Random Thought

And now Hunter's lawyers are back stepping their threatened lawsuit against everyone who has ever been around the laptop. Kinda busted him when they admitted it was his and so the deeper they go the deeper they dig the hole for both Hunter and The Big Guy (tm).

Trump's being Trump.

It is scary thinking that there might be another Chinese spy balloon overhead somewhere in my neck of the woods. After all Fairchild AFB is in Spokane and they're responsible for all the refueling flights.
So wouldn't put it pass the CCP to have another spy balloon floating overhead in Eastern Washington like they had in Montana.

The balloon is nothing new. In fact, the chinese have them flying all over the world all the time.
This revelation looks like a political move to shut them up as they have been voicing all kinds of things in the past weeks.
So they can be called out without referring to or touching on the geopolitical issues at hand. Smart!
So the chinese embassador was called for a meeting.
Also the balloon has been shot down by a force of seemingly 8 aircraft. Nice show of force for the public.


Now that the Ukraine gets GLSDB rockets it has become very possible to take back Crimea. Currently, I project the end of the War sometime in 2024 at the earliest. Anyhow, I expect the russian to deploy 500k troops so the Ukraine will likely wait to fend them off first before starting their own offensive. It takes months anyway to get most of the ready German tanks and up to 1 year to get the ones in storage and M1 Abrams.
The NATO supply rampup is massive and as expected at this point. Russia is unable to escalate anyway so there's no reason hold back. The only reason politics is keeping saying it is to maintain a way out. Putin can only use nukes and we know he won't. Imho peace talks will only prolong the war and in the worse case will ruin the Ukraine the same as SouthVietnam. I'm certain Trump will make that case happen.


So I watched "The Ark" show.
Colony ship on the way to Alpha Centauri experiences damage, crew wakes up etc...
It's bad but my opinion differs from all the other commenters.
I think the actors are good and perfectly fit the characters. It's just the characterization are so stereotypical that's been used to death. They also suffer from the so typical "well trained, experienced, smart" person that always end up being no different from a noob in the story. It's typically suffocating & dumb. These event problems should have been solved on the side and then having the real unsolvable problem come up. That would have been good.
The set is semi-clean which is probably the reason many have a problem with the larger spaces. I like the well designed hall ways with hidden ladder and rails and with the automated roll-doors for the helmet storages. Lightning is so-so. I think the inflatable dome storage room might have been donated by a certain company that was making those for space use (17 years ago...
Ship design is ordinary junktech level that is typical for most near future sci-fi shows so I don't get people's bias here.
Story wise, the order of crew events/action is just downright dumb. The crew has 0 chance of survival regardless of when or what they do. It's in their nature to die.
I don't know how many times I paused it and wandered off and restarted again... it's that bad.
The preview for episode 2 looks interesting...

War with China in 2025+

This has been circulating for ~a week but nothing new.
In fact I said the same ~1+ year ago on discord because there's been tons of writing on the wall for a good decade.
The most "recent" indication was the x-time call(s over the years) to change out western computer hardware by 2024.
There've been other statements pointing to that time. More importantly projected military readiness also falls into that time frame. Before covid19, originally, economic wealth and progress set the time around now but military was not ready until ~2030, around the same time the increased birthrate due to no-longer-one-child-policy would result in more soldiers available.... So 2025/26 being the earliest possible time to invade Taiwan isn't really a secret nor are the plans and targets.
Currently, since covid19 Chinese economy has suffered from the lockdowns, de-globablization, sanctions, estate market "crash" due to changing laws, etc. Further sanction and US interest rate/currency value change in 2023 will further impact their economy. So it's suicidal for an economic mind to start a war now or even in the future. But that's not how the CCP thinks so invading Taiwan is pretty much a given.

I think another problem with CCP invading Taiwan now is everyone expects it to happen sooner than later. After Russia invading Ukraine it became obvious what was on China's mind or rather has been on Xi's mind since even before his "re-election". Taiwan after Hong Kong's rights were taken away, became the last vestige of Free China and the CCP and especially Xi, who apparently wants to be the next Mao,
can't be having that.

I think we should be more worried about China buying up American land and food companies like Smithfield. Also why is Gates buying up so much farmland?

When an enemy country starts buying up arable acreage it should make people stop and think. And then also when a non-farmer who has no known family record of farming or interest in agriculture starts buying up land as well....

I don't think I've heard of The Ark before, so that was news to me.

yep, imho Taiwan won't but as much trouble for China, because it's unlikely they will get as much help as the Ukraine.
One they are a "small" island in the enemy's firing range and far away from large territories.
The more concerning issue is the use of nukes. Frankly speaking, the west won't have qualms using nukes.


Nh, I'm not concerned about them buying up anything that's not related to technology. The important ones are companies that do have machinery they can ship back home. Anything, they own on American soil can be taken away whenever we feel like it. So it's a good thing to get our hands on their money. Therefore, the reverse is much more troubling to us. The factories in China are the regrettable investments.

I already talked about this on discord and in the past. Bill Gates and co are smart. In fact, this has been happening all over the world even before the Ukraine war. The powers that be foresaw the global warming issue. As I said a long time ago we have long moved from water issue toward soil issues. Global change has caused more heavy rain yet less water which causes landslides and soil washed away. Rising seas further reduce land. So (good) land will become the gold. Now, leasing farmland has always been lucrative and with this land owners will have virtually an infinite source of money, food and power.

Now switzerland is fully taking sides. A while ago they approved export of their ammo to the Ukraine and this weekend they ran a story on the Russian patriarch formerly being KGB working in Switzerland.
https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/priester-spion-propagandist-das-geheime-leben-des-moskauer-kirchenfuersten-in-der-schweiz-566103963787
This is unusual because the power that be don't talk about anything that would touch on Switzerland, as it's usually their retirement plan.

I don't think the farm issue would be so bad if the Chinese were intent on selling the food directly to the American people first before sending it back to China. There's also the problem with the fact that it appears at least the land in ND is located near an American military base.

Basically I tend to be more pro-family farm and small family ranches and against big agriculture. When you are raised on a farm or small ranch you tend to learn to take care of nature more than if you're working on a big corporate or state farm. Mainly because you know sooner or later it'll be passed on down to you.

Didn't watch the SOTU but watched Governor Huckabee Sanders' response. I agree with everybody who says she nailed it. If not a possible '24 VP spot for either Trump or whoever else might be the GOP nominee, then certainly a possible '28 spot.

I watched the finale of Hell's Kitchen yesterday on FOX. What I was hoping for happened: Alex, the remaining 40 years old beat out Dafne the remaining 20 years old. If anything he most certainly was the one contestant that deserved to win, considering all he went through. The man breaks down and cries for joy after opening the door.
He also was one of the classiest contestants they ever had, as was Dafne. They were seen congraduating each other at the end.
This, despite a lot of faults along the way, was probably one of the best seasons I think I have ever seen.

I was hoping for a Eagles win yesterday to be totally and bluntly honest. It was a good game though until the fourth quarter. I still think Mahomes is overrated.

Looks like the final(?) Indiana Jones film is coming out. Also The Flash looks like it could be fun as well. At least it got Bats and of course the line: " I'm Batman!"

Looks like they're doing the Flashpoint arc.

We're somewhere between Winter and Spring right now. Near 40 above so we might get more rain in the works.

Re-reading the Star Trek novel Crossroad, so far the only one I ever come across where ou need to be familiar with Lovecraftian style horror. There's even a creature called a yaggorth.

Today is my oldest sister's birthday.

Next Tuesday I start the dub of Momo, Girl God of Death: The Ballad of a Shinigami, to give it its
full title.

Now they're saying the four other objects shot down might have been either privately owned or used for research. Sounds like someone was being a bit too trigger happy to make up for not shooting down that Chinese spy balloon earlier.

I just hope it didn't belong either to the Klingons or the Borg!

But seriously.....It got back down to around 18 or 19 above today and right now it's around 20 above.

No surprise that there is talk now about trouble developing along the Northern border as well. No surprise, since where did they think all those people that couldn't get in through the Southern border were going to go? It's a no brainer that they would try coming through Canada or Canadia as they say in Bidenland, once Mexico became impossible to use as a stopping off point.
Also even Canada doesn't want them.....

I found pictures of my 2x great grandparents Wednesday at Find-A-Grave. My paternal grandpa's paternal grandparents.
I'm always excited when I find something like that since I'm always interested in what people actually looked like.

So reading Tolkien is a pathway to Right Wing Extremism now?
Looks like they're getting tired of targeting Rowling and now are looking for another author to attack.

And speaking of J.K. Rowling: saw a ad for Hogwarts Legacy yesterday. I think it was during
Next Level Chef.

Congrats!

Got to be really old graves at old cemeteries. Most new modern one especially in cities have a limited "rent time" before being reused for someone else.

As for Tolkien... well it's from colonial times so there is (typical british) racism and nationalism. Facism extreme level is in the newer TV series but I wouldn't say it's in the original main novel's writing.

ST Picard Season3 has started!
Looks good. There are a few details that are off.
And the Beverly Crusher surprise(!) ... I think they just stole the idea to have more depth. I don't feel it's fitting.
There's also Seven of 9. If both were to change places that might have been better character wise... But I do understand they needed the connection to get Picard involved. (waiting for her to tell them/him).
This time around they have the USS Titan... upgraded to Neo-Constitution class. I never really like the kiddy design but this...

And so another friendly warning:

I've only seen Season 1 so far. Sounds like this will be it as far as Picard is concerned, probably has to do with Patrick Stewart's age. From what I read it seems they brought just about everyone back from STNG. Wonder if Q will end up popping up one last time.

Actually my 2x great grandparents are buried in the cemetery of the church where the family had been members for generations. Some other relatives and ancestors are buried in private cemeteries. One of my great grandfather's older brothers is buried near Fredericksburg, Virginia as he was in the Confederate army during the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness and was KIA.

The row about Rowling certainly hasn't hurt her brand any. It's one of those things where the controversy seems actually to help.

Finally: read at FOX News where Patricia Heaton tweeted about Lemon's remarks about women over
40 and asked women reading her tweet to respond with what they've accomplished post 40. She started with a bunch of stuff she's been doing lately (she's 64!...so eat dirt Don Lemon!!!! )
He must not have had sisters or he wouldn't have said one of the most stupid things anyone has ever said on cable news.

Wind chill today. It snowed and was windy yesterday, so back to shoveling. Fortunately it wasn't as bad as it sounds, there wasn't that much snow (keep fingers crossed). Next week I think I will order
Vampire Hunter D and the tv special of Lupin The Third vs. Detective Conan since I already have the movie. Also need suggestions for other possible Lupins.

Yesterday night on Finding Your Roots one of the guests was Angela Davis, so I skipped and watched Disney XD instead.

Now they're talking about problems on the Northern Border as well...gee...I wonder who would have thunk about that ever happening?
It wasn't hard to see that coming after the debacle with the Southern Border began.

And it was in 2000 that because of tightened border security they were able to catch the Millennial Bomber. Guess he should have waited twenty three years...

After reading about Dr. Gates revealing to Angela Davis that she had not one but two white grandfathers, I wish I had watched Finding Your Roots on Tuesday just to see her reaction.
Then again there's always the reruns.
He also revealed that she was descended from Pilgrim leader William Brewster as well as at least one of her ancestors was a slaveowner!!!!
Or as the joke on the Right goes: " Does that mean she has to pay reparations to herself now?"

So the Biden people are still trying to pin the blame on the East Palestine train derailment on Trump.
Except for that one who had the sense to point out that that regulation that the Left keeps pointing to doesn't count since it was the wrong type of train and so didn't fall into the category the rule was made for.

Also why is the Left having kittens over Nikki Haley using her middle name? A lot of people use their middle instead of first names. For example both Presidents Wilson and Coolidge went by their middle instead of first names.
And yeah, I know it's more about her some how "denying her heritage (tm)", but she has consisted said that Nikki is an Indian name so I don't see how she could denying her heritage.
Any hows...haters are going to always find something to hate...

My view of Seiryu in Akame Ga Kill is probably the unpopular and maybe even by some considered rather "heretical" but is based on the anime and not the manga. Maybe the manga version is different, IDK.

Re-reading The Silver Chalice, Thomas B. Costain's novel about the Holy Grail and the Greek artist who created the framework for it.

More and more people it seems are realizing that the Ukraine War has become a bottomless money pit and the only people it's helping are the Ukrainian oligarchs like Zelensky who now seems to be even worse than Putin.
Also some how the ethnic Russians of Crimea and the Donbas seem to have become the forgotten people of the war. Not much coverage of what they're going through.

History Channel's The Food That Made America and The Toys That Made America are much watched tv.

There are so many streaming services today that if I decided to go that route I don't know which to choose.

Got my birthday present ordered for myself: Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Lupin The Third Vs. Detective Conan: The Tv Special. I was going to order the original Vampire Hunter D but that cost too much and anyhows from what I hear, Bloodlust is supposedly better than the original.

It snowed a lot yesterday so was outside about once every half hour or so to start with. I think I have it down so it takes only ten minutes to do the drive way now. Basically it's about gravity, if I shovel starting at the garage doors down to the street it's easier to do.

We're supposed to get more snow though this week or weekend so there is that.

I bet if there were actual Vulcans that Biden would be going around saying he was raised in a neighborhood of Black Hispanic Puerto Rican Jewish Vulcans!

I had trouble logging in today. I tried several times and it kept going back to an error page. Then I tried
logging in at Duckduckgo but when I tried using the password it kept saying that I was logging in with either a wrong password or user name. Finally I re-booted and seems to be working now. Wonder what happened and why it wouldn't take my password before...

Maybe I'm being too harsh on Esdeath's VA in the dub. I don't know, but so far it's hard to reconcile her with the beloved villainness from the original Japanese. Then again I guess I should give her a bit more
time.

Coming home from the Post Office today I saw three robins. They seem to be early this year.

I was thinking of comparing Joe Biden to Colonel Klink but that would be an insult.......to Colonel Klink!


The last time I checked at Right Stuf neither part 4 of Girls Und Panzer: Das Finale nor Vol. 9 of RWBY was out yet. So guess have to wait a longer bit. But Warner has come out with the animated version of the RWBY/Justice League crossover.

So my plan is to get High School of the Dead tv series next in about May and then follow that up with Parasyte n July.

I also need to make my annual doctor's appointment in July for August.

Spring Forward on Saturday night. It's Day light savings again.

Unless you leave in States like Arizona that don't have it.

With what is happening in our major cities I'm a bit amazed no-one has yet suggested the President resort to Martial Law in those cities and the suburbs that surround them. I don't think we will have much of choice if this keeps up.

From what I have read and seen, Tucker Carlson's airing of the 1/6 videos has struck a nerve with the
Left and their Rino allies.

The question wasn't was there a riot...there was...but the question is rather why were many of those that participated in the actual riot not arrested while those who peacefully walked through the Capitol building were?

It's a good thing baseball season is here, I think we need a break no matter where we fall on the Political Scale and just relax....

Snow again today. It is also nearly 40 so much of it looks like it may melt. Hope! Hope!

Really coming down earlier.

Such is March.

With every narrative that the Dems had falling apart now, it should be a no-brainer that Trump or whoever the GOP nominee will win 2024 in a landslide...but we saw what happened in 2020. Paint me skeptical of the US having any more fair Presidential elections for some time, as long as the radicals are in charge of the Democratic party.

I got my order from Right Stuf Tuesday or Wednesday but not opening it until my b'day next Friday.
I also already have both of them penciled in for the time when I am going to watch them.
Now that I'm not ordering so much I have more time to simply sit back and enjoy what I have.

Cat's Eye looks to be one of the longer complete series I have in my collection.

The election is still unpredictable as some factors are being held back while others are glossed over or being overpowered...

This weekend was also projected to be another extreme cold phase. Welp, the sun is out here. It did snow for two days, though.
Also heavy raining season is supposed to start in the Ukraine or soonish. It's safe to say the Russians are not going to start a serious land offensive. And their expected air offensive so far has only materialized in long range missile bombardment.
So the ball is practically on the Ukraine offensive. As is this is likely going to be worse than expected as the russian (materials) "didn't" get wasted by their offensive.

So have have been at least two bank runs in California this week, due to increased interest rates...
This already effected some of our members' pay. I hope it will work out for them. As for the economy, there's gonna be some spill over in the tech sector. I can't tell how bad but most likely it's "small" businesses which naturally are in the majority.

Ccoincidentally the chinese government's underground bank which was colluding with the Mafia, Putin and co was taken down in Italy.
If you  remember, seven years ago when the news broke about China cracking down on the underground banks I said they just wanted to take them over. Heh.
https://bitterwinter.org/how-the-ccp-laundered-mafia-money-in-italy/

On another side note China obviously cut the undersea internet cable to the Matsu island, hence, also Taiwan. The warships suspected of doing it have returned to port and can't be inspected.
Even though this is like how it preceded the current Ukraine war the likelihood of war is minuscule. They probably want to determine how fast Japan reacts and repairs. Since it's become a clear strategic point with the Ukraine war. (I did mark them on my posted ukraine war maps from the beginning) China has long started research in destroying star-link.

Star Trek Picard Season 3 episodes...4
Well, let's just say...  you better watch it
or be forever banished lol
joking aside it's better so far in this show despite minor nitpicking details every now and then
The new enemy is a changeling faction of the dominion. I think we heard about them here and there in the past.
Well, things seem too easy compared to DS9's dominion war. *shrugs*
I don't expect a big war and it's likely be messy again.

The Ark ep6
I've been very patient. Things kind of got better with the crew/characters but logic/physics/space travel mess persists. It's like comparing an arcade game to a hardcore serious rule based game like chess.
One thing I'm certain about is I won't ever watch it again.

So how is Picard handling the integration of the STNG cast into the final season? Wonder if they're pivoting to the Picard/Crusher pairing.

RIP Bud Grant greatest NFL coach to lead his team to multiple Superbowls without a single win.
Vikings fandom won't be the same.

Jennifer Lawrence has gotten a lot of well deserved flak about her comment over being the first actress to star in an action movie. People pointing out all the other actresses that have starred in such movies going at least as far back as Raquel Welch.

Found out by accident yesterday that we do now get FNC but don't know how long.

Superman And Lois is supposed to premiere for S 3 tommorrow with a new actor in the role of
Jonathan Kent. Clark and Lois' son.

Basically it's the only show I watch now on the CW.

I still watch Disney Channel and Disney XD, though admittedly they've shot themselves in the foot with all the Woke nonsense. And then the Disney people came out with an uber expensive Star Wars theme cruise that nobody wants to go on.
Just stay with what brought you to the rodeo folks: good clean family entertainment.

So far looks like a Trump/Lake GOP ticket for 2024 but we shall see. If it is Kari Lake will eat up and spew out Kammie Harris. Just saying, one of 'em's a savvy debater and candidate and the other one is Kamala Harris.

We had bad news yesterday from my sister in North Pole, Alaska. My oldest nephew is in the hospital in serious condition and they don't know how much time he has left.

His younger brother has had health problems for over a decade now and so at first I thought it was about him.

So currently we are in a wait and see mode.

Not everything was bad though.

Yesterday night I watched the NHL/Disney crossover:The Big City Greens NHL Classic on Disney XD. It was a fun combination of animation and NHL hockey. It was an actual real time game animated by the folks behind Disney's popular cartoon comedy Big City Greens with some of the characters taking the place of players on the Rangers or Capitols teams. The Rangers actually won the game 5-3. Overall it was a good intro to the sport for kids.
I'm still wondering of how they did the process of animation while the game was in process. This must have taken a lot of time and thought, so it must have been months or even a year in the making.
It would be fun to similar attempts with other sports as it makes sports a lot more fun.

My nephew is still in hospice. They have him on morphine drips and his friends are still gathering to say their final fare wells. His dog is living with my sister and brother-in-law and their dog. My sister says both dogs have been quiet since they sense something is wrong. They seem to be getting along fine and both are female, so there's that.

My nephew died. Yesterday my sister and brother-in-law were busy sorting through his things.

That's the hardest part of any death, going through what they left behind.

Don't know when the funeral will be yet.