Sic Semper Tyrannis

IMO former officials cannot be impeached.

"Conviction immediately removes the defendant from office. Following conviction, the Senate may vote to further punish the individual by barring him or her from holding future federal office, elected or appointed. As the threshold for disqualification is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, the Senate has taken the position that disqualification votes only require a simple majority rather than a two-thirds supermajority. The Senate has used disqualification sparingly, as only three individuals have been disqualified from holding future office.

Conviction does not extend to further punishment, for example, loss of pension. After conviction by the Senate, "the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law" in the regular federal or state courts. However, the Former Presidents Act of 1958, which provides a pension, and other benefits, does not extend to presidents who were removed from office following an impeachment conviction. Because of an amendment to that law made in 2013, a former president who has been removed from office due to impeachment and conviction is still guaranteed lifetime Secret Service protection. "  wiki

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IMO impeachment from federal office exists for the purpose of removal from office.  A former official cannot be "removed from office."  IMO the Belknap case will be treated as freakish.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_United_States

Remember - John Brennan voted Communist at least once.

"Former CIA Director John Brennan Calls for Mao-Like Public Humiliation Sessions for Trump Supporters Before They Are Accepted Back into Society"  timebomb

------------

Yes.  John Brennan voted for Gus Hall, the head of the CPUSA when he was a young man.  Hall was a perennial candidate for president in those days.

And after that Brennan applied for employment at CIA, and unbelievably they accepted him after a full security screen.  This would have included intensive investigations as well as counter-intelligence and lifestyle polygraphs.   

I remember this guy when he had just joined CIA and was working  in Saudi Arabia.  He was a frighteningly stupid and nasty man even then.

This reminds me of the great spook Gina Haspel (a favorite of Brennan at CIA) who began government employment as the post librarian at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts, a Camp Swampy like place where I started my army life.  

I was in college during the "Great Leap Forward" under Mao.  We laughed sadly at the thought of those poor benighted souls suffering through that.

pl

https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/former-cia-director-john-brennan-calls-for-mao-like-public-humiliation-sessions-for-trump-supporters-before-they-are-accepted-back-into-society.592774/

Theognis on The State Sailing to Disaster

Theognis 667~82

Translated by Steven Willett

 

Note: Melos is on the southwest edge of the Cyclades, beyond which is open sea.

 

If I had possessions, Simonides, such as I once had,

   I wouldn’t be grieved associating with noble men,

but now I’m aware they pass me by, and I’m voiceless

   with want, though recognizing better than many

that we’re now being carried with white sails lowered

   beyond the Melian sea through the murky night,

not willing to bail the ship, though the sea washes over

   both sides. It’s extremely difficult for anyone

to escape, such as they act; they’ve deposed the helmsman,

   a noble man, who skillfully had kept watch;

they seize possessions by force, discipline is destroyed,

   and there’s no equal sharing in common interest;

the merchantmen rule, and the base stand over the noble.

   I fear that a wave will swallow the ship.

Let these be my allusive words hidden for the noble.

  But anyone can see misfortune, if he’s skilled.

Truth and Falsehood in Greek Contradictions

 

Translated by Steven Willett

Plato Republic 389b~c

Certainly we must be highly concerned about truth. For if what we were saying just now is correct, and falsehood quite useless to the gods, to men it’s serviceable as a form of medicine, so clearly such a thing must be given to doctors, but not to common people.

Clearly, he said.

Then to the leaders of a city, if to anyone, it’s appropriate to lie concerning enemies or citizens for the benefit of the state, but all others must make no use of it, for a private citizen to lie to such rulers we affirm is the same and even greater fault than for a sick person not to tell his doctor or an athlete his trainer the truth about his body’s condition or a sailor not to tell the helmsman the facts about the ship and crew or the real state of himself or a fellow shipmate.

Most true, he replied.

 

Theognis 1135~50

Hope is the only good god existing among mankind;

   the others forsaking us have gone to Olympus.

Trust has departed, a mighty god, and Restraint has gone

   from men, and the Graces, my friend, abandoned earth;

Judicial oaths are no long trustworthy among mankind,

   and no one dreads the immortal gods;

the race of pious men has decayed, and customary rules

are no longer recognized or acts of piety.

But so long as someone lives and sees light of the sun,

   reverencing the gods let him depend on Hope;

let him pray to the gods and burn splendid thigh bones

   sacrificing to Hope at the first and last.

Let him always watch for twisted speech of unjust men

who, with no regard for deathless gods,

always direct their design on the property of others,

   making shameful compacts for evil deeds.

 

How to make rocket fuel on Mars

"How will future astronauts get back home to Earth from Mars? According to a new study, they could make rocket fuel from the methane that's already on the Red Planet. 

Researchers have devised a new way to create methane-based rocket fuel that they hope could make return trips from Mars far more feasible. This method was previously theorized by Elon Musk and engineers at SpaceX who considered ways to use carbon dioxide and water from ice on Mars to have the necessary carbon and hydrogen necessary to create methane. 

So, in theory, future astronauts could use this technique to turn local Martian materials like ice and carbon dioxide to make rocket fuel for a return trip home. This new method is only a "proof of concept" right now, meaning it has only been tested in labs but not in real-world conditions. 

Still, while "lots of engineering and research is needed before this can be fully implemented," Huolin Xin, a physicist at the University of California, Irvine who led this research, said in a statement. "But the results are very promising.""  Space.com

-----------

Or as they say in New Zealand - "meethane."   Who knew that the stuff of cow flatus would be so useful?  There supposedly is a lot of this material lying around on the bottom of the ocean and when the ocean burps methane in large amounts ships above the burp sink because of the decrease in what- floatability?

The idea of making oxygen and methane on THE RED PLANET is quite inspiring.  It is further evidence of the world beating quality of Musk's leadership.  Take care of yourself man!  C'mon man!   We need you.  pl

https://www.space.com/future-astronauts-methane-rocket-fuel-mars

Denial of freedom of speech underway

Given the purge of Twitter customers underway and present efforts by CNN to have Foxnews denied carrier service I expect that my FB page will disappear soon.  Can Typepad be far behind?  Expect it.  pl 

"A one opinion society" Stuart Varney

"Biden: "No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn't have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that's true, and it is unacceptable. Totally unacceptable.""  foxnews

--------------

Varney commented today on his show that the US is moving rapidly toward an environment in which deviant opinions and the expression of such will be punished by ostracism, loss of employment and ultimately  - what?

75 million dissidents voted for Trump.  Their party actually grew stronger down ballot, much stronger.  These Smelly dissidents are heavily armed.  Gun sales are way up.  Ammunition is hard to come by because of heavy buying.

President Joe and his "consort"  think that the attitudes of the Smellies are "totally unacceptable?"  

He should be very careful about condemning the mind set of the Smellies, very careful.   The Dems think that they can extrapolate from the hooligans who broke into the capitol to the general attitudes of the Smelly Deplorables?

Be very careful President Joe.  pl

https://www.foxnews.com/media/biden-harris-gaslighting-capitol-hill-rioters-black-lives-matter

President Trump should go. He should go now!

IMO President Trump did a lot of good things in his term until he was torpedoed by COVID-19 and the tangled skein of threads involved in the November 3rd election.  This electoral circus will be puzzled over for a long time.  I take note that Ossoff won in Georgia by just enough to avoid a re-count.  

Nevertheless, The president's actions since November 3 have grown more and more erratic and have now culminated in what can only be called an incitement of mob violence directed at the Congress.

People ask why the Capitol Police and other federal authorities were not better prepared to defend the Capitol complex against attack.  Well, pilgrims, nobody expected the president of the US to whip up crowd anger and then to send the mob to the Capitol.

I wrote some days ago that Trump's rage and pain were serious factors to consider in a moment of political crisis.   These things and his "one man show" mentality" overwhelmed him yesterday and in acting out his personal agony he did serious damage to the country.  He is done.  Stick a fork in him, maybe over-done.   

The Democrat leadership will not want to pursue him although his actions yesterday might make him criminally liable.  The squaddies will howl for his blood, but Schumer, Pelosi, etc. are not going to want to do anything that rash.

IMO he should leave the scene.  A retreat to Mar a Lago is what should happen.  He can let the clock run out there.  He can resign and let Pence deal with the mess, but he should go.

The populist revolt that he led is not dead.  It is not anything like dead.  The 75 million citizens who voted for him are still here.  They still want the same things, but he should depart and let a new leadership of the Deplorable Smellies emerge.  pl

We Ain’t Going To Submit and We Won’t Forget by Larry C Johnson

After four years of a sustained coup attempt to destroy the Presidency of Donald Trump, the Washington establishment now wants us, the deplorables, to sit down, shut up and accept a steal. Here’s a news flash. We will not. This is no longer about ensuring that Donald Trump, who won the election, remains as President. The issue is more profound. It is the preservation of our Republic and a demand for genuine accountability and fairness.

As I listen to the howls of faux outrage by a plethora of Democrat, Republican, media and Silicon Valley tech giants condemning any Trump supporter who dares speak out to challenge the election fraud of November 3rd, I have not forgotten and will not forget their lies and their silence.

When Black Lives Matter and Antifa ravaged some of our major cities over the last 9 months, these clowns did not denounce the rioting, looting and violence. They lied and called it peaceful protests. But the Silent Majority saw with their own eyes the desecration of statues, the assaults on law abiding citizens, the destruction of small businesses.

When disgruntled Democrats and Hollywood elite insisted, “Trump is not our President”, the media did not denounce them as “insurrectionists.” When Madonna called for blowing up the White House the only outrage came from Trump supporters. The rest of the establishment yawned and celebrated. When Kathy Griffiths, a low rent, untalented comedian, decapitated a model of Donald Trump, the media again shrugged this off as nothing of import.

The double standard, the gargantuan hypocrisy is stunning. And the Washington Establishment expects us to act as Alzheimer patients who can’t remember what we had for breakfast? No. We remember every act of resistance.

For more than four years we were fed the damnable lie that the Russians elected Donald Trump. Now we know that the FBI lied repeatedly in submitting false applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. So far, not one of those liars–Comey, McCabe, Strzok–have been called to account. Yet, supporters of Trump–General Michael Flynn and Roger Stone–were accused falsely of lying and prosecuted. Most true Americans recognize this as a flagrant violation of the basic concept of fairness and blind justice.

Mostly Peaceful Protests in D.C.

Commentary by Fred.

The nation's capital witnessed a massive and mostly peaceful protest today. During this mostly peaceful event tens of thousands of law abiding concerned citizens gathered to discuss their greviences, to air them before the press and government officials. The national leadership was all gathered in the city to attend to pressing matters of state. What better time for a rally and protest and a march for peace than when all our leaders are there to hear and see. 

What You Can Do to Stop the Steal by Larry C Johnson

The frustration and anger you feel is appropriate and righteous. There is still time to make your voice heard. Go to this link and you can send a message to every legislator in contested states. It is an easy click and your voice will join that of millions of Americans. Click here on freeroots.com. You can also send a message to scan the ballots here.

Since freeroots started operating, more than 63 million patriots have signed on to emails and petitions to scan the ballots. Keep it going and share with your friends and family.

Republican legislators in Pennsylvania are fighting back. Watch what happened today when the Republican majority removed the Democrat Lt. Governor from presiding over the State Senate:

 

 

The following short video from South Park anticipated what we are witnessing.

 

"Tattoo," A Memoir of Becoming

This memoir could have been subtitled "a message in a bottle."  PL

I am privileged to have been given reviews of the book by two people I greatly respect and admire:

----------------

"Because much of the focus of Walter Lang’s memoir “Tattoo” is on the author’s career in the U.S. Army, it may be fitting to approach it on more than one front: one being what Lang’s experience and adventures in arms tell us about the nature and evolution of U.S. military life during the period he served and also to some degree about the nature and evolution of American society during that period; another being what kind of man has lived this challenging and far from unimportant life; and finally the tale of how this man came to be the man who has lived the life he has. Let me begin, though, in a rather oblique manner but one that I hope it will seen to have point — by quoting the following passage from Rabbi Chaim Jachter:

“Throughout [their] history the Jews have received many appellations.  Among the more famous[is found] in  Exodus chapter 32 … one that evokes mixed feelings….

“The source of the appellation is Hashem himself, who says the following to Moses in the terrible aftermath of the Golden Calf: ‘I have seen [observed] this people, and behold they are a stiff-necked people.  Now leave Me alone and My wrath will blaze against them and destroy them.  I will then make you into a great nation.…” 

“One chapter later, Hashem informs Moses that He will be now be sending a proxy, an angel, to watch over the Israelites instead of leading them directly.  In explaining why, Hashem invokes this notion again:  ‘I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites… [You will then] enter a land flowing with milk and honey… for I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people and I may destroy you along the way.’”

[And yet] in defending the people Israel, Moses uses the very same notion as the essential rationale for their salvation: “If I have found favor in Your eyes my Master, let my Master go among us, because (ki) it is a stiff-necked people.  Pardon our iniquity and our sins, and take us as Your own possession.’” In this case, Moses employs the term “stiff-necked” as a reason to receive God’s mercy.  How could Moses be using this term to win Hashem’s favor?

Ibn Ezra presents two possible solutions to the problem.  First, he cites the opinion of Rabbi Mereinos who explains that the word ki in our context (“ki it is a stiff-necked people”) should be rendered as even though it is a stiff-necked people… Thus Moses is asking Hashem to find the Israelites deserving of mercy despite their stubbornness.

Opting for the standard usage of the word ki as a causative, Ibn Ezra explains that what Moses means is “because (I admit) that we have sinned, that we are a stiff-necked nation, therefore you should forgive.”

In a third interpretation Moses turns to God and says:  “Hashem, Your people do not want an agent.  We want the Divine Manager!”  Why?  The words of the Zohar Hadash explain: “For it is a stiff-necked people and You shall forgive” as meaning “The Jews are obstinate and wearying and when they sin, the angel can only do judgment and not forgiveness, but You are merciful and gracious. Therefore when we sin the angel must punish us.  But You, Hashem, can fathom us in great depth and can find in our being stubborn the very building blocks of forgiveness.

A fourth approach is suggested by the Midrash:

There R. Yakim said: “Three are the undaunted: among beasts, it is the dog; among birds, it is the cock; and among the nations, it is Israel.  You think that ‘stiff-necked people’ is said disparagingly, but it is really in their praise.”

“Tattoo” is rightly subtitled “a memoir of becoming,” and we will return to that theme. But let me suggest another possible subtitle, “The man who knew too much.” 

One sees this, as well as a striking instance of Lang’s “stiff-necked” tendencies, in the Prologue, which takes place at a crucial juncture of the Iran-Iraq War — and to be sure we will find Lang at such crucial junctures more than once. In the presence of the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq but addressing the local CIA chief, who is also present, Lang says to him, with one assumes no little satisfaction, “I am here at the direction of the National Security Council and the Secretary of Defense to take charge of this mess.”

The rest of that enlightening encounter I leave to you to enjoy, but do take account of “take charge of this mess.” On the one hand, Lang is the man who knew too much — knows not only that this is a mess but also that the local CIA chief cannot acknowledge this fact, at least not in this setting. Further, as the rest of the encounter begins to make clear, Lang knows far more about this mess than the CIA chief thinks he does — he knows that the White House has betrayed the Iraqis, that Washington fears that Iran has the upper hand in the war but instead and in fact (as Lang accurately sees it)  the military crisis in the war has passed and Iran will not prevail. But also one detects the underlying satisfaction Lang feels at being able to deliver a justified stinging reprimand to an arrogant man in the wrong who had felt certain that he could push Lang around.

When using electronic voting machines you do not vote. Election workers do not count the votes.

By Robert Willmann

Everybody knows that a valid election has three parts:  qualified, eligible voters are listed; an eligible voter expresses a legal vote on a ballot; and the votes are counted accurately.  For a small organization or club, this is easy.  All the candidates and voters are in one room and everybody knows everyone else.  Each member writes the name of their choice on a piece of paper and folds it over, the votes are put in a box, and then the votes are opened and counted in front of everybody.  Everything is done in the same room.  A local, state, or national election has the same parts, but with many more voters, and voting and counting locations.  It is spread out over a much bigger area.  Many things are a system, including your cardiovascular system [1].  But since an election as a system is created by people, it is amateurish and simple compared to the sophisticated cardiovascular system.  Despite its simplicity, there is little or no "transparency", today's trendy term.  Because of human nature and the money and authority available through a government, an enormous incentive is created to rig and cheat in an election. 

Documents attached to various lawsuits, other information, and the blocking of public examination of ballots and electronic voting and counting machines are showing huge problems and fraud in the November 2020 general election in an amount that can affect the result.  But those with the authority to do the most the fastest are so far doing nothing, from the federal Department That Calls Itself Justice (DOJ), to local District Attorneys. 

The Attorney General and the U.S. Attorneys in the 94 federal districts have a lightening bolt in their hands.  Federal grand jury subpoenas are nationwide in scope.  A grand jury does not just issue formal criminal charges, it can also investigate, under the age-old rationale that "the public is entitled to every man's evidence".  Unlike the FBI, which is required by policy to have a factual "predicate" before it can open an investigation, a grand jury is in no way limited.  The U.S. Supreme Court in 1992 made clear that "the grand jury can investigate merely on suspicion that the law is being violated, or even because it wants assurance that it is not" [2]--

"The grand jury’s functional independence from the Judicial Branch is evident both in the scope of its power to investigate criminal wrongdoing and in the manner in which that power is exercised.  Unlike [a] [c]ourt, whose jurisdiction is predicated upon a specific case or controversy, the grand jury can investigate merely on suspicion that the law is being violated, or even because it wants assurance that it is not.  It need not identify the offender it suspects, or even the precise nature of the offense it is investigating.  The grand jury requires no authorization from its constituting court to initiate an investigation, nor does the prosecutor require leave of court to seek a grand jury indictment.  And in its day-to-day functioning, the grand jury generally operates without the interference of a presiding judge.  It swears in its own witnesses, and deliberates in total secrecy" [citations in this passage are omitted].

From 4 November 2020, the day after the election, until he left office on 23 December, Attorney General William Barr did nothing about electoral problems.  The DOJ could have started grand juries in multiple suspect states when anamolies began to appear the week of the election, but did zero.  When President Trump nominated Barr on 7 December 2018, I was very surprised, because of some of Barr's prior legal positions and associations.  But that is another story.

A Re-naming Bee

(Lt Col collar insignia, CSA)

"There are 10 major U.S. military bases named in honor of Confederate military leaders, all in former Confederate States:

• Camp Beauregard (1917), near Pineville, Louisiana, a Louisiana National Guard installation named for Louisiana native and Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard^[3]
• Fort Benning (1917), near Columbus, Georgia, named after Henry L. Benning, a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army^[4][5]
• Fort Bragg (1918), in North Carolina, named for Confederate General Braxton Bragg
• Fort Gordon (1917), near Grovetown, Georgia, named in honor of John Brown Gordon, who was a major general in the Confederate army
• Fort A.P. Hill (1941), near Bowling Green, Virginia, named for Virginia native and Confederate Lieutenant General A. P. Hill^[6]
• Fort Hood (1942), in Killeen, Texas, named after Confederate General John Bell Hood, who is best known for commanding the Texas Brigade during the American Civil War
• Fort Lee (1917), in Prince George County, Virginia, named for Confederate General Robert E. Lee^[7]
• Fort Pickett (1942), near Blackstone, Virginia, a Virginia National Guard installation named for Confederate General George Pickett
• Fort Polk (1941), near Leesville, Louisiana, named in honor of the Right Reverend Leonidas Polk, an Episcopal Bishop and Confederate General
• Fort Rucker (1942), in Dale County, Alabama, named for Edmund Rucker, a colonel appointed acting brigadier general in November 1864, but whose promotion went unconfirmed by the Confederate Congress (disbanded March 18, 1865)

Other installations are:

• Camp Maxey, near Paris, Texas, a Texas National Guard installation named after Confederate Brigadier General Samuel B. Maxey
• Camp Pendleton, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, a Virginia National Guard installation named after Confederate Brigadier General William N. Pendleton"  wiki

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The National Defense Authorization Act, passed over Trump's veto requires the re-naming of these posts.

These posts were all named for Confederate soldiers in the WW1 period in the hope of attracting Southern support for the war.

The two named for Episcopal clergymen seem droll in the light of current denunciation.  Parson Pendleton was the rector of the Episcopal Church in Lexington, Virginia.  In confederate service he was RE Lee's chief of artillery, having been a gunner before he left the US Army long before.  He is buried in the town cemetery at Lexington next to his son Lt. Col. Alexander (Sandy) Pendleton, CSA, KIA at Fisher's Hill in 1864.  

So, these posts are now available for "cleansing" through re-naming.  They can be named for Union soldiers or politicians, noble causes and events, etc.  Offer your suggestions.  pl 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._Army_installations_named_for_Confederate_soldiers

Hallelujah! Assange Extradition Rejected By Walrus

Word just in that the Assange extradition request has been rejected.  HRC must be spitting chips.

Maybe, just maybe, Journalists might now show some spine.

This could be, in Churchill's words,  the end of the beginning in the fight against the swamp.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-04/julian-assange-wont-be-extradited-to-the-us-uk-court-rules/13030240

 

 

 

The Republicans prepare for "Opposition" status (and Trump with them)

Consider all this to be an analytic opinion.

1.  The roll out of the Republican insurgent operation for objection to the Electoral College vote on the 6th is indicative of where the party is going.  

Mitch McConnell and the party apparatchiks in congress may think that they will be able to do business with Biden/Harris and their handlers but the the 74 million citizens who voted against the Democrats do not agree.

In this context the 5 January runoffs in Georgia are largely irrelevant.  The Republicans and those who vote with them will be in Opposition no matter who runs the US Senate.

The objecting members of congress know that they cannot succeed in obtaining supporting majorities in both houses of congress in support of their objections.  When pressed they said this on the Sunday morning TeeVee newsies today.  No.  What they are doing is establishing a baseline of political opposition to the results of the 2020 election.  Along this baseline they will insist that Biden/Harris are not legitimately elected and are in fact usurpers against whom any means of resistance is justified.  This closely mirrors Democrat propaganda and tactics throughout the Trump presidency.

People who think that resistance by the Smellies (Deplorables) to Democrat/Marxist rule will disappear as a result of Trump's defeat are deceiving themselves.  It will not.  In this move we see consolidation of Smelly resistance.

2.  When the 6 January rebellion in the congress fails, Trump will be faced by a personal need to maintain himself as party (and Smelly) leader.  One possible course of action would be to start a war against a country so demonized by the media and his own administration that the most recent verbal threats by that country can be said to be a causus belli.   The most obvious target would be Iran, closely followed in order of probability by Syria.

The president/CinC has broad and legal effective powers to wage war against an imminent national threat on a short term basis as opposed to limitations on those powers under the War Powers Act.  He/she has the ability to wage war for 30 days before congress can effectively stop a war.  

Under the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, the military chain of command runs from POTUS to SECDEF to the Combatant Commanders.  Under the same law, the JCS (including the Chairman) and the whole Joint Staff in the Pentagon are merely advisers and planners operating in support of POTUS and SECDEF.  Trump now has the SECDEF he wants and nothing stands between him and the ability to legally launch an air and naval war in the ME.  The small US forces in Iraq and Syria would be greatly endangered by such a move, but ...  In the context of possible action against Iran, the withdrawal of the Nimitz battle group from the Gulf should not be seen as necessarily being a signal of declining US-Iranian tensions.  Perhaps the withdrawal has been long scheduled but elbow room in the Arabian Sea would be needed in a shooting war.

Biden/Harris would be left to deal with the situation.  Trump might face civil or criminal action in the aftermath, but a long, drawn out legal battle with all the opportunity this would present for publicity might suit him well.

Would the Combatant Commanders refuse legal orders to attack?  I doubt that would happen.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldwater%E2%80%93Nichols_Act

Starlink will span the globe.

"SpaceX aims to connect rural communities around the globe to reliable satellite internet. The aerospace company is in the process of deploying thousands of Starlink satellites to orbit where each will beam broadband internet connection down to Earth. "With performance that far surpasses that of traditional satellite internet, and a global network unbounded by ground infrastructure limitations, Starlink will deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable," the company states. 

SpaceX currently operates approximately 960 Starlink satellites and plans to launch at least 120 satellites per month this year. The company is offering service to select customers living in high-latitudes by invitation only via Starlink.com, however, as more satellites are deployed to orbit SpaceX will increase its capability to provide Starlink internet to more customers worldwide. As of today, SpaceX has customers living in rural communities located in Canada, northern United States, and even the United Kingdom, according to social media users who have purchased the service. The company is also working alongside the U.S. government to provide free Starlink service to school districts and households in rural areas that cannot afford the service. Read more: SpaceX will provide Starlink Internet to Virginia’s Wise County School District and Rural Community.

To receive internet from the satellites in space customers purchase a Starlink Kit that includes a phased-array antenna dish, mounting tripod, and Wi-Fi router device. SpaceX says the technology these devices feature is more advanced than what is currently on fighter jets. SpaceX priced the equipment at $499 USD, with a monthly service fee of $99 USD. Long-term, Starlink customers will be supporting SpaceX’s ultimate mission to develop the Starship fleet that will enable humanity to colonize Mars."  tasmanian

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And now pilgrims, I see that Starlink has applied for licensing to operate in Greece where they would offer universal access at prices more expensive than at present from a patchwork of little internet providers, but at speeds up to 150 MPS.  This is far, far higher than in Greece today where speeds are often down around 10 MPS.

Pilgrims!  If this works on a business basis, you can expect that Starlink will spread across Europe and then the world transforming the internet providers market wherever it goes.  pl

https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/starlink-hiring

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Set to Bring Starlink Internet to Greece | GreekReporter.com

Xenophanes on a good banquet

Xenophanes Elegy Fragment 1 Ath. 11462c

Translated by Steven Willett

 

Note: Xenophanes of Colophon c. 570~478BC was a philosopher and poet critical of polytheism.

 

For now the floor is spotless and spotless all our hands

   and drinking cups; one crowns us with plaited wreathes,

another hands round a saucer of sweet-smelling perfume;

   the mixing-bowl stands full of festivity;

still more wine is waiting, and says it won’t desert us,

   mellow in earthen jars, redolent of flowers;

frankincense throws out, amid all this, its pure, holy aroma

   and the water’s sweet and unsullied;

beside us golden loaves have been set and stately tables

   sagging beneath heaped cheese and thick honey;

a central altar has vanished under thickening flowers,

   and music and revelry hold sway about the room.

Men of good cheer should first should hymn the god

   with auspicious tales and immaculate words,

after pouring libations and praying for the ability

   to achieve just behavior—for this is more obvious,

not hubris—. Drink as much as you can sustain going

   home without an attendant unless you’re very old;

and praise that man after drinking shows noble thoughts,

   so that there’s memory of and straining for virtue;

it's worthless to marshal the wars of Titans or Giants

and Centaurs, affectations of our predecessors,

or furious factions—with them nothing useful exists—.

   It is good to always hold regard for the gods.

"11 Senate Republicans say they will object to Electoral College results Wednesday" The Hill

"Eleven Senate Republicans on Saturday announced that they will object to the Electoral College results Wednesday, when Congress convenes in a joint session to formally count the vote. 

GOP Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Ron Johnson (Wis.), James Lankford (Okla.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Kennedy (La.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) and Mike Braun (Ind.) and Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) said in a joint statement that they will object to the election results until there is a 10-day audit. 

"Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states," they said. "Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed.

"Accordingly, we intend to vote on Jan. 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not 'regularly given' and 'lawfully certified' (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed," they added. 

The group's announcement means that at least a dozen GOP senators will object on Wednesday."  The Hill

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Well, well.  Lookee here Sayrah!  pl

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/senate-gop-election-fraud-electoral-college/2021/01/02/id/1003985/

HARPER: THE LESSONS OF STALINGRAD BY STEVE DOUGLAS

After hearing a lecture by my friend Steve Douglas on the lessons of the battle of Stalingrad, I urged him to write this essay on the topic.  Given the current toxic relationship between the United States and Russia--the two predominant thermonuclear-armed states--it is a useful reminder of a crisis moment in world history when the U.S. and Russia were allies against a great common threat.  it primarily serves as an invaluable lesson in the role of the subjective factors and leadership in warfare. 

 

STALINGRAD: A LESSON IN THE PRIMACY OF THE SUBJECTIVE IN WAR

November 19, 2020 marked the 78th anniversary of the strategic counteroffensive that the Soviet Red Army launched against the German Wehrmacht at Stalingrad in World War II. The vast, surprise double-pincered armored envelopment that the Soviets launched that day---from apparently out of nowhere---sealed the fate of the German Army in Russia. It was arguably the turning point of the entire war.

Stalingrad was the biggest battle in the most destructive war in the history of mankind. Soviet casualties in the battle that raged between August 23, 1942 and the surrender of Field Marshal Paulus’s 6th Army on February 2, 1943 numbered 1,129,619, including 478,741 personnel killed or missing. That is, the Soviets suffered more dead and wounded in the Battle of Stalingrad, than the U.S. Armed Forces suffered on all fields of battle combined during the entirety of World War II! (982,800 total casualties, including 416,800 killed or missing).

By the time that the Soviets unleashed their November 19th counteroffensive, the badly battered 62nd Army of General Chuikov, which was the principal Soviet military formation in the meager thousands of square meters that remained of Soviet-controlled Stalingrad, numbered only about 6000 men. What had once been a full-sized army of over 100,000 soldiers, had been reduced in size to less than half of an undersized division! And it was facing round-the-clock assaults from the elite formations of Paulus’s 6th Army and the German Luftwaffe that were more than 30 times its size, with seemingly infinitely greater firepower.

What sustained the Soviet soldiers in the face of these indescribable, almost unimaginable horrors? What enabled them to triumph against such overwhelming odds? Insofar as the imperial arrogance of the members of today’s anti-Russia lobby ominously echoes the anti-Soviet arrogance of German political and military strategists in Hitler’s time, they would be well-advised to consider the answers to these questions, before proceeding any further with their dangerous, ill-considered provocations.

Tyrtaeus on War

 

Translated by Steven Willett

 

Tyrtaeus fragment 10 Lycurg. in Leocr: 107

 

 

To die when he’s fallen in the front ranks is good

   for a brave man fighting for his homeland,

but to abandon his city and abundant fields

   as a beggar is the most painful of all,

wandering with his dear mother and aged father,

   with small children and wedded wife.

For he’s hateful to whomever he may meet

   yielding to need and hateful poverty,

he disgraces his lineage, refutes his noble form,

   and all dishonor and baseness attend him.

If a man who wanders thus hasn’t any regard

   or respect, nor for the family after him,

let us fight with spirit for this land and our children,

   let us die, no longer sparing our lives.

Fight, O young men, standing fast with one another,

   and don’t start shameful flight or fear,

but make the heart in your breasts great and valiant,

   and don’t love your life fighting with men.

And for the elders, whose knees are no longer nimble,

   don’t flee abandoning them, revered men.

For this is shameful, when fallen in the front ranks,

   an older man lies with the young behind him,

who's already got a white head and gray beard,

   breathing out his valiant spirit in the dust,

grasping his bloody genitals in his dear hands—

   a shameful sight and wrathful to see—

his body naked. Yet for young men all is seemly

  long as their noble bloom of lovely youth,

a marvel for men to see, and a desire for women

   while alive, but noble fallen in the front ranks.

Let each one planting himself firmly stand with both legs

   fixed on the ground, biting his lip with teeth.

Happy New Year - 2021

The Commander in Chief.  Good luck to us all.  pl