Mid-Week Snark

Images courtesy of RealClearPolitics' Cartoons of the Week.

Sabotage Reported

Two Internet cables crossing the Baltic Sea have been sabotaged. A Chinese-registered bulk carrier - the Yi Peng - was doing odd maneuvers in the area at the time it occurred. 

The ship has been intercepted by the Danish navy as it attempted to flee into the North Atlantic. It sailed from St. Petersburg and has a Russian captain. 

Russia has denied responsibility for the sabotage. In other contexts, Russia has shown itself willing to do deniable sabotage beyond its borders. 

The Baltic Sea is shallow which makes communication cables and pipelines laid on its bottom particularly vulnerable. Recollect the NordStream pipeline sabotage two years ago. 

Will NATO act in this matter? Doubtful, this is the sort of gray-area warfare of which Russia is making a specialty, and to which there aren’t many good replies short of going to war, which neither side wants. 

Perhaps landline communications between Russia and the Kaliningrad oblast could experience “difficulties” or “vandalism?” Russia may also have cables at risk in the Sea of Okhotsk.

Both Sides Escalate

It is widely reported that President Biden (remember him?) has relented and now permits Ukraine to use the longer range of the US-made ATACMS rockets to hit targets inside Russia. This is being called (by Putin and others less biased) an "escalation." 

Once again Putin threatens to use nukes in Ukraine. Maybe someone should 'loan' Ukraine a couple of nukes plus delivery vehicles?

It is also widely reported that 10 thousand North Korean troops are in Russia preparing to join the Russians attacking Ukraine. Why is no one calling this an escalation? 

Wouldn't this justify Ukraine in attacking North Korea and its assets or citizens wherever found?

About Matt Gaetz

You have heard that President-elect Trump has announced Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is his choice to clean up the corrupt-under-Biden Department of Justice. You have also heard others claim Gaetz, who has been a House firebrand, has been accused of having sex with a minor woman whom he paid.

Writing for The Federalist, Mollie Hemingway lays out (pun not intended) the backstory to such claims. A DOJ which had no reason to do Gaetz favors, found two witnesses claiming Gaetz was involved. 

These two were (a) a male convicted felon serving time in prison and (b) a now-adult woman who makes her living doing sex for voyeurs (porn) and actual johns (prostitution). The felon has a history of claiming others were doing what he admitted, pay minors for sex.

The DOJ concluded the witnesses were of such low character they were unlikely to be believed and dropped the case. You should probably do the same.

Matt Gaetz has managed to infuriate many colleagues in the House, and more than a few Senators with his legislative histrionics and shenanigans. Getting Senate approval for him as Attorney General will be hard enough without raising what appear to be charges that cannot be substantiated and are very likely either false or greatly exaggerated.

I don't know if I'd take Gaetz' word for his non-involvement, everybody lies about sex. I'm willing to take Hemingway at her word that the charges were too flimsy to press. 

Unquiet Flows the Don

We learn that the omnipresent Donald J. Trump has started a dance craze that is becoming the new “in” thing. It involves holding fists out forward at waist level and alternately pumping them, one or the other, back toward the body in time to the music. It’s usually done in a celebratory moment.

A certain amount of coordinated foot-shuffling can be added to the overall mix. Some add an imagined golf swing - what you’d do with a chip shot, not a long drive. Instapundit has posted a link to a short video illustrating various politicians and athletes doing the as-yet-unnamed celebratory “dance.” 

Trump is for sure a multi-talented public figure; after he’s out of office books will be written about him and his impact on our society. Suggested book title: The Extravert as Public Icon. Suggested name for the dance: the Donald or just the Don.

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Upon further reflection, the first time I remember seeing the classic horizontal fist-pumping move of this dance was performed by Professor Flitwick in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). It was done when none save the camera was watching Flitwick as the Weasley twins made a spectacular exit from Hogwarts, frustrating the evil Professor Umbridge. 

You can watch a brief snippet of the film here on YouTube, the fist pump is at its very end, at about 2.26 of the total 2.28 minutes. Flitwick clearly liked their bravura style.

Travel Blogging Coda

Back at our winter home in Nevada. Getting home from Sydney, Australia, was a marathon slog. When we left the ship it was Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. in Sydney. At that same moment the time here in PST was 12:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Our plane took off around noon local.

Following a rough flight, with the seatbelt sign on much of the time, we landed in San Francisco at 6:30 Sunday morning. Our plane to Las Vegas left SF at roughly noon today, Sunday, and we disembarked at roughly 2 p.m. Getting luggage, connecting with our ride, and the trip home took another 2 hours. 

All told, from when we left the ship until we got to our home here was roughly 28-30 hours. That is, if we’d started a stopwatch when we left the ship, and stopped it when we got home it would have shown that many hours elapsed, give or take a half hour. 

Given the seven time zones we crossed plus gaining back the day we “lost” crossing the dateline at sea between Hawaii and Samoa, the calendar said we left today and arrived today. The whole thing happened on November 17, basically we lived the 17th twice and are that tired and jet lagged.

For years we did much of our flying on United, as its commuter line serviced our CA community airport. More recently I haven’t been impressed with United, I’ve liked Delta flights better. The tradeoff is that on Delta one often changes planes in Atlanta, not my favorite airport. 

This flight was on United and was okay, no drama, everything worked. I watched the second new Dune film, rewatched Casablanca, saw one of the recent Mad Max films, the one to which Furiosa was a prequel, I think called Fury Road, with Charlize Theron playing the adult Furiosa and doing that hard-bitten part well.

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We enjoyed our cruise, and after the first 4-5 days reaching Hawaii, we had calm seas for the remaining 18 or so days. The ship was nice, well maintained, didn’t show its 20 year age. Our cabin was nice too, we were comfortable. I’d have rather been closer to midships as the walk to and from the dining room was long and, at my age, tiring. 

Food was good, plentiful and varied. The WiFi worked well, nearly every time I used it. My only complaint was that it would sometimes drop me off and I’d have to click over and restart it, which always worked. 

The entertainment was low-key, some good and some not. This I’ve come to expect with Holland America, their strengths lie in other areas. The library of movies on demand was nice and we watched several. The other DrC used the spa quite a bit, and liked it, as did the neighbor couple with whom we traveled.

We have frequent cruiser status with HA and that entitles us to free laundry services, a big plus which we used repeatedly. The 2 specialty restaurants did a nice job, and the dining room food was better than some lines deliver. We had very nice table mates at dinner, a congenial group of 4 Canadians: an 80s mother, her two 60s daughters, and the husband of one of those.

A real plus is that there didn’t seem to be a lot of respiratory illness - colds, flu, Covid - aboard. I saw few coughing or blowing noses. That’s a real plus as it is hard to avoid them if they are at all widespread. 

We are at home until sometime in January when we may have a couple of short domestic trips, to CA and UT, those are still somewhat tentative.

Saturday Snark, Somewhat Late

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictsure

and its Comments section.

Travel Blogging XIV

 At Sea, En Route to Sydney: This is the last full day of the cruise. We’ve packed our large suitcases and started packing our carry-ons. The big ones will be put out in the hall tonight and the ship’s personnel will whisk them away in the wee hours.

We are scheduled to go ashore just before 8 a.m. and will reclaim the large suitcases then, go thru Australian customs, get on a shuttle bus and go to the airport. Once checked in and again parted from our large suitcases, we will go through security and be taken to our gate.

We’ll then have something like 2+ hours to kill before our flight is called. Our flight is scheduled to leave just after noon local time and will fly non-stop to San Francisco, where we will arrive at roughly the same time we boarded, after spending 15 hours in the air. It will be a looonngg day.

It has been a good cruise, not unlike spending 3+ weeks in a luxury hotel where nearly everything is done for you. The other DrC went ashore twice, I haven’t put foot on land since Seattle. Room service breakfast, pizza for lunch, cookies before bed, movies on demand, live entertainment, and good WiFi - a charmed existence. The water was rough the first week, not since. 

A Rung on the Ladder

Donald Trump has selected Karoline Leavitt to be his Press Secretary. This job is proving to be quite a useful step on the ladder for articulate, smart, combative young women. It is effectively a public ‘job interview’ as everyone sees what they can do under pressure.

Those chosen often later end up becoming a media personage on Fox if conservative, or on legacy media if they work for a Dim. Or like Mike Huckabee’s daughter a governor. It definitely supercharges careers.

We Won a Battle, Not a War

With the election that happened 10 days ago, I believe our nation dodged a bullet. A clear majority of us voted for change. Will we get what we voted for? That remains unclear, the uniparty blob may be too powerful, too entrenched, too resistant. 

I believe Donald and Elon will give it a serious try, and we wish them well. If they fail, who knows when or if we’ll get another opportunity?

They will need our support when two years from now the Dims will get a shot at revenge, at taking back one house of the legislature so they can stymie change. Between now and then is our best chance to enact change. 

It is probably fair to say we won a battle but the main fighting of this ‘war’ lies ahead, and some of it will be brutal on stilts. Like all such battles, it will fun to watch as a spectator. As they used to say in the AM radio days, stay tuned.

Interesting Choices

I’m thinking about the pattern reflected in Donald Trump’s picks for appointive office in his upcoming administration. What many have in common is that they were unexpected picks, people who probably secretly felt they had no chance of being named. 

Someone wrote that Trump was looking for loyalists who wouldn’t resign and write critical books about their experience. I think that comes close to describing several of his picks. I wonder if that isn’t something he’s had success with in his private businesses? If so, that leaves out people who are widely considered to be successful in their own right. 

There is also something of a pattern of giving power to people who have been done dirt by the agency they will now head or have a reputation as the agency’s critic - Kennedy at HHS, Gaetz at DOJ, Gabbard at DNI, Hegseth at DOD. They have an axe to grind that some segment of the public wants ground. Even Burgum at Interior might fit here.

As Musk would say, “It’s gonna be lit.”

Don’t Cry … Cryo

A very professionally done video purporting to offer a solution to all those experiencing agonizing angst from the recent election. It’s humor on YouTube, hat tip to Steve Hayward at Power Line for the link.

Why Mess With Success?

The pseudonymous Bonchie who writes at Red State, authors a satiric X (formerly Tweet).

The risks of picking Peter Hegseth to head the Pentagon are too great.

I mean, we could end up with spy balloons flying over the country, disastrous pull-outs from warzones, Russia invading Europe, Iran expanding, and a recruitment crisis.

Best go with another DoD insider.

Not to mention the military paying for troops to transition sexually, and a Navy which slowly builds badly designed ships that break down immediately. There is a lot wrong with the Pentagon. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

How Voter Subgroups Changed

Chart courtesy of Steve Hayward at Power Line. It appears Harris’ appeal was (irony alert) “highly selective.” Translation: she turned off nearly everyone to some degree, and some to a great degree. 

My apology for a small part of the chart falling outside the frame, it needed this much enlargement for you to be able to read the categories.

Travel Blogging XIII

Noumea, New Caledonia: We are moored in this port city, the capital of this French colony. The last time we were here was in October of 2017. We hear there is unrest as some locals want independence from France. 

A possible motivation: to take advantage of Chinese largess, which several other island nations have gladly accepted. This latter-day successor to the “cargo cult” makes sense here. 

I was just outside on the balcony and noticed that the air did not feel “tropical,” which is to say not soupy-humid. The hills up behind the city are not jungle-clad either. It appears Noumea is a micro climate area that is semi-arid. 

In the days when colonies were being established this relatively dry area would have been healthier - less malaria, fewer mosquitos - as well as more comfortable in those pre-air conditioning times. I haven’t a clue how such a place can exist in the tropics. The Kona coast has some of these same characteristics.

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It was just my luck to be on a cruise while the most fun election in a decade or more was happening. To make it worse, four of our 8 table mates at supper are nice Canadians who can’t be expected to be more than mildly interested in our US elections. Add the US couple with whom we are traveling having a Trump hating wife so politics has been off the agenda at supper. 

The other DrC and I mostly agree on politics so we’ve celebrated in private. Meanwhile I have spent many hours on the iPad reading about the election, the returns, and Trump’s appointments. It looks like he has made a good start on filling the “serves-at-will-of-POTUS” positions.

I was struck with the Senate choosing John Thune as the new soon-to-be-majority leader. The MAGA favorite Rick Scott was washed out on the first round of voting. The Senate has its own culture, shaped to a large extent by Mitch McConnell who’s been grooming Thune as his replacement.

Owning It

Ron Brownstein writing for CNN and echoed by msn.com, quotes UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck.

People struggle to find explanations for what is going on with Hispanic men, or with young people, but the most common explanation [to all of them] is the right one. Nobody thinks things are going well, and if you are the incumbent you own that.

Biden/Harris had 4 years at the helm and didn’t fix what was wrong. That becomes a steep hill to climb; most can’t climb it, Harris certainly failed.

Travel Blogging XII

Easo Beach, Lifou Island, New Caledonia: It would seem this is Holland America’s beach island of choice in the Western South Pacific. The DrsC are not beach enthusiasts and as such, will remain onboard. 

Something I read, can’t remember where, cautioned against mosquito-borne illnesses and mentioned Dengue, Zika and Chikengunya. None of that sounds like any fun at all, more reasons to stay onboard. The tropics aren’t the healthiest places on the planet. 

The cruise is starting to wind down, we just got the notice that tomorrow is the last day to put in laundry. I know the blog says I’m writing this on the 12th but in truth it is the 13th here, I’ve left the iPad on west coast daylight savings time which was what we were on when we embarked. 

We disembark in Sydney on the 17th and board a flight to SF around midday. During which flight we will recross the date line and land on the same day at roughly the same time we took off after flying for 15 hours. 

Datelines and time zone changes are amazing and weird. We had several 25 hour days as we crossed the Pacific going west, setting clocks back an hour each time. Going home we will experience all of those at one time and discombobulate our internal “clocks” a lot.

The Difference

Writing at The American Mind, Isaac Simpson makes an interesting observation, and gives an interesting example.

The major difference between what middle-class people teach their kids and what elites teach their kids—what state schools teach their students versus what the Ivys do.

Normal people teach their kids how to express themselves to get what they want. Elites teach their kids how to express what others want to hear, so that they can rule over them. (Italics in original)

I remember once asking a Harvard friend to look over my resume. He went to great lengths to explain the importance not of my job history, but of the personal interests section: you must have one sport, one intellectual pursuit, one cute reference…this is how Ivy Leaguers think.

Majoring in manipulation … being a ruling caste is an ugly business, one better tolerated if not examined too thoroughly. Hat tip to RealClearPolicy for the link.

Rubio the New SecState

Various sources reporting Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will be appointed Trump’s new Secretary of State. He was recently asked if he would call for a ceasefire in Gaza. 

Go here to watch video (with subtitles) of his answer, he’s very much opposed to a ceasefire before all Hamas are dead. For what it’s worth, that would have been my answer too.

Republicans Have House Majority

Fittingly, The Hill reports that the Republicans have won the House of Representatives although RealClearPolitics doesn’t report a 218th seat being called. To be fair to The Hill, they don’t name a 218th House member but indicate that it is a safe call as several of the seats still to be called have the GOP running ahead and thus at least one will in fact win.

Assuming TH is right, Republicans have pulled off the hat trick or trifecta; having swept all three elective categories. This doesn’t happen often but here we are, looking at it in wonder.

Assuming the Rs act with alacrity, much can be accomplished in the next two years. The remaining roadblock is the Senate’s requirement that filibusters require 60 votes to be bypassed. 

This suggests that funding for the Department of Education be in a separate bill which won’t pass the House, and thus can be “starved” to death for lack of appropriated funds. Also, fire all ED political appointees and name no replacements.

Later … RealClearPolitics is now reporting the GOP has 219 House seats, that’s one more than the minimum necessary for a majority in the 435 seat House. I consider RCP to be the “gold standard” in reportage of electoral statistics.