… was the work of a wayward imagination brought to the end of its tether by political disgust and personal confusion. — John Le Clare
By Blue Bronc, a Trail Mix Contributor
Notes about the Russkies packing up and going home.
First, and most important, it is not the hacking the DNC that is the issue. It is what they are doing that is not reported. The DNC is old news. Yahoo is old news. OPM is old news. VA is old news. You do not know what they have been attacking. Those attacks are why the GRU/FSB/SVR are booking flights home this weekend. Getting them out of the D.C. region is the key.
Second, many of those kicked out were getting to be a pain in the ass. Not much more is needed to explain their departure.
Third, which could be first, is to box the floater in. If the orange lunatic wants to turn around and invite the GRU/FSB/SVR back in to reestablish spy operations he would be very close to treason. This is as much for his “enjoyment” as poking Putin in the eye (sort of like closing down one of his eyes on the U.S.)
I do not know what is going on other than what is reported in the news. But, I can guess there is something more behind this. Most likely is a lot more going on to reach this point. The DNC thing is a nice cover. (Don’t worry, the Russians already know that.)
Of interest to me is that Putin did not kick out any U.S. operatives at this time. It is not out of the goodness of his large intestine. He is KGB and does not have a heart (just wondering what another heartless soul, Cheney, thinks of his party leader kissing up to the Soviet KGB). Why would he not follow tradition? I can only guess that he expects this example of “good” will make his saddle buddy allow the GRU/FSB/SVR to come back in and start local spying again.
This action also wipes the slate a little bit clean so that the GRU/FSB/SVR will have to reestablish their networks. That will take time. Perhaps longer than four years and the floater will be out of office by time Putin gets operatives back in and doing the nasty.
The best of this is that the Soviets/Russians get kicked in the groin. A few U.S. assets have been given to the GRU/FSB/SVR, but the loss may not be in the same scale as what was accomplished.
Next note: GRU is military intelligence, a mix of NSA, CIA and local folk; FSB is local (Russian) intelligence but with some external contacts and SVR is spy service, sort of like CIA. Be happy you do not have to deal with these people.
Next note: Putin, and the FSB/SVR would rather have known operatives stay in Russia than to kick out those they know are there. This is a multi-layer poker game. Do you keep what you know? Or do you remove what you know to wait for a new deal of cards? Take a card on 16 or take a card on 17.
And, I am sure you are starting to build a question as to why I know this. I am just like you, except I was exposed to this stuff a long time ago.
More Posts by Blue Bronc
bbronc, thank you for listing and unscrambling initials we will no doubt hear more about unless the twit decides to turn our attention to shinier subjects. you know, who’s going to sing, dance, bow and curtsy at the coronation.
sjwny, you noted last thread Referring to people in terms of “breeding”, “rats” has historically bad meanings; ’nuff said. I apologize if I offended you but I didn’t mean my rat reference in that sense at all. it was more along the lines as explained somewhat in wiki:
The ethologist John B. Calhoun coined the term “behavioral sink” to describe the collapse in behavior which resulted from overcrowding. Over a number of years, Calhoun conducted over-population experiments on Norway rats (in 1958–1962) and mice (in 1968–1972). Calhoun coined the term “behavioral sink” in his February 1, 1962 report in an article titled Population Density and Social Pathology in the Scientific American weekly newspaper on the rat experiment. Calhoun’s work became used as an animal model of societal collapse, and his study has become a touchstone of urban sociology and psychology in general.
[…]
Lewis Mumford also referenced Calhoun’s work in his The City in History, stating that
“
No small part of this ugly barbarization has been due to sheer physical congestion: a diagnosis now partly confirmed with scientific experiments with rats – for when they are placed in equally congested quarters, they exhibit the same symptoms of stress, alienation, hostility, sexual perversion, parental incompetence, and rabid violence that we now find in the Megalopolis.
”
Calhoun’s work has been referenced in comic books, including Batman and 2000 AD.
help!
patd,
It’s not you I’m worried about but the dehumanizing of our society as a whole. It’s always them, not us. But who is them? Us? Why not? Or is our perceived superiority the definition of elitism? If we can’t ‘solve’ the overcrowding problem by eliminating our grandkids then the alternative is eliminating another person’s grandkids. We don’t see their faces, know their names, makes it easier. Neat & tidy.
I ask these questions because I believe in the potential of every human being. Who knows, someday my life may depend on theirs.
That rat is cute. I feel your pain, bud.
Ratatoullie is cued up for viewing.
so, mr. twit, where’s your sweet putie tweet on this story from wapo:
A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials.
While the Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a security matter, the discovery underscores the vulnerabilities of the nation’s electrical grid. And it raises fears in the U.S. government that Russian government hackers are actively trying to penetrate the grid to carry out potential attacks.
Officials in government and the utility industry regularly monitor the grid because it is highly computerized and any disruptions can have disastrous implications for the country’s medical and emergency services.
[….]
“Vermonters and all Americans should be both alarmed and outraged that one of the world’s leading thugs, Vladimir Putin, has been attempting to hack our electric grid, which we rely upon to support our quality-of-life, economy, health, and safety,” Shumlin said in a statement. “This episode should highlight the urgent need for our federal government to vigorously pursue and put an end to this sort of Russian meddling.”
‘”If we can’t ‘solve’ the overcrowding problem by eliminating our grandkids then the alternative is eliminating another person’s grandkids.”
sjwny, I don’t think anyone here on the trail is talking about eliminating anyone’s grandkids. the overcrowding itself is doing that. very likely the overcrowding will eventually eliminate most life on this planet…. already doing a bang up job on many species. not long before homo sapiens will become extinct along with the other dodos
Uneasy lies the head which wears a crown.
Tight as Trump’s hatband.
sjwny
There are 7000 Cheetahs left on the planet. There are several others on the list of the soon to be departed and not there for any of the grandchildren current or future. Last night on one of the third year episodes of West Wing, some sharp dialogue was questioning why the Middle East was always in an uproar. After running through all the usual political & religious reasons, they got stopped cold with:
That status of too many people for the available resources and the societal and environmental difficulties and dangers caused by it are getting worse by the minute as 250 infants are born and only 150 people depart. The problems caused are many and the possible solutions, because we didn’t start around 1945 are too few and too difficult. It is going to get ugly out there. How ugly will depend on how many of the problems/solutions blow up in our faces.
Overpopulation Effects
At some point in the next few weeks or months a president will be presented with a conversation in which his name and likely his words, which were spoken in private to a foreign leader, but not the transcript from the phone he used. It will be a secondary system of the foreign country, to which certain agencies are privy to but the foreign country does not believe to have been broken into. The president will either come to understand he is a tool and his words are used to further the foreign countries interests against the United States and he ends his tête-à-tête or he finds there are many willing to do it for him.
The most common solutions offered are below. Feel free to have at them as they all may develop unintended consequences:
The “Nine Population Strategies to Stop Short of 9 Billion” are as follows:
“Provide universal access to safe and effective contraceptive options for both sexes.”
“Guarantee education through secondary school for all, especially girls.”
“Eradicate gender bias from law, economic opportunity, health, and culture.”
“Offer age-appropriate sexuality education for all students.”
“End all policies that reward parents financially based on the number of children they have.”
“Integrate lessons on population, environment, and development into school curricula at multiple levels.”
“Put prices on environmental costs and impacts.”
“Adjust to an aging population instead of boosting childbearing through government incentives and programs.”
“Convince leaders to commit to stabilizing population growth through the exercise of human rights and human development.”
Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
Henry The Fourth, Part 2 Act 3, scene 1, 26–31
sturge, you think the twit regrets yet the wearing of the weighty head piece?
For those wondering if the lunatic is really crazy as a fox or just plain crazy.
bbronc, referring here to a bit of blackmail at the highest levels?
vlad surely has a storage cabinet full of the twit’s best hit recordings as well as do bibi and his mossad, aman and shin bet.
nothing like watching oneself in old movies doing and saying bad things to motivate one
Bink
Just watched Cumberbatch as Richard III. I love these classically trained actors who can do everything.
kgc, this should make your day:
The husband of Donald Trump’s adviser and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway is “on the short list” to serve as U.S. Solicitor General, sources familiar with the process told NBC News.
By placing the two prime Russian dachas in the public’s control, they can no longer be acquired by Trump or his family for their very exclusive use. Gone is one of Vlad’s greatest bargaining chips–gifting those properties to the Trump Foundation for use by veterans of the Great Patriotic War.
Jamie pretty much has this right. Even if Mother Nature were cooperating, which she isn’t there simply is not enough water for consumption and the production of food to sustain that many people. The climate change deniers are in charge now and along with them the mindset that abundant cheap labor is a resource to be mined and refreshed constantly. God help us.
Pogo, thanks for the blow-by-blow of last nites game. For Michiganders, like my s-i-l, going to work today is not a pleasant experience. I hope OSU fairs better tonight. Where do you stand? Are you rooting for the Alabama women in tomorrows match here in Cola?
Flatus – excellent point about the dachas. Too bad we could not take them with all the equipment inside. But, diplomacy reigns and allowing them to ship home the servers and other pieces is sort of okay.
two random thoughts this new year’s eve:
— 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, from Lenin to Putin
— Giraffes are in danger of disappering
Craig,
I guess the Russians haven’t progressed all that much.
We need more giraffes and fewer Russians. Giraffes just don’t bother anybody.
One hundred years ago. It was during the First World War and added to the chaos that was Europe.
Just learned of another thing to keep my Saturday grumpy going. Lidl, a Germany grocery chain, is opening a store on the road I take to go anywhere, there is only one road in and out of here. Bah humbug. I want H-Mart. The population change of the county would support an H-Mart or Grande Mart (pronounced in Spanish). I suppose the Lidl store is for those building the 3/4 to one million dollar homes here. Bah – oh wait I already used that.
Time to write a chapter in Red Light on the Green Line and take my mind off this real world and into a unreal world where former KGB operatives, changed to GRU, FSB and SVR are being fought by Periwinkle Jones, the FBI and CIA. Hmm. sometimes I cannot even make up something more unreal than our current reality.
long excerpt from a much longer dave barry review of 2016:
It wasn’t just bad. It was the Worst. Election. Ever.
And that was only one of the reasons why 2016 should never have happened. Here are some others:
• American race relations reached their lowest point since … OK, since 2015.
• We learned that the Russians are more involved in our election process than the League of Women Voters.
• For much of the year the economy continued to struggle, with the only growth sector being people paying insane prices for tickets to “Hamilton.”
• In a fad even stupider than “planking,” millions of people wasted millions of hours, and sometimes risked their lives, trying to capture imaginary Pokemon Go things on their phones, hoping to obtain the ultimate prize: a whole bunch of imaginary Pokemon Go things on their phones.
• A major new threat to American communities emerged in the form of: clowns.
• In a shocking development that caused us to question our most fundamental values, Angelina and Brad broke up even though they are both physically attractive.
• Musically, we lost Prince, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen; we gained the suicide-inducing TV commercial in which Jon Bon Jovi screeches about turning back time.
Did anything good happen in 2016? Let us think.
OK, the “man bun” appeared to be going away. That was pretty much it for the good things.
[….]
Finally, mercifully, 2016 draws to a close. On New Year’s Eve, a festive crowd gathers in Times Square, and millions more tune in on TV, to watch the ball drop that marks the dawn of the new year. This is one of the great traditions that connect us as a nation, and it serves to remind us that, although we disagree on many things, we are all part of the same big family — the American family — and when all is said and done, we hate each other.
This is what we are thinking as the big lighted ball begins to slowly descend the pole, traveling roughly two feet before it is vaporized by Russian fighter jets.
Happy New Year, fellow Americans. It’s going to be exciting.
oh, by the way, trail mixers
BB: Very insightful post. Lots of food for thought. I read the book when I was a teen and saw the movie when it came out. With all that’s going on now I may watch it again. It’s funny how recent events have been so reminiscent of the old “cold war” days. I also was “exposed to this stuff a long time ago”. The Cuban Missile Crisis wasn’t just a vague thing on the news…we had an extra phone in our house that only received incoming calls! PS: the lunatic is, in fact, just plain crazy 🙂
Re over population: We’ve been talking about the dangers of over population since I was very young! Nobody is going to impose restrictions any time soon, and it’s probably too late anyway. Hell even China has changed it’s 1 child policy. We’re heading towards a Soylent Green world or culling by asteroid…whichever comes first.
I can’t wait to see what happens when trump pisses off the wrong people and all his words/actions/dirty-dealings come back to bite him in the ass in a very public display! He thinks “the head that wears the crown” makes him king/God/invulnerable. It will be a blast to watch the reality, that his crown is now a target, play out!
Happy New Year (and heaven help us) to all. *If you’re going out, drive safe!
Pat…….I’m thinking he soon will…….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to1xT93IlUI for Jamie
What am I doing for New Year’s? Cowering in the fetal position in a dark corner, of course! Isn’t that what everyone’s doing? No? I envy you, but you’re still not allowed in my bunker.
We’ll be having an out-of-bunker experience among friends and neighbors and various degrees of sea-folk down at the marina pub with a seven piece band doing mustang Sally in 5 part harmony.
weird will be not at all surprising.
There have always been more guitar players than there are chairs for as long as I can remember.
poohbah, Anthony is saying what you kept trying to tell us even as we threw rotten tomatoes your way:
“When people are afraid and feel that their government has failed them, they do things that seem completely mad and unreasonable to those of who are perhaps under less pressure,” Bourdain said.
Still, Bourdain said he was empathetic to the circumstances that led to outcomes in those countries. And he faulted those same forces for Trump’s win in November.
“The utter contempt with which privileged Eastern liberals such as myself discuss red-state, gun-country, working-class America as ridiculous and morons and rubes is largely responsible for the upswell of rage and contempt and desire to pull down the temple that we’re seeing now,” Bourdain told Reason.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in gun-country, God-fearing America,” he added. “There are a hell of a lot of nice people out there, who are doing what everyone else in this world is trying to do: the best they can to get by, and take care of themselves and the people they love. When we deny them their basic humanity and legitimacy of their views, however different they may be than ours, when we mock them at every turn, and treat them with contempt, we do no one any good.”
New Year’s Eve? Later, I’m watching Buckeyes v Clemson then retiring. Right now, I’m headed to Publix–out of Bagels. Y’all have a blast (with either a long fuse or a very long match).
Flatus… I’m watching the Washington vs Alabama game. We bought the bagels earlier this morning along with the shrimp ring, goat cheese, special crackers, kalamata olives and a couple bottles of cranberry wine. We are having a quiet evening of watching the ball come down and then to bed. We are having friends over tomorrow to watch the Patriots game.
Everyone have a great New Years’s Eve and Happy New Year!
Craig
One of the advantages of the British royal family is historical memory and constant access to a media that will quote you:
Prince Charles Issues Veiled Warning over Donald Trump
PatD, Bourdain certainly gets it. I chose a candidate and worked my heart out to get Democrats to see it, but would have been easier to make fruit salad with wood chips.
two bottles of Moet Chandon being chilled
Craig
Yes Clinton was my candidate, but I was willing to listen to Webb right up to his monumental (yes monumental) debate gaff of confessing to murder as a toss away joke attempt. It wasn’t the issues, many of which I supported, it was his chauvinistic arrogance. There were a whole slew of male noise makers in the race. He was just the noisy smart one.
pretty tough words from wapo editors’ in their “Trump refuses to face reality about Russia”
Why is Mr. Trump so dismissive of Russia’s dangerous behavior? Some say it is his lack of experience in foreign policy, or an oft-stated admiration for strongmen, or naivete about Russian intentions. But darker suspicions persist. Mr. Trump has steadfastly refused to be transparent about his multibillion-dollar business empire. Are there loans or deals with Russian businesses or the state that were concealed during the campaign? Are there hidden communications with Mr. Putin or his representatives? We would be thrilled to see all the doubts dispelled, but Mr. Trump’s odd behavior in the face of a clear threat from Russia, matched by Mr. Putin’s evident enthusiasm for the president-elect, cannot be easily explained.
oops, forgot to link the wapo editorial quoted above
I think Trump is clueless git. And no one around him is any better.
flatus, don’t forget the cream cheese. my druthers are honey pecan for the cinnamon raisin bagel and the salmon for the everything on it bagel. butter will do in a pinch tho’ unless you’re in to piling on some nova, slice of onion and tomato. then it needs to be just plain ole Philadelphia brand plain cream cheese…. definitely not the whipped.
I think Trump is going to cause some big international problem be exposed for the blowhard he is
What then for all the angry white people who voted for him because they were concerned about globalization. There is no foundation of facts to demonstrate that is who voted for him. But thereis plenty of evidence that people who voted for him are racists and no one can deny he used racist themes.
Perhaps other candidates should have been more overtly racist in explaining their sympathies for the left behinds.
well Jamie the guy he killed blew up his knee with a grenade.
chauvinist? Jim spearheaded getting more women into the military than any previous sec of defense, and as senator appointed dozens to military academies. Wasn’t just Hillary who was misrepresnted out of context in that campaign.
Craig
It wasn’t the act. It was the venue and response to the question. He truly strutted with puffed out chest on that one. I remember when I was defending him way back when the GOP right wing was giving him hell over very real societal acts in his wonderful writing, specifically an Arab father kissing his new born son’s penis. They really came unglued on that one. He is a brilliant man who knows his stuff. He is a very bad politician.
Jamie, bad politician, yes. For a delusional party out of touch with mainstream voters, certainly. Unlike the party leadership at least he was bad for the right reasons. And by the way that debate remark you criticize actually bumped him up among general election voters in battleground states.
Mainly he was out of touch with virtually every single woman watching the debate. There are some mistakes you can overcome. There are others that cause an immediate write off of someone you want in the office being sought. I would have forgiven him at the House or maybe (barely because I don’t live in VA) Senatorial level, but not on the Presidential level. I will, however, continue to purchase books he writes.
New Eagle for a New Year: Live Florida Webcam
Jamie, I’d think single women could understand a horribly injured officer protecting his comrades (their sons, brothers, maybe even fathers) from near certain death by killing those intent on murdering them. But hey, could I get the media to see that? Of course not. They were too focused on eliminating Hillary’s opposition, which is why I find it difficult to buy the narrative that they were against her. But that’s 2016, let’s just drop it next year (tomorrow).
Trump is still playing the game, when it comes to saying nice things about Putin; he also knows Putin is playing the game, too. However, I think Trump underestimates his opponent; Vlad has no soul.
The Democratic Party pretty much blew itself up in 2016. Add it to the “in memorium” montage.
I thought Jim Webb would’ve made a great SOS.
Now, get outta here, 2016! Let’s hope we don’t look back on it as the good, old days.
that came up Blue. He wasn’t interested, working on a book.
That should be an interesting read; non-fiction that reads like fiction. Let’s hope every election seems really boring & normal, going forward.
A great deal of politics isn’t what you do but when you do it and how you talk about it. I’m afraid Webb’s ego frequently made him tone deaf and verbally aloof. He could have been a good SoS. But if too busy for that job because he was writing a book, why wouldn’t he be too busy for the Oval Office? The Republican environment positions were destructive. Three wives and five children by all three women didn’t help either. If women are going to be your largest voting block, you need to decide in which party you truly belong.
Of course, I’m still trying to figure out why any female would vote for human slime like Donald Trump.
Jamie,
I hate the West Wing, find it insufferable & all associated with it insufferably insufferable 😉
Things even out. The pendulum swings wide but always returns to the middle. No offense meant to you, but personally I will never consider anyone excess population. History is a good teacher of what such designation leads to. Just my personal belief. I will always be sensitive to such things, as close family members lived under Nazi occupation for five years. I respect everyone’s right to exist. Because I am too aware of the alternative.
Hillary’s ego got the best of her, too, and her “basket of deplorables” comment was not “going high.” That was beyond tone deaf; she went low. She was ignoring Americans losing their jobs & living on the edge.
Anyway, it’s all history now.
Untruthiness is the code of the day
There is no history
Blue
The percentage of the people she was talking about are still totally deplorable and someone needed to call out the nazis, misogynists, racists, and nut cases. Unfortunately telling the truth about your opponents is frowned upon so we got a championship liar, egotist, boorish, ignorant, trash talking piece of garbage that should be impeached as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately, the GOP wants the power of pulling the puppets strings more than they want what is good for the country.
That goes for everyone who fell for 30 years of right wing BS thrown at Hillary.
As someone said last night: Trump probably rooted for Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.
SJWNY
I’m all for everyone’s right to exist. It upsets the relatives when you engage in genocide. I’m in favor of producing less of them to exist and to slowly take the numbers backward. Man is brilliant. We have created the means for more and more to survive without taking the necessary steps to cut back on the production. If you eliminate measles, mumps, diphtheria, polio etc. there is no longer a need to have 10 children to work the farm since five of them aren’t likely to make it to adulthood.
Way back lifetime “average” was in the 40s because so many didn’t make it past age 5. Actually life “expectancy” was what it has always been of about ye olde three score and ten. One of the biggest ways to reduce population is free birth control for males and females and educate women. Birth rate drops like a rock if you can get the cultural weight behind not squashing women into a subservient pulp.
Had Brooklyn not pretended Michigan and Wisconsin didn’t exist this might not have happened, despite Putin, misogyny, whatever. That’s arrogance. That’s bad politicians. But as BiD said, it’s all history now. I’m not going to rehash this any more.
Craig
Hillary’s campaign made huge mistakes. I’m not defending those. I’m objecting to her having to dance backwards in high heels at Dancing with the Stars champion level just to be treated as marginally equal to the two left footed men. I truly resent Trump. There are Presidents I’ve disliked. There are ones I didn’t particularly respect as individuals but respected the office. In this case, I think Trump is totally unfit intellectually and mentally.
Oh and SJWNY
I like the ideals and writing of West Wing but the short term character in early seasons that I really enjoyed was Ainsley Hayes, the Republican Attorney.
Fair enough Jamie. Auld Lang Syne.
Patsi would have loved this twist on the end of 2016. Garth Brooks has refused to play for the inauguration. Guess Trumpy Twit didn’t read Patsi’s book nor has he heard Standing Outside the Fire.
https://youtu.be/QjLbrKIoL9A
For anyone new to the Trail who didn’t know our beloved Patsi and her country star books or remember the 2008 Hillary Wars
http://theboot.com/patsi-bale-cox-dead/
Just a quick pop in to read the last few comments of 2016 🙂
I don’t think I can debate the ills of the election any more without feeling ‘ill’ myself. Still, I can’t believe we elected someone without full disclosure of his financial entanglements. I suspect he’s entangled with Russia in a big way. If common sense ever prevails again, I hope it comes with a bright shiny new law or amendment about financial disclosure for Presidential candidates!
Guy Lombardo’s last New Years Eve at Times Square. The ball drops at 4:00:
All we had to do was get through one more day. Sorry about this:
farewell Father Mulcahy
William Christopher has passed at age 84
Golly, Ohio State has looked so incredibly bad tonight. Perhaps they should take a year off to regroup. Congrats to the Clemson Tigers.
NEW THREAD, NEW YEAR