irresponsible for him to lobby in favor of ending it all. If the worst happens, it won’t matter whose fault it was.

  26. the scary, yet unsurprising thing, is gonsalves teaches at yale medical school, of course he was all in on lockdowns regarding every human activity, but some things obviously are sacred (sarc)

  27. Russian land games 1709 1783 1864 thats three different czars even the ‘good’ one alexander 2nd

  28. The crushing of the cossack sich* When georgia was first annexed the abkaz acquisition
    *this happened because they were allied with sweden

  29. Banned Lizard:

    Curious you focus on the mumblings of Mitt.

    Who has been threatening to nuke any and all who interfere with Vlad and his grand plans?

    But at least you haven’t trotted out the 13 minute rationalization.

  30. sdferr:

    Regarding Owens: how is it in Ukraine’s best interests for Vlad to get away with dismbering Ukraine one bite at a time?

    Don’t worry Ukraine he won’t try again and take Odessa. Why wouldn’t he?

  31. om:

    Perhaps my focus on Mittens is unfair. He at least has compelling reasons to off himself. I cannot say the same for others, however. Not that it matters. If we get to the point where it’s over, well, it’ll be over.

    Yippee, eh?

  32. I was looking for the source of “A conservative is a liberal mugged by reality” and turned up this obituary for the originator, Irving Kristol, although he actually said something a bit different.

    There is a lot that would interest readers of Neo’s blog.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/-a-liberal-mugged-by-reality-
    By Douglas Murray 2009-09-26

    Witnessing postwar America slipping into moral relativism, and the failure of the country’s institutions to stand against those who wished to destroy them, he certainly migrated — although he disputed whether it was him or the world around him that had moved. Becoming a neoconservative in the 1960s did not require a leap, he once pointed out: ‘All you had to do was stand in place.’ ‘A neoconservative,’ he famously explained, ‘is a liberal who has been mugged by reality.’

    Cue the new memes.
    How the Middle became the New Right
    https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-16-at-3.21.14-PM.png?w=950&ssl=1

    How the Radical Left shifted the Center
    https://i2.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2022/04/Woke-progressivism.png?w=1160&ssl=1

    At the heart of Kristol’s world-view was the simple realisation that ideas matter — and that when the ideas go bad the world goes bad with them. It had happened several times in Kristol’s lifetime, and he had seen the consequences. It was his self-appointed task — and one he carried out with considerable success — to try to prevent them going wrong again.

    Kristol captured neoconservatism and, in his personal attitude, epitomised it. He once wrote that ‘the trouble with American conservatism is that it lacks a naturally cheerful, optimistic disposition. Not only does it lack one, it regards signs of one as evidence of unsoundness [and] irresponsibility.’ Of conservatism’s tendency towards nostalgia, he wrote: ‘Nostalgia is one of the legitimate, and certainly one of the most enduring, of human emotions; but the politics of nostalgia is at best distracting, at worst pernicious.’

    He stood outside conservatism and outside liberalism. But for more than half a century he remained at the centre of a culture which valued intellectuals in its politics.

    ‘Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a neo-something,’ Kristol lately reflected. ‘A neo-Marxist, a neo-Trotskyist, a neo-liberal, a neo-conservative; in religion, a neo-orthodox even while I was a neo-Trotskyist and a neo-Marxist. I’m going to end up a neo-. That’s all, neo-dash-nothing.’

    That’s it. Always neo. Always with dash. Never nothing.

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