“We must stop this army of Grant’s before he gets to the James River. If he gets there it will become a siege, and then it will be a mere matter of time.”
Robert E Lee 1864
I was very surprised to hear about the new Ukrainian offensive into Russia, I didn’t see it coming and apparently neither did the Russians.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine have launched a up to 25K, or small NATO Corps sized, incursion into the Kursk Oblast that is moving between 7 & 10 km a day.
AFU Bde have between 4 to 9 battalions per brigade with 6 Bn as average, so ~18 Bn seem involved. AFU's Strategic raid🧵 1/ pic.twitter.com/BiqBCtesoH
In one respect it makes a lot of sense, if there is a war of attrition Ukraine loses. It’s sort of like Lee sending troops against Washington to relieve pressure on Richmond. The difference of course is that Ukraine is getting plenty of supplies from the west and has decided to act proactively. If it works out it takes out a main Russian supply hub and complicates things for the troops in Donbass. This could give Ukraine a boost in getting better terms from Russia or perhaps cause them to decide that it just isn’t worth it or even bring down Putin.
Of course it’s also possible that it causes Russia to allocate resources to crush this offensive and drive into the heart of Ukraine figuring they’ve gone all in to raise the troops for this offensive, or even back Putin into a nuclear corner.
I have no idea how this ends but it’s a logical move if you want to change the course of a war that was heading for Ukrainian defeat.
What really surprises me is that this offensive is not only Ukraine having the balls to launch it but that it’s getting almost no coverage in the press.
I find that almost as interesting as the offensive.
“First we must cross the river,” Benito was saying. “Do you believe me now when I tell you that you must not attempt to swim it, or even get wet from it, or must you try that too?”
“What happens if I just dive in?”
“Then you will be as you were in the bottle. Aware and unable to move. but it will be very cold, and very uncomfortable, and you will be there for all eternity knowing that you put yourself there.”
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle Inferno 1976
As I look at the situation in Oakland where lawlessness is out of control and the situation in Gaza where the Palestinians of the area find themselves longing for the days before Oct 7th in and Southport where both the community and the entire British nation are reeling from riots caused after the murder of multiple school children there is one thing that connects them all.
All of these disasters are self inflicted.
In Oakland they have voted left, left and further left, they have failed to enforce the laws and protected crime, they have condemned those who oppose said crime. In short, they have behaved like a liberal city and like many liberal cites in the US those who have the power to get out have and thus they find themselves with a shrinking tax base, lawlessness in the streets and no prospect for it to change. Even the Oakland A’s who moved there in 1968 are getting out of town and will actually be playing in a minor league park before their final move to Vegas where fans will be safe.
None of this happens without the votes of the public.
In Gaza once Israel pulled out 20 years ago the populace voted in Hamas. They gave silent approval as elections no longer took place and aid money went to tunnels, some so large that you could drive trucks through them. They had no issue with hospitals built with command centers for war, rockets regularly firing into Israel and when the October 7th attacks took place, Palestinians “civilians” were the second wave the looted Israeli homes and beat captives taken back to their land.
Israel finally waking from their long period of tolerance for these attacks has gone in and crushed Gaza, With the taking of the border with Egypt and the demolishing and capture of the tunnels brining in weapons it’s only a matter of time before the weapon and ammo stores fail and the final rout of Hamas is completed.
Meanwhile Gaza has cities crushed from war and finds themselves dependent on external aid…which Hamas still steals and resells for profit.
All of this is the result of choosing Hamas and more importantly choosing killing Jews over living and bettering their own lives.
In England the Labor government and the Labor party has been encouraging unfettered immigration without assimilation for decades but more importantly they have encouraged law enforcement to look the other way when these guest commit crimes or march and take over cities.
When the left rioted and destroyed they “felt their pain” but when native English prayed or posted opinions against this the full wait of the govvernment was used against them.
Finally with the murder of children people have had enough to the point where there are not only riots in England but in Northern Ireland Unionists and the IRA have untied against the two tiered justice system.
It would be easy to blame Labor but conservatives (well the British version of conservatives) were in power for a long time but were all in on this two tiered system as they wanted at all costs to not be called racists and if cities had to be taken over and girls raped and a few people killed, well it’s was all for the greater good.
Even with the unfettered immigration England could have avoided this by simply enforcing the law equally. All they had to do was law down the marker that you can’t do this kind of thing in Britain without consequences.
They did not and now the fight is on. England seems poised for perhaps its 3rd civil war. I don’t know if it will go that far but I’ll tell you it will get much worse before it gets better.
All three of these things come from not being will to see things as they are, in the light of truth. If we fail to do this as a nation their fate will be ours.
Posted: August 5, 2024 by datechguy in Uncategorized
1st Romana:Look, we haven’t got time for you to practice anything. We’ve got to find the fourth segment. 4th Doctor: You find it. I’m taking the day off. 1st Romana:The day off? 4th Doctor:Yes. After a journey of four hundred years and twelve parsecs, I’m allowed a rest of fifty years. 1st Romana:Where does it say that? 4th Doctor:Section ninety three, paragraph two, laws governing Time Lords. You look it up.
One of the disadvantages of the slow revenues on the site these days is that If circumstances keep me from posting there isn’t always a post from a magnificent seven writer available as the seven are now down to four including me.
So I do apologize for not getting anything up yesterday but in fairness it has been a rare occurrence over the last 16 years. I hate to miss a story.
Emhoff confirmed the story. “Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff acknowledged Saturday in a statement to CNN that he had an affair during his first marriage after the alleged details of the relationship were published by a British tabloid.”
To ask why a story like this was broken by “a British tabloid” and not the DNC-MSM is to answer the question.
Funny how men who are knocking up the family babysitter are inclined toward Abortion isn’t it?
.@washingtonpost doesn't mention the pregnancy either. It's an MSM blockade! It means there is something about the pregnancy they (Kamala boosters) are worried about. Is it the possibility of an abortion? Or a secret Emhoff love child? 'Burying the lede'-this is erasing the lede https://t.co/XAmg3ZgIVh
I know that Kamala is now “officially” the Democrat nominee but remember this the convention hasn’t taken place yet and just 40 days ago Joe Biden was the nominee and anyone who suggested it would be otherwise was some kinds of fake news nut.
Under the radar, a new Van Morrison album has arrived. On Morrison’s website, the release of Live at Orangefield, had been promised for a while, and last month, on vinyl and CD, on Van the Man’s Orangefield Records, it went on sale.
I subscribe to iTunes, and with any artist whose work I’ve downloaded, I will usually find that performer’s latest effort on the “New Releases” tab of my Apple Music homepage. But not always with Morrison, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member who has released an astounding 45 studio albums since 1967.
Morrison, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, also has cut six live albums. His first one, It’s Too Late to Stop Now–an expanded edition was issued in 2016–is one of the best live albums ever. His second live collection, Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast, obviously was recorded in his hometown.
As was Live at Orangefield. The Belfast Cowboy’s first live performance took place with his skiffle group in 1959 at Orangefield High School when he was a student there. In 2014, the school closed, and to salute the school–and even more so Belfast–Morrison, with his always tight band, returned.
A Facebook Morrison group–Van, by the way, is no fan of Facebook–alerted me that Live at Orangefield was available to download. Apple didn’t notify me. Possibly, because both musically and in interviews, Morrison was probably the most strident opponent among entertainment industry figures of the COVID lockdowns, that online slight was intentional. Three Morrison singles, one recorded with Eric Clapton, attacked government COVID-related restrictions. The triple-vinyl album, Latest Record Project Volume One and its follow-up, What’s It Gonna Take?–continued the pushback.
While there were some favorable reviews, most critics savaged, unfairly, that output. Rock critics are mostly an intellectually vapid lot–and like sportswriters, most of them prefer writing about politics when the opportunity arises. Morrison, despite his legendary status, offered those mental midgets a ripe target. But history has been kind to this septuagenarian rebel. At the very least, the COVID lockdowns were an overreach. Still, in the media and the music business, Van Morrison, is almost certainly purposely ignored.
In a Google News search, as of this writing, I could only find two reviews of Live at Orangefield.
And that’s a pity, because Live at Orangefield is an essential Morrison work. While Morrison has a reputation as an aloof and ornery fellow–which is either not true or it is possibly an exaggeration pushed by those self-worshipping rock critics–he offers some charm here.
In a mostly spoken-word piece on this album, “On Hyndford Street,” Morrison calls out to the crowd, “If any of the guys from ‘the street’ are here, give me a shout if you remember this one.”
Playing ’round Mrs. Kelly’s lamp Going out to Holywood on the bus And walking from the end of the lines to the seaside Stopping at Fusco’s for ice cream [loud cheers follow] In the days before rock ‘n’ roll.
I looked it up–I don’t know if the establishment I found online is the same Fusco’s that Morrison and his pals used to patronize, but there is a Fusco’s in Belfast.
Van the Man was born on August 31, 1945 at 145 Hyndford Street. And particularly with “On Hyndford Street,” which as originally released on the Hymns to the Silence double album, but also on other tracks here, listeners get the feeling that they are participating in a walking tour of Belfast–with Morrison as a tour guide.
I’ve only seen Morrison once in concert–he was fantastic. Morrison has a reputation for not playing many of his hits from the overexposed “classic rock” era. But Van is a performer, not a fossil, and if he had fossilized his career, then he’d be on the stale casino circuit along with Lynard Skynard, which carries on even though that band has no original members left on its roster. But they play the hits, as do the Van Morrison tribute bands.
But there are some of those Van hits on Live at Orangefield. The album opens with the instrumental “Celtic Excavation,” and then segues to “Into the Mystic.” Belfast of course is a seaport. I don’t know if this stanza is about Belfast, but it could be.
And when that foghorn blows I will be coming home And when the foghorn blows I want to hear it I don’t have to fear it.
Another hit, albeit a minor one, “Cleaning Windows,” follows. Morrison’s job before becoming a full-time musician was toiling as a window washer in Belfast. Then comes “Orangefield” and “Moondance.”
Other Belfast-related songs include “Got to Go Back” and “Northern Muse (Solid Ground).”
Another highlight here is “That’s Life,” the Frank Sinatra song, which Morrison recorded with Georgie Fame in 1995. Lyrically it’s an important addition to the set list, and musically too. In the 2000s and the following decade, much of Van the Man’s output had a jazzy and swing feel. New age jazz is a genre Morrison worked with in the 1980s; several of the songs I mentioned earlier utilize that sound.
Live at Orangefield is an essential collection for the Morrison fan, and it’s a good place to start, particularly if you enjoy jazz-flavored popular music, if you want to learn more about this fantastic musician.
And if you live in Belfast–then, man, what are you waiting for?
One more thing: Smart people listen to Van Morrison.
Live at Orangefield is available in vinyl and CD forms at Van Morrison.com. And you can download it at iTunes and stream it on Spotify.
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