No Consequences
Despite his embarrassing performance at a Senate confirmation hearing, a top White House aide believes “there’s no question that there will be more than 50 votes to confirm Senator Hagel.” Hillary Clinton was also upbeat about her political future. She suggested that her record on Benghazi would not pose the slightest impediment to running for President in 2016. The former secretary of state said that she lived in an “evidence based world”. And in that world only one thing counts: “we won”. That fact trumps everything.
Robert Menendez knows how the world works. The New York Times explains it in terms that would make Mr. Rogers proud.
Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, a wealthy Florida eye surgeon, has always been happy to help out his friend, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey … Mr. Menendez, a Democrat, has also been helpful to Dr. Melgen, according to records and interviews, in ways that could bring the doctor a highly lucrative windfall.
Now did you get that? It’s called being right neighborly. “The friendship between the two men goes back to the 1990s, when Mr. Menendez, who entered the House of Representatives in 1993, began regularly visiting the Dominican Republic. They spent holidays together, often in the Dominican Republic, where Dr. Melgen has a home in Casa de Campo, a gated oceanfront resort where houses cost as much as $20 million and which has been home to some of the country’s richest residents, like Oscar de la Renta.”
Menendez is what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) was proud to call “a ‘friend’ and ‘outstanding senator’”. And why by the standards of Reid’s friends, could that not be? Menendez may soon be the chairman of the senate foreign relations committe.
“We won”. Tattoo that on your hand. And that claim is fundamentally correct. As Glenn Reynolds observed “democracy is a means, not an end”. It will take you wherever you want to go. Including straight to the poorhouse. Democracy has consequences, for the voters at least, if not for the public officials.
Recently the Atlantic Wire observed that Zimbabwe is literally down to its last $217 dollars. Those of you who’ve always wanted to be rich enough to buy up a whole country, here’s your chance. Maybe you can talk old Robert into throwing in the Presidential palace for an extra 10 bucks.
The unpalatable fact is that somebody’s got to pay the bill when the big leaders don’t. “We won” means they won. It doesn’t say anything about how Lena Dunham and Sandra Fluke are going to wind up. It doesn’t say anything about how the kids in Chicago or Detroit will finish out their days.
For the moment the administration can confirm Hagel. The Democrats can push the candidacy of Hillary. They can do most anything they want. But spare a moment to consider the possibility there could be blowback from putting completely incompetent persons in positions like Secretary of Defense. That the personal safety of people we know — the entire world — including ourselves might one day hang on nonexistent competence of these people.
But no. Let’s lighten up. Here’s a joke. The King of Saudi Arabia offered $50 million dollars to anyone who could make his horse laugh. Robert Mugabe and Keith Olbermann decided to give it a try. Olbermann told the horse joke after joke with his awesome comedic skills to no effect. Then dour Robert Mugabe whispered something in the horse’s ear, whereupon the steed fell to the ground laughing. When the horse had recovered it stood up again. Then Mugabe whispered yet another message and the horse broke down into uncontrollable sobs.
After paying out the money the King of Saudi Arabia said, “you won the contest fair and square. But tell me, what did you whisper to the horse to make it laugh?”
“I told it that Barack Obama was President of the United States.”
“What did you say to make it cry?”
“I told it that Hillary would be next President of the United States.”
Democracy is a journey. Your mileage may vary.
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99
Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99
No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99
Tip Jar or Subscribe or Unsubscribe
I guess Hillary would be an improvement? I mean, I doubt Hillary would have taken us here, but ….evidence based reality? As in…Rose Law Firm records? Ken Starr? Come on, what else are we supposed to think?
i recall reading somewhere that the most implausible thing in the star trek next generation series was the holodeck.if that was to really exist, then the human race would end quickly. who’d ever leave? it would appear that we are making do with our own virtual reality and imaginations- people started losing their grip on reality with tv in the 70′s and movie special effects and computer animation has only made the disconnect worse.i get the feeling that more than a few people have their own little alternate reality film running in their heads.if it’s your script, how can there be consequences?
Btw- the worst job on star trek would have to be taking a squeegee to the holodeck after use.
What can go wrong? The State Department is recruiting foreign service officers at a jihadi sponsored conference. JihD wtch
Nothing says diversity like a G-13 jihadi with a sweet pension plan.
“What did you say to make it cry?”
“I told it Harry Reid would provide its next stud service.”
If Senator Menendez were truly charismatic, women would be throwing themselves onto him. A woman who has sex one night with that man would cherish the moment for her entire life that she, of all women, has a chance to have sex with that prominent man. Idols, whether in music or politics, have their way of attracting groupies. Indeed, Monica Lewinsky was a classic groupie.
Yet Senator Menendez is paying for it. That says a lot for his “star power”.
Reg @ 2. Not so long ago here at PJM, Helen Smith IIRC, posted a piece about the growing efforts to create sexbots. It would certainly put an end to celebrity worship… yours for only $19.99 a night… someone new every day… and for only $99.99 more you can get your place cleaned and sanitized…
The greenies would pee all over themselves… until someone figures out how to impregnate or be impregnated by…
too much to think about
ta
Wretchard:
Why are so many Democrats falling on their swords for Obama? Why are they so loyal to him when they were never loyal to LBJ, Carter, either Bill or Hillary Clinton, or even John F. Kennedy? What is it about Barack Obama that leads them to march in lockstep and cave in on even their most cherished beliefs?
This puzzles me.
“Why are so many Democrats falling on their swords for Obama?”
Offhand my guess is that the key to understanding BHO’s power is the Clintons. Barack Obama’s destruction of the Clintons put real fear in the Dems. They must have said, “if he can do that to them he can do it to me”. There’s a coalition behind him that has true punitive power.
This may also explain why Hillary, despite her blunders, is still viable. She’s viable because she represents the refloated, salvaged HMS Hood. A loser to be sure, but the only loser with more than a 10% chance against the Bismarck.
Oh, but they were that loyal to Bubba Clinton.
In anything like a neutral, objective world he would have been impeached and removed from office three weeks after Ken Starr started his investigation, for filegate and travelgate alone. With a laugh and a smirk, but even so. Instead, they lined up behind him like it was life or death.
But the why of it, I haven’t a clue. I didn’t expect it, so the what of it is already more than I can grasp.
–
Maybe it was the beginning of our current age, which as far as I can tell is of being ignorant and proud of it, claiming any knowledge or experience whether you have it or not, or in the immortal words of Hildabeast, crying “So what difference would it make?” Or, “fake but accurate”, as the MSM mantra has become.
–
I was listening to a cubicle-neighbor ranting yesterday about Fox News, some corporate cousin of which we are actually working for, but he was going on about how far to the right they are, especially one Bill O’Reilly. Now, unless I miss my guess, my neighbor has small grasp of any issues, probably couldn’t enumerate either a left or right version of anything, yet he knows what he knows with unlimited certainty and enthusiasm. I think Jimmy Kimmel has grasped this nettle with his new feature “Lie Witness News”, in which he goes out on the street and asks people for their opinions on matters, which they freely give, although these matters have not actually taken place, the absence of actual facts being unknown and perhaps unimportant to the featured players.
Un-fortunately it’s always pamwe chete time on the global holodeck…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BNoNFKCBI
“This may also explain why Hillary, despite her blunders, is still viable. She’s viable because she represents the refloated, salvaged HMS Hood. A loser to be sure, but the only loser with more than a 10% chance against the Bismarck.”
But remember that in the end, the Bismarck was done in mainly by a torpedo disabling its rudder so it could only sail in circles, a torpedo launched by a plane so old and which flew so slowly that the Bismarck’s hi-tech AA guns could not track it.
Likewise, the Hood was sunk mostly because of a tactical error and a fatal flaw (if it was in closer to the Bismarck, it would’ve presented its much stronger side armor to the opponent instead of its weak deck armor which was easily pierced by a shot which fortuitously – for the Germans – hit the Hood’s main magazine.)
There are ironies in life as in war. We can laugh about the Death Star from Star Wars being blown up by a lucky shot down the exhaust pipe but apparently that is often the way things work out in real life.
In 1972, Pope Paul VI deviated from his homily and talked of “the smoke of Satan” entering the church. It seems in retrospect that he was right, and it looks now like the same ill wind has come to dominate D.C. and a good many of the state capitols.
You can try to come up with explanations for what’s happening here and what happened in Germany and Russia, but the explanations will look like the system Ptolemy came up with to explain everything before the elegance of Copernican heliocentrism finally arrived. Unless, that is, you wrap your mind around the notion that what everyone has been saying all along is true.
He’s real, he/it’s infected us big time, and it’s time to choose. Barack and Hillary and many others have chosen poorly.
We can’t expect politicians to have shame or conscience. It’s up to us, the voters, to set the ethical standards and boundaries for them by punishing them for failure or corruption. The more we fail to do that the more they’ll lose their inhibitions.
THE CHAINS THAT BIND US
No consequence
No wan suspense
They’re safe upon the ladder
Incompetence
Or smug pretense
They know it doesn’t matter
We won they smirk
Now get to work
You know we are your betters
So don’t complain
About your pain
You’ll love your brand new fetters
@11…
It’s a myth that the Germans couldn’t track such a slow plane.
They used optical physics to drive their ranging calculations…
What everyone has missed: fuel-less fabric wings don’t sustain damage the way metal mono-planes do. They can’t leak fuel — it’s not there. When a bullet hits, the fabric tears — flapping in the breeze afterwards. Whereas, with any metal, damage would cause horrific protrusions into the air flow; typically ruining flight dynamics. Further, the damaged zone would be much more pronounced: the shock waves would’ve moved across the entire assembly.
Shooting at the biplanes was like shooting at a helium filled blimp. It just leaks.
It wasn’t slowness… it was the snappy turns…
BTW, the RN attacks were too close in for air-burst shells to time-off, either. Fuse design expected the opfor to be many thousands of feet away. The RN biplanes were leveling out less than a shell-second a way.
===========
The British re-analyzed the Hood’s attack and concluded that her admiral a l m o s t pulled off the rapid closure required to get underneath Bismark’s plunging fire.
Computer simulations put Hood mere seconds away from equalizing the contest.
Hood would’ve been better off following a Fabian strategy. By staying just out of range, she would’ve frustrated any attempt to set Prince Eugen loose. Then, the RN could’ve brought up so many battleships that the entire German campaign would’ve sunk.
Hood should’ve danced like a butterfly. But doctrine had her faking it as a true battleship.
I wouldn’t have let even an Iowa fight the Bismark if I were commanding. (Unless after sundown) Instead, I’d have used a fleet action — aircraft included.
But, that was the whole flaw in even building the Bismark. She was always going to be lost due to (Fabian) fuel oil denial — and massed (fleet) attack.
Such reasoning also explains why the Tirpitz was stuck in Norway as a floating ‘fleet in being.’ If she ever sailed, it’d be a one-way trip only. For, one had to expect that the RN would send a flotilla of subs to her anchorage — to await her return.
And, while at sea, every manner of torpedo carrying plane was sent across her path.
let’s face it. the useful idiots that populate what passes for the progressive party don’t know the bismark from pepto bismol from bisquick banana bread. it isn’t about lofty ideals or the future of their children, sadly. its 100% about handouts right now. mo welfare benefits, free obama-phones, social security disability w/o any real proof required, almost free section 8 housing, food stamps all around, ebt cards for the restaurant and casino, unfettered immigration w/ life-long benefits, and on and on. they do fraud, gun running, voter fraud, whatever w/o a wimper from their sated, corpulent, oblivious clodpolls, also known as obamabots.
only way to beat them is to stop all the out of control spending. ironically, that is one thing the house, controlled by ‘pubs could do and all conservatives want, but won’t do for reasons nobody seems to understand. however, be of good cheer. like any runaway train, the end of this rail line to oblivion will appear suddenly and swiftly out of the darkness.
Alexis (#5) I sure “Senator Menendez” had legal age power groupies who would have lap danced in their birthday suits but Senator Menendez has that special sickness for little girls who will squirm on the end of his 4 inch… there is no cure for his kind except a short swing on a overpass or lamp post on an even shorter rope! Saddest fact is he ain’t alone, the rich love their playgrounds where they can do what they want to the little people (pun intended). A lot of sick people need the power Money and Politics brings and there are soulless people who in their own quest for Money and Power will happily provide broken and innocent souls for their thirst.
If I recall the joke correctly, the second part goes like this – Then he showed him, but won horses az is as good as another… and some even better.
The 2016 contest is already on full tilt. The government wants to buy the world a coke and destroy their enemies… those who drink Pepsi.
“the worst job on star trek would have to be taking a squeegee to the holodeck after use”
Second to being a “Red Shirt” in an age of self cleaning ovens.
Joe Scarborough lusts for Money and Fame.
Wonder if he’s driven by other forbidden desires…
12. maineman
“When a society has lost it’s common sense, that society is lost.
– Ronald Reagan“
@16…
You mean: it’s barbarians i n s i d e the gates.
For your list of political stash reads like the Vandals have hit Rome.
We will always be led by fallible men because we are ourselves are fallible. The idea of the founders was to prevent the concentration of power in any one faction by playing off one set of scoundrels against the other. The essential thing is that our crooks checkmate your crooks; that our perverts expose your perverts. With any luck they’ll expose each other.
The founders had quite a modern conception of the way things worked. They saw “Alien vs Predator” before the movie came out. And like those characters crouched behind a piece of machinery, waiting for the Alien Queen to cross fangs with the Boss Predator, ordinary people can creep out between their giant legs and scuttle from place to place.
Yet for some reason there arose the idea that politicians were a higher kind of being when everything we know about them suggests they are really rather shabby people.
The only justification I can see for confirming Hagel is that anyone else nominated by Obama would be just as bad, and if they were slightly more intelligent they may be significantly more destructive. Chances are that Hagel will be such an incompetent sad clown that he will be bypassed and outmaneuvered by everyone on anything, and he’ll just end up being some doddering old fool that everyone ignores.
And the sad part is that at this stage in our history, that’s probably the best we can hope for in Washington.
wws…
But does this not echo the macro-incompetance of Fifth Century Rome?
The kids have taken over the classroom.
What can anyone expect.
It was well said of Gorby that he was done in when he actually started to believe his own internal reports.
Communism = THE Ultimate Long Con
# 22 – Perhaps the Haynsworth-Carswell-Rehnquist theory applies…. GBUSA
W @ *8 “Barack Obama’s destruction of the Clintons put real fear in the Dems.”
I still don’t get it — what exactly did Obama do, other than sling more mud and use the race card without letup? Why should the Clinton camp still be afraid of him? Did he have some hit men lean on a few of the Clintons’ friends? Does he have some primo dirt on them?
The Clinton camp seemed to have some brain power; the Obama camp seems populated by chuckleheads. Why is the latter in charge?
25. Abbie Normal said:
“The Clinton camp seemed to have some brain power; the Obama camp seems populated by chuckleheads. Why is the latter in charge?”
…that which cannot be mentioned:
White Guilt
—
The Greatest
This was an enlightening history lesson for me:
I was not aware that a World Champ was prosecuted for transporting women accross state lines for illegal purposes.
…it was the Black Champs (white) wife.
Wish I could hear all of Joe Louis’s commentary.
…also did not know that he interrupted his career to join the War against Facism.
Apparently American Likud party supporters and homosexuals oppose Hagel
American Likud party supporters and homosexuals comprise at most 3% of American voters
What about the 97% of American voters interests?
Hagel will be confirmed-elections have consequences-we lost-and Obama will get the cabinet he wants-it is what it is.
Time to focus upon the 97% of Americans fundamental interests
Jobs
The US economy and debt
Ending aid to alien nations
Focusing our military to defend America against existential threats
In fact we do not face any existential threats since the end of the Cold War with USSR.
We are using our military to further alien nations interest and to protect trade routes
This must end
We have a trade deficit with almost every other alien nation-
If alien nations want to protect their trade routes-then they should pay for it and provide it
0bama must surround himself with those who will get pinned and be under the bus before they even know it, 0bama won’t throw heads of departments under the bus say as quickly as a czar but they’ll go if the heat is hot enough, the key is to keep’n dumb enough, especially since Hildabeast let the cat out the bag about how you can’t fire the clogs.
damn – author of “American Sniper”, deadliest US sniper in Iraq, was killed today at a gun range, apparently by a deranged neighbor.
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/rough-creek-189536271.html
the jihadis couldn’t take him down, but a crazy fellow veteran did. damn.
w @ 21: We will always be led by fallible men because we are ourselves are fallible.
But that’s not the issue, the system has broken down so crooks and perverts can sit in the highest seats, and the press doesn’t even question them, the population doesn’t even care. There is some kind of disconnect.
Rome’s crazy emperors were at the peak of the empire, by the fifth century it was all Bush’s fault, the problems were so ingrained and widespread and traditional, … well, I hope we’re all getting a new view of the fall of Rome from our reliving it presently.
Caligula put his horse in the Senate. Obama puts a brace of horse’s asses in the Cabinet. Incitatus was probably a nobler beast that gave better service.
Stop the Presses!
See today’s “Day by Day” cartoon. Where our own Subotai Bahadur is quoted. Congratulations SB.
Perhaps Barry O will take another leaf from Caligula’s playbook and appoint a horse as Senator in Kerry’s stead.
Next up: making all the wives — and comely lads — of Tout Washington staff a White House brothel.
Human Nature Never Changes.
Oh, and if you want to see how the Obama shock troops scared the liver and lungs out of the Dimocrats, watch the online documentary “We Will Not Be Silenced.” http://wewillnotbesilenced2008.com/video/
“Day by Day”
Permalink for Blast From the Past’s catch.
Whoa! Big ups to Subotai for the shoutout in DbD! Muir knows his crap and is fearless.
“But spare a moment to consider the possibility there could be blowback from putting completely incompetent persons in positions like Secretary of Defense.”
I wonder if this is one of the rare moments that Wretchard is missing something –
“Blowback”? When in history has this not been true? And yet, as we glaringly see, there they are, doing just that without a seeming care in the world.
Note that November was in fact a fairly close call (B. Clinton says Romney would have won were it not for Sandy). And yet in the aftermath, we see conservatives still shocked to the core, multiple conversations about the literal “end of the American Republic”, and Democrats positively giddy in their arrogance.
So what if the reason for that is, that Democrats sense that the “blowback” element is now no more? They really can do anything they want. A $20 trillion debt? Why not $40 trillion? Why not?? Is there a person reading this who thinks that the reaction of the American public to a $40 trillion dollar debt would be remotely different than to $20 trillion? So why not?
Why not call a blatant terrorist attack a mob scene, and jail an American citizen as part of the false narrative in doing so? Why not?? Why stand with a Senator when on Thursday, the FBI launches a major investigation of him for sex with minors, when on Sunday, he can go on a big five Sunday “news” show, and not be asked one single word about it? Why not stand with him?? What’s the downside?
Why not rack up the longest and highest unemployment numbers since the depression when you are going to be re-elected anyway? Why not?? Why not sell Obamacare with numbers and scenarios that have not the slightest bearing to reality, and then when when that reality hits, the media will never discuss it anyway, so why not do it??
Why not ignore the law, and ignore the most fundamental duty of coming up with a real budget for spending the public’s money. It’s the law, they ignore the law, and no one cares!!!! So why not do it?? Why not??
Blowback? What blowback? The political genuises of the democratic party (that is not sarcasm) have figured out a way to remove the blowback issue from the table, or worse, commit the crime and then truly and genuinely blame the people who have been warning against the crime for years…. and people will buy it!!!
Hence our shock and horror. Hence their arrogance.
Blowback? At this point, I will believe it when I see it, because I sure as hell ain’t seeing it now.
So how’s cum the Dems are all “lining up” behind Obama?
It may be that in the end we have to concede that the Progressives – whom we have frequently regarded as the most cynical and smugly Janus-faced liars of all History – actually BELIEVE the horsecrap-inverted-logic they’ve been shoveling for the last century. Maybe after all, in their eyes Obama, for no other reason than his skin’s melanin content – MUST BE AN AUTHENTIC MORALLY SUPERIOR THIRD WORLD OPPRESSED INDIGENE. Whosoever he condemns is rightly condemned, deservedly scourged and destroyed, since opposition to the Savior Obama defines one for all time as the spawn of Satan.
It’s the only concession the otherwise exuberantly mechanical-universe anti-theists make to the notion of a spiritual basis for any human – those who oppose them are evil, in a world otherwise devoid of evil; in which the most vicious human behavior is excused as simply the inevitable response to oppression by white Europeans.
This is all the more true if you who oppose HIM have betrayed your own kind. That is, if you are yourself endowed of the same melanin-enhanced heritage as is Obama. You may not… CANnot… be a real black person if you embrace values hostile to those of the Progressives.
So sayeth the almighty Progressives.
Well, they can murder or imprison everyone who opposes or questions or challenges them, but they can’t make the sun come up in the West, or heat their own homes with perpetual motion machines, or make pi into a rational number. Their own beliefs are shifting sands and smokes in the wind. They’re building their proud towers on the most precarious base, with crumbledy stone and adulterated mortar.
To these juveniles the Titanic is just some story about a girl with a blue jewel remembering some cute guy who sacrificed himself just for her… What a heart-warming Story!
Obama has a knack of being ruthless but presenting himself as nice. He disarm people by expressing tropes, repeating accepted wisdom in profoundly vague ways. He lies so convincingly that even opponents are struck dumb. He uses the prejudices and fears to silence.
I’m amazed that anyone could respect such a man, let alone give him power. There is a shallowness of being that would make such a character a leader.
Reality will intrude. It is already. We won’t see uprisings. The youth necessary to drive such a revolt were never allowed to be born. We will see decay, Detroit style.
It’s worth noting that Bismarck basically took on a good portion of the British Home Fleet – at one point, there were at least 2 aircraft carriers, 4 battleships, 2 battlecrusiers, 4 heavy crusiers and 10 or more destroyers hunting her. Despite the odds, if it had not been for that one lucky torpedo hit on her rudder she might well have out ran them all and made it safely to Brest – where just the threat of another break out would have tied up a lot of resources better used elsewhere. Another such break out, had it been successful, might well have done as much damage or more as Scharnhorst and Genieasau did when they operated as raiders. We shall never know.
As for the matter at hand – what is dangerous here is that the actions of our elites no longer have consequences for them. This has long term and short term dangers. In the short term, well, foolish people in positions of power tend to make foolish decisons which will have bad consequences for US foreign policy and very likely for the lives of US service personel, diplomats, and citizens as well.
Long term – it comes back to the question of legitimacy. If a senator can go to under-aged prostitutes and get away with it, why should the rest of us obey the laws and pay taxes? Yes, there is reason to fear the police. Yes, obeying the law is still the right legal and moral thing to do. However, the more our elites, by their actions, pour sand into the machinery of society, the more likely it is that sooner or later that machinery will stop working completely. The last time that happened, we had a civil war.
Senate GOP Arms The Brotherhood
– McCarthy
I’m done grumbling about how President Obama is empowering America’s enemies. After all, it is not just Obama. When it comes to abetting the Muslim Brotherhood, Republicans are right there with him.
Not all of them, of course. This week, for example, Senator Rand Paul proposed an amendment that would have prohibited our government from transferring F-16 aircraft and Abrams tanks to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood–dominated government. This lunatic plan is not just an Obama initiative. It is also a GOP brainstorm — of a piece with 2011’s Libya debacle, in which Republican leaders cheered as Obama, upon consulting with the Arab League, ignored Congress and levied war on behalf of the very jihadists who, quite predictably, have since raided Qaddafi’s arsenal, besieged northern Africa, and massacred Americans in Benghazi.
Baby vs Kitten Wrestling Match
BotP @38…
The belated rediscovery of Bismark occurred because she was steaming so s l o w.
From the start, Bismark left Germany with only a partial load of fuel — and without the knowledge of Adolf. (!) (The two issues are linked — Hitler had Russia on his mind.)
Even if Bismark made it to western France, she would’ve been confronted with the same dynamic that occurred with Tirpitz.
Beyond that, it should be obvious from our historical remove that Bismark would’ve never, ever succeeded as a convoy raider. She would’ve been mobbed by the RN’s aircraft carriers in any attempt.
We now know, via the Prince of Wales fiasco, that Bismark was hopelessly under gunned against aircraft.
http://www.combinedfleet.com/baddest.htm
The above Web page gives a condensed tabulation of the merits of the last battleship generation. The statistics are a fright. Bismark and Tirpitz were designed for WWI.
Not listed at that Website is Bismark’s worst, ultimately, crippling weakness: she had only three (3) screws. The British, Americans and Japanese all realized that flaw — and stayed with four screws.
When the Bismark took rudder damage, she was unable to cast off her rudder — nor stop her turning.
(Explosive bolts were a German, Nazi era, invention. They didn’t make it to her ships.)
(They were used to eject aircraft canopies — like the Me-262 — and made it into the American space program.)
Her captain blew it: even a torpedo hit would not be as damaging as a loss of steering.
Bismark, during Baltic trials, proved that she was essentially un-steerable on engines alone — even with the rudder centered.
In sum: German battleships were more bark than bite. They had a glass roof — and glass steering.
The whole World can thank the German Navy for wasting them. Both would’ve been grand-tactical assets against the Baltic coast — and Leningrad. I can’t imagine how Leningrad would’ve held the line against 15″ rifles. The Soviets would’ve lost their own capital ships — tied at anchor — with their defensive fires — to be followed by an all weather, all hours pummeling.
@40, Blert:
I don’t want to turn this into a WWII thread, since this is Wretchards place, but a few points:
1. Hindsight is always 20/20. Most 1941 Battleships were poorly prepared for air attack. Prince of Wales and Repulse fared no better against aircraft than Bismarck. I think we can agree on this.
2. The 3 screw design and rudder weakness is conceded. I will agree that Bismarck, for all her fame, was in fact a WWI ship in WWII clothing, being basically an updtated version of the Bayern class, Germanys first ships with 15 inch guns. Her armor design, armament and so on were more for WWI than WWII.
3. Battlehip as commerce raider might have made sense at the time. Remember, Scharnhorst and Geniesau (forgive my spelling) DID act as raiders in 1940 – they ran rings around the entire Royal Navy, aircraft carriers included, for 6 months, wiping out 22 merchant ships with no damage to themselves. They also disrupted convoys and British ships that had to chase them could not hunt U-boats at the same time. So I can see how the Germans might have figured Bismarck and Tirpitz could have done the same.
4. I agree Bismarck and Tirpitz would have been invaluable in the Baltic, supporting not only the seige of Leningrad but Army Group North as a whole. They would certainly have been more than a match for Red Banner Baltic Fleet, such as it was, and this might have been the best strategic use for them.
5. Which kind of leads me back to Wretcahrd’s main point. Eventually the Germans paid a very high price for the foolishness of their leadership.
Blert @ 15.
“But, that was the whole flaw in even building the Bismark. She was always going to be lost due to (Fabian) fuel oil denial — and massed (fleet) attack.”
A metaphor, methinks.
Enough looking backward, we need to look forward down the road.
Q – Who would be the Democrat’s most powerful candidate in 2016?
A – Rahm Emanuel.
Q – Is even he vulnerable?
A – Damn straight he is! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel#Career_in_finance
Freddie Mac!!!! Mortgage crisis, financial meltdown, outsized salaries as political reward???
He can be crucified by a focused campaign. Even Occupy Wall Street would HATE him.
Knock off their toughest, meanest son-of-a-bitch and were can they hide?
They will come quietly once they hear the sirens of the Tea Party Police.
We liberated Richmond, VA in 1865!
We liberated Berlin and Tokyo in 1945!
We got Gorby to “tear down this wall”!
Now we must
LIBERATE CHICAGO!!!!
Give Susan Roesgen of CNN something to talk about!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpeScv6EPgQ
@ 43. MachiasPrivateer
“Who would be the Democrat’s most powerful candidate in 2016?”
Assuming that BHO actually steps down.
beverly @ 32: “Perhaps Barry O will take another leaf from Caligula’s playbook and appoint a horse as Senator in Kerry’s stead.”
Well, it’s the Governor of Massachusetts who appoints Kerry’s replacement, but Deval Patrick just DID appoint, in effect, HIS horse to the seat: William “Mo” Cowen.
What difference does any of this make, at this point in time, anyway?
Sorry, I missed the Edit time on the comment above:
I meant to have included:
We will soon have a Secretary of State who has his picture on Display in Hanoi for his service to the Regieme.
And a SecDef who is endorsed by Iran.
—
BREITBART
Shotgun Obama
…be sure to checkout Deuce’s photoshopped second picture.
“The White House has released a picture purporting to show President Obama “skeet shooting” at Camp David. An activity he claims he does “all the time.”
The White House also warns all you mischievous internet types to not mess around with the picture:
“This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.””
—
Press conferences sound like a million unloaded guns going off:
Who do we contact to have the click sound option checked “no” for the silent digital cameras?
…or must the press have ONLY Digital SLR’s with mirrors?
—
The very Presidential Reverb enabled on all Obama’s Soundtracks is just fine, though.
—
‘What difference … does it make’ quip may thwart..”
James Jay Carafano
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will soon become Citizen Clinton once more. She’ll rake in huge speaking fees, juicy book deals, corporate board seats and dozens more honorary doctoral degrees. But none of that can ever wash away what happened at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Last year, on 9/11, Secretary Clinton finally got that “3 a.m. phone call.” Her failure to answer leaves a permanent black mark on her record.
Al-Qaida has made war on our State Department for over a decade — since the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa. The department has had to learn how to defend its staff and facilities in combat zones from Iraq to Afghanistan. That background makes State’s failure to address adequately the security risks in Libya all the more stunning.
Secretary Clinton’s blindness to the magnitude of the department’s failure was on display in her recent testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“Was it because of a protest or is it because of guys out for a walk one night and they decide they go kill some Americans?” she asked rhetorically, before adding: “What difference, at this point, does it make?”
It was like asking: “What’s the difference between hitting a deer that bolts out in front of your car or running over some kids on a field trip because you’re blind drunk?” One is an accident; the other is a catastrophic failure of judgment.
The administration now acknowledges the assault in Benghazi was a deliberate, planned terrorist act. It is reasonable — indeed, necessary — to ask if State did everything reasonable to mitigate the risk.
We know there was no shortage of funds or other resources. Senior State Department officials have repeatedly testified there was no problem there — though some politicians continue to cry poverty on behalf of the administration.
Clearly, the problem was the department’s failure to plan adequately before the attack and respond adequately once it began.
Seeing no difference between a riot and a raid also suggests Clinton doesn’t understand the nature of the threat.
“Islamist terrorists,” wrote my colleague Middle East scholar Jim Phillips, “are motivated to kill Americans not because of emotional reactions to alleged slights such as the questionable video on Mohammed, but because they seek to seize power and impose their Islamist totalitarian ideology on other Muslims.”
Anglo Saxon @ 44 – Rahm Emanuel is the “rainmaker” of the Democrats. He is to Obama what Tom Hagen was to Vito Corleone. Money is the mother’s milk of politics. Poison the wellspring of the Democrats’ money and Obama is just a goofball who cannot get one single vote for his budgets.
Democrat money is their center of gravity and Emanuel is Ground Zero.
Do you doubt that the natives are restless? Then why does United Airlines buy its jet fuel for planes flying in and out of O’Hare in Sycamore IL?
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/chicago-area-rta-united-running-sham-business-0
As to the State of Illinois, please note that Illinois Democrats, on this Super Sunday, can now proudly proclaim that when it comes to unfunded pension liabilities…
WE’RE #1!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324610504578276141612731784.html?mod=ITP_pageone_1
What if our nation failed in October of 2008. What if the financial scams that brought down the banks were completely unfixable? What if the fed had become insoluble? The Democrats and Republicans alike would keep the focus on everything but the economy. If one must fail then it is better to fail noblely. This is the part of the equation where the miracle must happen and no matter how hard the can is kicked it remains a few steps away, perpetually impeding forward motion. The Republic is already dead. That is why the slouching mediocrity of our leaders drubs on. We are living the zombie apocalypse.
“For the moment the administration can confirm Hagel. The Democrats can push the candidacy of Hillary. They can do most anything they want.” – Richard
“Yet for some reason there arose the idea that politicians were a higher kind of being when everything we know about them suggests they are really rather shabby people.” Richard
The real question is what to do about it. Got any ideas?
AM @ 49: We are living the zombie apocalypse.
Basically, yes. Between the financial meltdown circa Feb 2008, the election of Obambus in November 2008, and his reelection on 2012, the shipping of virtually the entire US manufacturing base (non-military) to China and other countries over the last 20 years, and various other social and economic trends that we can view as having reached their endpoints thusly. Yeah.
I’d add one more signal event, the failure to remove Bubba from office for filegate and travelgate *alone*, should have taken place by the end of 1994, arguably before the election – even before Monica. And if not then, then for using Lewinsky to threaten Tripp with the power of the office of the president, circa 1998. And this more to remove the *Hildabeast* from power than good-natured, skirt-chasing Bubba himself. Hilda’s fiasco of the health care debate in 1994 basically initiated the extreme political polarization we’ve had since, that and her “vast right-wing conspiracy” crap. And this we made Secretary of State? And then we wonder what is wrong and what we should do to fix it?
Zombie Apocalypse would be an improvement.
–
mp @ 48: As to the State of Illinois, please note that Illinois Democrats, on this Super Sunday, can now proudly proclaim that when it comes to unfunded pension liabilities…
WE’RE #1!
I just still have trouble believing the Illini can really be ahead of my Californistan in this matter. For some reason, our Governor Moonbeam has declared victory over reality and said we’re just fine now. The real numbers have to “favor” Californistan. But I suppose Obambus will just sell us to China, we can become their 58th canton, China can then open up our southern border and get revenge for the Opium Wars. And maybe enough cash will be left over for Obambus to go home to Chicago and pay off their debts.
It is a combination of shameful Democrats who will defend their own on anything (just because they are Democrats) and a media that goes along with it in large part.
Great post. And it is a huge problem that has been going on a long time.
It is unhealthy for politics for parties not to dump their corrupt and incompetent members. I can get Democrats defending Hillary Clinton (even if I think what she and Barack Obama did was terribly wrong) but the media should deal with it evenly and let voters decide. What is going on with Corzine, Menendez and Hagel is just shameful.
Doug @ 47:
I think the original photo released by the White House is photoshopped also. Here’s why:
1. President Obama is depicted firing an over and under shotgun. Why is there a wisp of smoke about 8″ back from the muzzle? There are no gas
ports anywhere in that area on an over and under (or a side by side). And, I think that muzzle compensators are located at, well, the muzzle.
2. That appears to be a 12 gauge, presumably loaded with skeet rounds, which are petty low velocity. Still, the way that the Prez is holding the gun, wouldn’t the recoil cause the but to rise up and over his shoulder, smacking him in the nose with the receiver? and, you want the butt snugged tightly into your shoulder, since you don’t want any free travel after the shot: don’t let the gun bounce” against your shoulder or you get bad bruises.
3. At least for me, I want my trigger hand above and around the receiver to keep this from happening. I think this is true for most shooters. Also, along the same lines, his posture is very vertical: when I, at least, shoot a 12 gauge, I lean into it to help control the recoil. I think must folks do also.
4. As JAB pointed out, the sight line is all wrong: his eye is below the rear sight
and in order to see the front sight, he would have to dip the top of his head and look
out under his brows. Which he is not doing, so he cannot see either sight. Even with
the “point and shoot” technique, you have to see the front sight,so it is unlikely that he is aiming…he is simply holding the gun.
I think the President was photographed holding the gun “offhand”, not tucked away, as if he didn’t really want to get too close to the icky
thing and then the smoke was photoshopped in afterwards.
“Here, Mr. President, hold this!”, a variation on the infamous “Here, hold my beer and watch this!”
I don’t think this a serious issue, but let us leave no nit unpicked. / erc
I’ve also been wondering about that vertical jet of smoke. I’m a pistol guy myself but I can’t imagine what it is.
It’s the Reno standard, set by the other Janet back in the day. Falling on the sword properly belonging to the FBI and Bill Clinton, she took “full responsibility” for Waco, which meant…absolutely nothing.
Josh @ 51 – I have talked to union schoolteachers. I am friends with some. You can see and hear the fear, particularly the women. They do not belong to Social Security. All their retirement pay is based on pension and healthcare programs run by the State of Illinois. Those are the very programs that are basically unfunded. All pension plans transfer wealth from a younger generation to an older generation. Simplifying to three generations, BabyBoomers (BB), Gen X & Gen Y. Current BB teachers will have the cash flow for their pensions paid by Gen X. Gen X will get theirs from Gen Y.
The kids now in their classrooms, Gen Y, will be the guarantors of the pensions of Gen X. What are the prospects that with a high school graduation rate of about 50%, either Gen X or Gen Y will be ready, able and willing to put the BabyBoomers needs before their own? ZERO! And they KNOW that. They know first hand how ill prepared the kids in the schools are, they are their teachers and see them every day. Can you see their deer-in-the-headlights look? I can tell you they do NOT want me to retire and become a snowbird like they would, if the roles were reversed.
And just like the Social Security “Trust Funds”, the piggybank is empty. So if you cannot pay for yourself by emptying your own piggybank, and you can’t rely on your children and grandchilden to pay for you (Gen X is also known as the “Me Generation”), you can see starvation staring you in the face when you’re old and cannot fight for yourself. “Death Panels” anyone?
And the Democrat Machine is run by advertising men.
“Promise her anything, but give her Arpege”.
And Rahm Emanuel has a “bubble mortgage” payment coming up later this year.
Those were Democrats and Hippies in the streets of Chicago during the summer of ’68.
AIN’T KARMA A BITCH?
erc @ 54 – I think the gun itself is what was photoshopped. Maybe he was goofing on the golf course with a driver, pretending to shoot one of his golfing buddies?
Josh – One more factoid. The recently ended 2 % Social Security payroll tax holiday was initially adopted co-incident with a 2% increase in the Illinios stae income tax from 3 to 5%, so as to disguise the state tax increase from low information voters. It’s not hidden anymore.
So the question is, having saved the kids of Kuwait from the Fires From Hell, and the kids of New Orleans from the Oil Spill From Hell, and the kids of Tokyo from the Nuclear Fire of Fukushima, should I just call it a career and go sit on the tropical beach at sunset, with a smiling pretty blonde, pina coladas in hand, watching for the green flash???????
NO WORRIES MATE! I’ll just outsource the job to the kids in my sailing class!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YfXvGYexts
Not sure that the picture is doctored. The exhaust port might be some fancy muzzle break aparatus for a right hand shooter. Notice Obama is a Lefty?
Children are the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enqNl7tdLR4&feature=youtu.be&t=24s
In six months, there will be more “Hispanics” than “Whites” in California.
Taking VDH’s description of what they have wrought in the Central Valley into account, it must be said that the future does not look bright.
Especially taking into account that the IRS has announced that the cheapest Obamacare policy for a family of 5 will cost 20,000 Dollars.
A Brave New World nears.
The mind boggles at the ability of people living 50 miles away on the coast to live their “conscious” lives as though the Central Valley is in China.
@#55. Gordon
Looking at this larger image and blowing it up a bit you can see the holes in the barrels to reduce the rise of the muzzle on firing.
My take is that the image was taken at the point where the muzzle is starting to rise and the buttstock is also which is squeezing his cheek and causing his line of sight to be low. My guess would be it was taken using a sound activated shutter or a camera taking 10 or more frames per second that caught one at the right moment to prove that he shot a shotgun at least once.
#31 Blast From the Past,#33 Doug, and #34 Dworkin Barimen
Thanks everyone. It took me totally by surprise when I found it just after it posted. I feel honored that Chris Muir would quote me.
#54 erc rodson
I also think the original photo released by Obama was faked. However, I am given to understand [I don't shoot skeet or trap] that the specialized firearms used can have compensators about there. I tend to restrict my shooting to things either edible or dangerous; or preparations therefore. Clay birds being neither edible nor likely to ambush me, I will leave those with direct experience to speak as to whether the placement is accurate.
I have posted elsewhere on this, and I’ll take part of it to list my doubts:
As far as Wretchard’s main post; we are in interesting times in which those who are of the Nomenklatura face no consequences for their actions; no matter how illegal, unconstitutional, incompetent, or immoral. Senator Hagel conclusively demonstrated that he has less knowledge of either the military or of foreign policy than my cat. And less intellectual rigor than the squirrels that my cat chases. But he is the recipient of the favor of The One, and the principles of Democratic Centralism require that all Party members rally behind him.
Hillary Clinton literally watched as Americans were murdered, and preventing it was within her purview. And she brags, not without justification, that such would not ruin any future presidential effort. For she is of the Nomenklatura
And there is the case of Senator Menendez, who is publicly embraced by the Senate Majority Leader [that in and of itself should destroy his reputation and have him seeking prophylactic antibiotics in large quantities]. Accused credibly and under FBI investigation for exercising undue influence for a large campaign donor, violating ethics laws, oh, and incidentally, accepting [with the suspicion of soliciting] resort stays in foreign countries that involve hot and cold running underage prostitutes; he is sheltered by his status, his loyalty to The One, and the automatic protection of the state-controlled media for all Democrats.
Our interesting times are becoming more and more interesting. There is open war on the Constitution. And we are seeing what previously would have been unthinkable. There is a specter, documented in training exercises in the last month or two; where it is now possible to conceive of a government of the United States ordering troops to fire on Americans who would hold the government within the bounds of the Constitution. And given the deliberate neglect by the Leftist controlled school systems of teaching American history and the Constitution; there is a significant chance that at least some of those troops will do it.
“…And only the Great Blue Sky Tengri Nor knows what the outcome will be.”
Subotai Bahadur
Subotai…
There is ONLY one thing that Senator Menendez would have to fly to the Dominican Republic to get: certified virgins.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078111/
It’s a storied gambit. ^^^^ As “Pretty Baby” reveals.
His preference is also why the sex-workers claim that he only wants, “the young, new girls.”
That’s an understatement, for sure.
In that environment, it also means that his targets are seriously underage, and all that it implies.
=======
Belgium had a HUGE scandal a while back. One of their ‘houses’ became exposed. It’s specialty was politicians and heavy hitters — and virgins.
This pan-European clientele was embodied in “Taken.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/
=======
The silence of the Feminist faction of the Democrat Party is quite a ‘tell.’
#65 blert
If I remember about the Belgian pedophile ring about 10 years ago; it involved both boys and girls, it went down to toddler age, it involved children kidnapped and held for prolonged periods of time and then were murdered and the bodies disposed of. Oh, yes. Also that no one of any import was punished for it. Memory may be off, but I believe that only one person went to prison for it and no one followed up on the clientele.
I suspect that the American Nomenklatura outsource such activities to places like the Caribbean, because American parents and families are not as docile as European ones. If it broke here, there would be payback.
By the way, I read an article at POLITICO a few minutes ago. They were wondering if Menendez would survive politically. Short answer, if he is not arrested [and maybe if he is] he is politically safe.
Subotai Bahadur