Random Thought

I have to admit that one of my favorite Marvel superheroes is Ironman, even though I don't have as many comics as I do Batman, I think I'm getting to the point where I like Tony Stark just a tad more than Bruce Wayne. I think part of it is that Bruce is just a facade that Bats puts on, with Shellhead
Tony is who he really is.

Ok... it could also be the way that Robert Downy, Jr. also played him in the movies and the fact that Downy also struggled with alcoholism like Tony (and also drugs?) makes it more believable.

Still I really wish Marvel and DC could've done a Batman/Ironman crossover, but one that featured their alter egos. It would've been fun seeing what would happen if Bruce and Tony had to go up against each other in the corporate board room.

I think I may have gotten food poisoning from eating some out of date Summer Sausage.

Been trying to call the hospital about health insurance to see if they take State Farm, so far haven't gotten an answer back.

Breakfast today I ordered a cinnamon bun thinking it would be normal size but it was YYYYYUUUUUGGGEEE!!!! though I was able to eat it all with two sausage links!!!!

The President of El Salvador had a tweet on X that perfectly destroyed one of the Squad members.
In it he stated that he won with 54% of the vote and since he was elected crime has gone down there
93% and he's at a personal approval rating of something like 98% or 95%...Maybe he and the President of Argentina ought to run the US for awhile...

Our local paper is thinking of limiting letters to the editor to local issues, but they had a poll about it and the majority so far think it's a bad idea.

I read at NHK newsite today that Tokyo and Yokohama city were both covered by a recent snow storm. Makes me glad for the rain here.

Reading a children's illustrated book on Pearl Harbor. One of the stories it tells is of the crew of one of the Japanese mini-subs that were captured. Ironically it appears that the soldier who captured them seems to have been a Japanese-American!

Also the mini-subs as a whole may have been the weakest part of the Japanese plans as none of them apparently had been tested for sea worthiness as a result none of them seem to have been able to fulfill their mission (which is fortunate since it would have added to the damage done by the bombers).

There's also an item about the future Hawaiian US Senator Daniel Inyoue (sp?).

Who says kids books can't be interesting to read for adults?

With the changes to my State health care plan I had to go and tell my eye doctor after I finished with the dentist. Haven't been able to tell the hospital as yet....Bummer....

My dentist went to Du Bhai for a conference so the hygenist couldn't give me gas. OTOH it was a real quick and easy visit.

In other news:

Nikki Haley got trounced by None of The Above in Nevada's unofficial Primary. None of the Above got
something like 69% but she's saying she's still in ( for now). How can you stay in as a candidate when you get trounced by None of the Above? I don't think she's sane.
Then again I've had questions about her since the Stars and Bars were taken down in SC.

Also no love lost between her and Vivek.

So Special Prosecutor Hur in fact did find that Biden was guilty of taking classified documents he wasn't supposed to have, however because of his age and dementia Hur came to the conclusion that he couldn't indict and try Biden because even though it would be a slam dunk anywhere else, a DC
jury would be too sympathetic to the defendant because of age and mental state.
Or in other words: Biden was saved from the indignity of a trial because of his dementia.

It's inevitable that if Biden were to actually and honestly win re-election that Kammie Harris would then be replacing him in all but name only as POTUS. I think whoever is actually running the WH wants Biden as even as a puppet he's better than Kammie Harris. Though if he dies in office, I wonder if the Puppetmaster has a plan B.

OTOH if Trump wins then the above is all just hypothetical.

Welp I won $15 from yesterday's Superbowl. I could have won more but the Chiefs decided to score in the last seconds of the first half...

So in Russia they're using Biden's image to advertise help for those with dementia...go figure!
(I'd put a LOL emoji here, except that the topic is too serious to laugh at...)

Basically what Hur wrote was that Biden did commit crimes but because of his age and mental state we can't put him on trial.

And it looks worse for the Atlanta DA now as it may turn out her affair with the lawyer she hired to prosecute the Trump RICO case was having the affair with her even before the case came up.
Someone's got a lot of 'splainin to do.

AFAIG with the ads during the Superbowl, the only one I think was worth it was the return of the Clydesdales. Gotta love those big massive working horses even if like me you're not a beer drinker.
Give me more Clydesdale commercials and less woke please!!!!

A lot of things are going on these days I don't have enough life to go into all of them.
That said you should really become a regular to Beau's youtube channels.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=beau+fifth+column
https://www.youtube.com/@BeauoftheFifthColumn
https://www.youtube.com/@roadswithbeau
If you can spare the time watch all of last month(s).
He may not have all the details but as far as internal politics goes he's well versed. And afaik we share almost the same opinions. I've more 1st hand experiences outside so those of mine are different (not all ofc).

Not that new but I'm elated by the progress made. Hopefully, it will be available soonish.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/12/early-blood-test-to-predict-dementia-is-step-closer-as-biological-markers-identified
The problem ofc is how insurance companies will change the plan's costs etc.

More and more NATO member officials talks about near future war with Russia.
The threat is real but realistically and practically with how much material they are losing... it won't be soon. Not to mention the all important special forces are nearly gone. It takes a decade to rebuild them. One reason why China has been churning out new SF divisions every few years (~3a).
Japan is the only lucky guy here being able to establish new connections with various NATO members that would have been impossible otherwise. Them giving away monetary support "bribes" is certainly a good incentive, though, I doubt this will actually turn out to be that helpful when China starts the next war.

"Masters of the Air" has started airing for a while on Apple TV+. I'm lagging behind but as far as I've seen it's ok. Appropriate actors (convincing), amazing real old stuff (obviously they are giving us a good look at those so I'm happy as a technical person), lots of other authentic gimmicks of the time (incl. clothing etc.). That aside it feels a bit abridged. They do go into all the important points that need covering but there's little more. So it kind of lacks depth.
I think Band of Brothers was better in all aspects.
CGI is good, though, there are times it seems "cheap" but those times they did well to avoid attention. They just ddn't escape my attentiveness.
It does include all the scary (a bit gory) and cruel stuff of war (still no crushed ball turret yet but we do get to see one being stuck and abandoned).
I would say it's worth watching but not likely to be revisited.

The problem is the audio for our computer hasn't been working for quite awhile...

And now two of our phones seem not to be working either...wonder if they need new batteries.

So maybe the GOP shouldn't have kicked Santos out so readily as they barely impeached Mayorkas the second time around. They need to stop playing politics with each other and concentrate and being more like the Democrats and being a united party.

Speaking of which: Does anyone think Nikki Haley is going to really quit and support Trump? I think the smart money would be that she'd look for some kind of reason to support Biden or Kennedy.

Speaking of RFK, Jr.: that ad they ran for him during the Superbowl apparently didn't have his knowledge or approval, it wasn't his people who ran it but a pro-Kennedy superpact. His cousin Bobby Shriver was pretty pissed about it.

I read an article at Townhall today that stated the Russian Collusion Hoax evidently got started as far back as March 2016. The Obama era FBI thought that the Trump campaign would be a soft target since a lot of the staffers on it were inexpierenced which was they were targeted.

Looks like Willis and her boyfriend have dug themselves deeper into trouble as now even a reporter for
MSNBC has stated that the Trump trial in Georgia is basically over now. The whole thing has become one big old train wreck.

AFAIG with the East Palestine and Biden going there finally: too little too late, the time to have gone was way before Trump even announced he was going.

Climate Alarmists (tm) are now upset because Greenland is warming up to the point it's once more turning green just like it was when Eric the Red first established a settlement there in the early 11th century.
Also Climate does change from time to time, as a post from X that was featured on Twitchy put it: the climate was warmer in the Roman period and in the Minoan period and waaaaayyy warmer in the Jurassic...
It's called Science.

Soooo Deadpool fans seem to have had a lot of fun tearing down the She-Hulk tv series.I didn't know which side to support until someone pointed out how it compared to the John Byrne written comic book and someone else compared it to the '90s animated series (could've also compared it with She-Hulk's appearances in the animated Iron Man series as well.. so I'd have to agree with the detractors on it then. Especially since the comic book and animated series were so good...

Lastly: Spring Training has officially begun!!!!

P.S. : There will only be one Spring Football League now as the XFL and USFL have emerged to create the UFL...I wonder if this is a sign that they might try to challenge the NFL again in the Fall one of these days.

Re-reading The Adamses: America's First Dynasty by Richard Brookheiser. Off the bat in the first chapter on John Adams he makes the mistake of writing that the incident with the settlers at Merry Mount occured in 1637 and involved the Puritans. The reality is that it happened in 1627 and invovled the Pilgrims. The Adams were not involved in it except that their ancestor bought some of the land later on.

The main problem with the Adamses was that they were a rather quarrelsome family. They argued with everyone: Friends, Foes and even Family.

I found out that one of my Dutch ancestors spent some time in what was then the Dutch East Indies and now indonesia. He may have died there as his wife and children got a bit of money from the Dutch East India Company.

Though he isn't the only ancestor or relative that spent some time in Asia.

The big problem with the abolition of slavery is something that nobody talks too much about and that was: "What do we do with the slaves once they're free?"
This is probably one of the reasons slavery lasted so long, the slaveowners could point to the fact that the abolitionists only wanted to get rid of slavery but had no real plans on what they were going to do to help the former slaves once they were liberated...other than to send them back to Africa or down to Central America; there was no real plan on what to do with them if they wanted to stay in America.
Ironically enough the Northern abolitionists were fine with Blacks as long as they stayed far away from them. It was basically NIMBY of the 19th century: "We Want The Slaves Free As Long As They
Stay Where They Are Or Go Else Where And Not Here!"

Sometimes it's rather hard to get a synopsis done in one or two sentences. OTOH, trying to write an entire paragraph or more is just as hard as you tend to overlook important parts and then get overly bogged down with minutiae that don't matter. Also some times there's the temptation to over analyze things.

I rather err by writing too little then too much.

Welp....Nikki Haley got squashed like a really sick bug in SC. No where for her to go but to Poltical Perdition now.

Interesting that Tulsi Gabbard is being tossed out as possible VP for Trump now.

I'm vacuuming our church today and tommorrow as the woman who usually does it has to recuperate from a minor surgery.

Re-reading Tarzan's Lost Adventure.

I haven't named the cat that visits us every day since I don't want to confuse her when she goes back to her other home.

It snowed again today which is a reminder that Winter is not done with us quite yet.

As I noted before, Tulsi Gabbard appears to be on Trump's short list for VP, others included are Ron De Santis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Kristi Noem, etc.

If he picks a woman it certainly won't be Nikki Haley.

They had a large memorial service in Athens, Georgia for Lakin (sp?) Reilly. Biden still won't mention her name but Trump did and said he spoke to her parents. I guess this will continue to happen until people start to wise up that this Government does not have our best interest at heart.

Then again, it's all about gaining and keeping POWER for people like the Bidens. We would have been better off with Tony Soprano in the WH.

I dunno what happened but large parts of Texas has been on fire. My folks will probably alright but it's still surprising to me. Around this time of year it's not that hot like in California. I wonder if this is human made (most likely) or climate change has increased the chances of fire. Anyhow, last week I heard there are new sniffing sensors for just this occasion. *shrugs*


Tons of exciting science news.
But also perceiving bad medical news like measly returning...and people realizing how climate change data and analysis might actually have been consistently hidding the worse truths. It's too late anyway. All the latest analysis on technologies say we'll always come short. It's simply no possible to revert it anymore only delaying it at best.


The "alarmistic" messaging of european leaders about the coming confrontation with russia is kind of amusing from my standpoint as things have been predicted since before the war... ofc it's not funny. Now people have started discussing a possible collapse of the front-line. Oh it's real don't misunderstand I just don't think it's that immediate. Chances are ~37.5% albeit without a set time. We'll know a month from now.
Even if the west suddenly delivers ammo and all it would takes at least 3 month to take effect let alone more realistically for everything to set up 6-12 month. Same goes for calling to sen NATO troops over.
Last week the Ukraine was about to pass law to force people back that had escape conscription. Apropos, there was a call for europe to reintroduce conscription, too. Welp, it's all too late now. I predicted that calculatingly on discord as late as last summer. No surprises here. The Ukraine has long proven to be incapable to wage the kind of combined warfare on the scale that's needed since last "spring offensive" so I don't see much hope for the coming F16 to change anything.
Let's make a quick comparison with the Vietnam war again (since both have nearly identical stats).
According to NYTimes the US spent 141 billion USD over 14 years of which 2 billion worth of material went to SouthVietnam. IF you look at what's given to the Ukraine it's about ~75 B on the US side; 190 B on the European for until last October, not counting all the other countries (Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, Norway etc.) or the new ones for 2024 57 B European or 65 B american etc. Note the published comparisons on the net conveniently didn't list Vietnam or even Korean war's spending while listing everything else. Note the difference in inflation is 6.7x.
The vietnam war ended with a human lives exchange ratio of ~1:10+. Most of the time the Ukraine achieved 1:2 with places like Adivka getting up to 1:7 (having lost ~7000 here). Zelensky said they lost 31k for the past year. I have a hard time believing that number because my calculation/prediction have been consistently met published numbers over times. For example the 100-200 men (max ~400) lost /day in the first year would have been much higher let alone the 2nd year. Anyhow, the number ratio is officially coincidentally 1:10. Welp.
So despite having received more than 20000x money and material in the same time period their battle field (exchange ratio) achievement isn't better at all.
At this point it looks totally hopeless without actually NATO going in. Anyhow, we already know they will be forced into a peace "treaty" in summer and eventually join up with russia in the future... setting the next stage toward WWIII.


Shogun 2024 has started streaming on Hulu.
So far (ep1-2) it's looks like a typical modern japanese medieval show of today: more realistic and authentic.
Maybe closer to the novel, can't tell as I don't remember the details anymore.
Actors are more appropriate to character age... I still like the original actors more.
So both shows have their own charm and are good in their own right. It's less "fun(ny)", though.
I suppose it has a bit more political intrigue insight. It's not bad but I don't think it has a lot of re-watch value.

It's supposed to be on FX too, but I forget the night and time.

I don't think we're ready for any type of war, let alone WWIII. Essentially DEI has killed the American Military at least for the time being. Once an actually shooting war is started between the US and Russia or the US and China look for the Woke agenda to be ditched like a rabid dog. It may take something worse than 9/11/01 to wake people up to the need of better military preparation though.

I think I may have mentioned this before but just in case: I discovered that one of my Dutch ancestors may have died in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and that his widow and children were
given pensions from the company. At least one of his sons, my ancestor, was living in America (New Amsterdam) at that time.

I feel like it was one of those days: but at least I finally got my ordering done.

So Haley finally bowed out of the race. Nobody is going to trust her too much now, basically she's done politically unless she can make a comeback in '28 but by then it'll be either De Santis or Ramaswamy.

The MSM seems to be trying hard to piss off the rural voter, especially the rural white voter.
They also don't get it that the crime problem is going up because many of the illegals are in fact criminals who were kicked out of their countries because their governments felt America was the
answer to their own crime problems.

While I did misspell Laken Riley name: Reilly instead of Riley.

Having never seen The Rings of Power I can't say how good or bad it was. That said I think that a lot of what Not The Bee writers have written about it seems to be, like all such reviews. merely their own take on things. Then again they did seem to like the new adaption of Dune. IDK really
since the first time I tried reading Dune I found it to be boring and a bit dull. But that was just me. Maybe The Rings of Power would be more to my taste. Again IDK, if it comes out on DVD or
Bluray....

Just saying.

People do have diffirent tastes and all.

I just get annoyed when someone like Not The Bee thinks that everyone should agree with them when it comes to something like entertainment. Like I say people's taste do differ and there're
probably a lot of people who perfer Rings of Power to say something like Game of Thrones.

Then again I have always thought that the Record of Lodoss War OVA was superior to the Jackson LOTR movies, but again that is just my own peculiar tastes.

Well, Haley had good chances but alas she gave up a bit too early. Welp, anyway it's pretty much certain at this point we will have yet again Trump vs Biden.

And likely due to that yet again Poland joined in saying NATO troops in Ukraine isn't unthinkable. Things will be settle when the negotiations happens in Switzerland. But let's entertain this line of thought.
According to my military math, this won't happen before 2025. On NATO side only now have europeans started to work on making wartime production of ammo (artillery ofc) happen. This won't be realized for at least 6-12 months. The production lines and all are already available it's just a question on training more people and typical political bickering among EU members on (distribution)details. Likely wise recruitment and training of new military personnel can't be shorter.
Passing laws for a new drafting won't happen within a year either. So a year is already very optimistic.
On the Russian side, whether my calculations from 1st year or updated now the results are still the same. Russia can endure into 2025. From there manpower, ammo and material from old storage will twindle quickly toward 0 (meaning faster than can be replaced).
Basically, everybody is betting on time in 2024.
As for the Ukraine, they messed up big time as far as non existing defense lines behind the front goes etc.
Their only choice is yet again to lure russian forces into the hinterland and make them pay.
The Ukraine people are against new drafting and actually are asking for their men to return from the front.
They are tired of war. There's no hope for them morally or psychologically to go through an all out war.
Welp, it's pretty much over the question is which of the bad sub-path it will take.
The EU will try hard to prevent the Ukraine from falling into russian hands but ultimately it's either end up like Israel or eventually joining Russia.


The Rings of Power, I think ultimately it's good. A major problem is the expectations people have. You should just go in and consider it something new rather than building expectation on anything before it. It's just hard for some people to adjust here and appreciate it. It will age well imho.


Masters of the Air S01E08
In this episode we turn toward the Tsukegee men. Well, I've watched too many TV & movie versions of them so it didn't seem any different to me. There are some good points but probably not recognized as such.
Anyhow, so far the show has gone more in depth about the men/women at war. Lots of military personnel talk.
As someone who has served I can see the differences and nuances, something I doubt could have been written by civilian writers. So these parts are good.
We also got to see the american side of "The Great Escape" albeit just halfway so far. Hard to tell how authentic this part is. They have been avoiding depicting the prison leadership (for everything in the show actually), so I guess it's made pretty looking? The brutality of things are still there. They did well in censoring without making it apparent.
Welp, the women have been coming short so far. This time one infiltrates as a spy. This one is like all rolled into one so it feels a bit off.

It's interesting that both Tolkien and his son Christopher served in the British army; Tolkien in WWI and
Christopher Tolkien in WWII.

I think a lot of the criticism of The Rings of Power has to do with the character of Galadriel, but critics forget she's a younger version than in the novels or Jackson movies.
I still would love to see someone do something featuring the Rohirrim, they were always my favorite part of the trilogy. I think it's because they were meant by Tolkien to resemble the Anglo-Saxons and other barbarian tribes of northern Europe. Also the characters tended to be the most relatable of all Tolkien's.

Mentioning The Great Escape reminds me of the coolest moment in the entire film: Steve McQueen stealing the motorcycle and attempting the jump the barbed wire fence ( IIRC, he did the stunt himself).

The Tuskegee Airmen are pretty legendary these days.

The number one rule of eating Oreos is to always unscrew them and lick the center topping off.



Hur seems to have given as good as he got and more when he testified in Congress.

People are talking about the Dems taking back the House now that a majority of Republicans have announced they're retiring. Something must be going on that we're not aware of since the numbers are too big to be much of a coincidence.Then when the Dems get back into power in the house they will shut down all the cases against Biden and his family and "administration" that are currently going on and go back after Trump.
That seems the most likely scenario.

Or so it seems, though it all depends on how the voters decide in November.

Everyone on both sides of the aisle seem to be forgetting about the voters. The might still surprise everyone, so a Dem majority isn't as solid a possibilty as it might seem. It is after all up to the voters.
And we shall see in November.

Only about 66 Republicans and Democrats voted against the bill banning TikTok. At first it seems like a good idea, that is until you realize that it really won't matter much as that ship as already sailed and besides it's unConstitutional as well. What sounds like a good idea may actually be another slippery slope. I don't believe in Government censorship; instead I believe we should all learn to be our own censors. Such things are highly subjective. What one person may think is offensive may not be to another.
It's like that saying: " I know pornography when I see it."
Well what one person may think is pornographic may not be to another. I'm not talking about things that are pornographic that are obviously so, I mean things that stride the line between what is and isn't.
The same here.
I think what would be a better idea would be to limit the usage of TikTok and other Social Media to
non-working hours. Of course there are times when Social Media would have to be used for business reasons,but they could be properly monitored at work.
For the rest the First Amendment applies.
Another reason to be against the ban is the fact that Government could use it as an excuse to censor the internet and other non-Social Media outlets.
I read today on Twitchy that some people are accusing sites like Discord that a lot of Gamers use of passing on mis- and dis- information. But that's only people for the most part simply saying what they think.
The whole thing sounds too Orwellian to contemplate.