Minneapolis Burning

Re the ongoing violence in Minneapolis, I am reluctant to chime in on these sorts of stories because the "known facts" almost always get significantly modified as time passes. Think back to Ferguson; to Jussie Smollet; to Nick Sandmann; to Richard Jewell; and, of course, to the Russian collusion/Ukranian quid-pro-quo hoaxes. Interestingly enough, the people almost always wrong on these stories are the ones who push these stories the hardest.

So what do we know, or, at least, think we know?

Well, so far, we know that a white cop, Derek Chauvin, in the process of arresting a black man, George Floyd, for passing forged $20 bills, killed that suspect. The video--there's always video--is grotesque, and shows that Chauvin CLEARLY used excessive and inappropriate force in the arrest. If the video making the rounds is the complete story, then Chauvin deserves arrest, and probably should face something greater than the third-degree murder/manslaughter charges he now faces. It also seems that Chauvin has a history of excessive force, and probably should not have been a police officer. I doubt that kneeling on a passive suspect's neck is an approved restraining process.

Chauvin and Floyd might have known each other from a security gig they undertook at the same time at a local club. If that's true, there might exist something more personal in Chauvin's behavior towards Floyd, which, perhaps, would justify elevating the charges even further, i.e., premeditated murder?

None of us, of course, knows at this stage whether race proved a factor, whether Chauvin is a racist, and whether he would have used the same brutal tactics against a white suspect.

Lots of unanswered questions.

Those questions, of course, do not get answered by burning down businesses, stealing large-screen TVs, or breaking into ATMs--all activities undertaken by some of the "protestors." The media has been, as usual, completely disgusting on the story. They seem unable to condemn police brutality AND condemn the behavior of looters destroying local businesses already hard-hit by the insane ChiCom virus lock-down.

In addition, the media, and the Dems, along with the fascists at Twitter, are deliberately misinterpreting Trump's tweet about "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Who doubts the wisdom of that statement? Is it true? Of course it is. It is a simple statement of fact. Nothing more.

I find laughable the furious attempts to blame Trump for the violence in yet another Dem-run city and state. Face it, the major urban centers are run by Democrats, and are cesspools of violence, high-taxes, fleeing middle classes, poverty, and, yes, RACISM.

Minneapolis, once a terrific place, has become just another in a long-line of those Democrat cesspools.

Hong Kong

I loved Hong Kong.

It was one of the great places on the planet. Nowhere near, of course, as neat and clean as Singapore, but lively, vibrant, an adrenaline rush, and overwhelming to the senses. I found the people there, although hard-working and determined to get ahead, friendly and polite. The non-stop 24hr food, the bargains, the pure capitalist joy of the place were something to partake. I visited HK several times both before and after the 1997 hand-over; the change in the city was dramatic, and not for the good.

I remember discussing Hong Kong with a Canadian diplomatic colleague--also a big fan of Hong Kong--some three years after the hand-over. I said the change in the city was palpable. The first thing I had noticed was the police force. The English-language comprehension in that force had dropped perceptibly. My friend, who had worked in HK for some time, agreed, and said that yes, indeed, the police force was being replaced gradually by personnel from the Mainland with a much lower level of education and professionalism, and much less regard for legal niceties. In addition, it seemed clear to us that Beijing promoted Shanghai and other Mainland cities as investment alternatives to HK to diminish the importance of the old Crown Colony. We were both very pessimistic about the future; neither one saw HK maintaining its "two systems" status until 2047, as required in the hand-over treaty.

It seems that our pessimism has proven justified. Beijing looks determined to annihilate Hong Kong as a beacon of democracy and hope. The frightened bully plutocrats of the CCP are on something of a rampage these days, be it on the border with India, in the South China sea, and, of course, in Hong Kong. Can Taiwan be far behind?

We have to break our reliance on China and do it ASAP. SecState Pompeo's announcement on our recognition of what is going on in Hong Kong is a good first step, and an affirmation that the Trump administration recognizes reality as the basis for a foreign policy.

Fellow blogger Lorenzo has an excellent piece on China, and its bully-boy policies. Well worth reading (here).

Back, Sort of . . .

Nightmare dealing with GoDaddy.com. They apparently "mistakenly" assigned thediplomad.com domain to another account, and that account holder deleted the account, but still retains control of the domain name. Right. So I am back to blogspot.com for now. I can't link to my old pieces unless I go in and change each address, I guess.

Anyhow, I will keep working on it. If you can get the word out to the other five or six readers, I would much appreciate it.

Not a Whiff of Scandal . . . Yeah, Right, Joe. Sure thing . . .

OK. I was going to write a long warm up/intro to the main topic of this piece, but my anger level kept rising. In light of that, therefore, let me drop the preparatory suiting up, the chase, as well, and cut right to the kill: the Obama-Biden misadministration was the most corrupt and destructive in the long history of our republic. The Obama-Biden years, as this humble and inconsequential blog has long-declared, were an unmitigated disaster. Period.

In terms of vulgar corruption, no other Presidency comes close: not Grant; not Arthur; not Harding. When it comes to assault on basic liberties and institutions, likewise, no other administration can even approximate that by the Obama-Biden misadministration: not Adams; not Wilson; not FDR; and certainly not Nixon.

Joe "Basement" Biden, the presumptive nominee of the world's oldest political party for US President, has for years irritatingly and falsely regaled us with a line some staffer fed him, along with his daily Prevagen dose, that the Obama-Biden administration "never had even a whiff of scandal."

Right, Joe. Sure. Keep saying that until even you believe it.

For the rest of us, well . . . those scandal-free Obama-Biden years exist, if at all, only in a Hollywood/Marvel Comics alternate universe. The late and unlamented Obama-Biden misadministration that I remember had another storyline all together: one of major scandals from the start to the end of its horrid eight-year tenure. Rewind to 2009. Then run the ol' memory projector forward: the scandals come in a rush, a jumble so thick and complex that it proves tough to keep them straight. You will always miss at least one, no matter how often you play the tape. To list all the scandals would require, in Professor Reynolds' phrase, "a much bigger blog." It, however, would make a great drinking game.

We have even before inauguration: corrupt Obama real estate dealings. Unclear educational background. Dealings with terrorists and other America-haters. Murky personal history throughout. Once in office, in no particular order: Solyndra. Benghazi. Egypt. Fake Iran deal. Clinton Foundation "pay-for-play." Billions in Haiti aid funds missing. Uranium deal with Putin. Kowtowing to Castro and Chavez/Maduro. Kowtowing to China. Destruction of the US military.

At home, political opponents had to face: Obama-Biden-DNC deals with foreign agents to attack and smear those opponents. IRS weaponized. ATF weaponized. DOJ weaponized. FBI weaponized. NSA weaponized. CIA weaponized. FISA court weaponized. All this with the complicity of the legacy mass media, and the tech companies that control the new media. It goes on and on.

In short, the Obama-Biden misadministration did not have a "whiff" of scandal, it had an eye-watering, gagging, choking, diesel fuel fed smoking dumpster fire of scandal.

Joe Biden, an old-time Democrat party corruptocrat, has tried to adopt the speech, memes, and look of the new Democrat party corruptocrats (here). He has never stood for anything except for Joe Biden, an ambitious plagiarist, crook, and liar. As a Senator, he spent much of his time running for President, and when that crashed, leading a lynch mob against Justice Thomas. He also used the Senate to get rich from Delaware-based credit card companies; he used the Vice Presidency to make his family rich with corrupt deals in China and Ukraine. Throughout it all, he has been a liar, a fabulist of the first order. While the press try to dismiss his utterances as mere "gaffes," Biden actually utters lie after lie, and has done so for decades. He tells so many falsehoods that we, to be kind, could conclude that he lives in a delusional world wherein lie and truth prove inseparable. We, for example, now know Biden took part in the persecution of General Flynn, but he lies about it. He once claimed to have opposed taking out Osama bin-Laden, but now denies ever saying that. All this quite aside from the fact that he clearly suffers from rapidly diminishing mental capacities; has uncontrollable and irrational bursts of macho-affirming anger; seems a serial sexual harasser of women; and has "odd"--to say the least--behavior around children.

As repulsive a character as ever strode the American political stage, Biden is the Frankenstein's monster produced by the fusion of body parts from the old and the new Democrat party.

Something Different: A 1970 Memory & Little Richard Rocks On

I didn't realize that Little Richard had died until a friend, knowing me as a big fan, sent me a message with the sad news. To my shame, frankly, I had assumed he had died long ago, but subsequently felt glad to read that he had continued rocking almost to the very end.

Musical geniuses and master showmen, he and Chuck Berry were my rock-and-roll heroes. They captured the confused moods and feelings of youth better than anybody else. I probably owned every album Little Richard made, and wish I still had them. Little Richard's "Lucille," in particular, is a masterpiece of youthful angst delivered with a great musical backdrop, that unmatchable Little Richard singing style, and the right dose of humor--all light-hearted fun.

He had a deserved reputation as an eccentric, even a weirdo, at a time when America frowned upon eccentricities. With his heavy use of pancake make-up, aka "white face," most of us probably did not even know Little Richard was black. We kept hearing rumors that he was homosexual or even a hermaphodite. For a time, he had a bigger following in the UK, which then considered eccentricity endearing--I don't know about now when weirdness has become the norm. He, however, was very much an American original; one of those talented but flawed humans our society throws onto the world stage every so often who then influences artists and culture all over the globe. An icon; one of the ultimate bad boys; an original "influencer." Unlike, however, so many of today's "influencers," this man had genuine talent! He could write, sing, and put on a great show.

As a high school senior, I tried to see him in concert some 50  years ago (!) at the Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium on May 8, 1970. Located in the heart of seedy downtown LA, the definitely low-rent Olympic seemed a strange and wonderful place. My friends and I would go there to see boxing and wrestling, and even the late Reverend Ike, the "preacher of prosperity." The Olympic drew a raucous but generally good-natured crowd. On this occasion, however, just after Nixon's invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State shootings of a few days prior, the political and social scene had turned tense, nasty, really. This time, the youthful attendees, the dark flip side of the "hippies of love," came in a feisty, combative mood; the LAPD reciprocated. The cops would ram their big Harleys into the waiting throngs outside the Olympic, scattering us and knocking down those too slow to get out of the way. The crowd, in turn, would pelt the police with insults and a variety of objects. Once inside the darkened Olympic, undercover cops wrestled pot smokers to the floor; the lighting techs would shine their spotlights onto these struggles, stirring up the gathering even more.

The scene went from bad to worse. The warm-up acts faced constant interruption; some walked off. Rock impresario Bill Graham came out uttering soothing words of peace and love. He had a calming effect; the crowd's temperature dropped to an angry simmer.

That "calm" did not last.

When Graham introduced Little Richard, the audience went into a wild, rolling boil. The energy coming from Little Richard got doubled and tripled as it hit the packed floor. When Little Richard started banging out "Tutti Frutti," a frenzied mob surged forward. I don't know why, but Little Richard invited the screaming horde to join him dancing on stage: "Come on! Come on up! Come on!"

It didn't take long: under that leaping, gyrating weight, with a roar and in a cloud of dust, the stage collapsed. A large piece of audio equipment fell on Little Richard. His roadies helped him limp away.

The lights came on.

The cops declared the concert over, ordered us to disperse, and gruffly shepherded us out.

I never returned to the Olympic.

Ah, memories of pre-lock-down America.

Anyhow, Little Richard, RIP (Rock in Peace).

At Last! Flynn-dication! Extent of Obama-Biden Corruption Becomes Clearer Every Day . . .

I won't link to all the articles out there, but let me just state how delighted I am by the vindication, at long last, of Lt. Gen Michael Flynn. The whole bogus case against the General has come apart, and his prosecutors/persecutors are running for the hills.

It was a set-up from day one by Obama, his loyalists, and the complicit media machine.

The case against Flynn was the result of rampant, politically driven corruption in the DOJ and the FBI, and, let us not forget, in the White House. Clearly Obama,  Biden, Comey, and Rice and the rest of that disgusting crowd knew about the faked up move against Flynn, and the total fakery of the Russian collusion story.

It was a hoax.

Over in Congress, the lying liar Adam Schiff, as well, has got a lotta 'splannin' to do. He knew from testimony before his committee from "luminaries" such as Clapper, that no evidence existed of Trump-Putin collusion; he, along with the FBI and White House, knew the Steele dossier was a fake paid for by the DNC, and reliant in part on Russian disinformation. These people all knew this was a massive fraud but persisted in putting out the story, and launching a corrupt "investigation" nominally headed by the obviously mentally impaired Robert Mueller. They counted on the liberal media machine to provide cheers and encouragement, and prevent any in depth examination of the facts.

It is not much of an exaggeration to label the case of Michael Flynn as America's Alfred Dreyfus case.

Flynn is owed a huge apology and millions in compensation for what was done to him.  Totally disgusting.

Obama, Biden, Rice, Comey, etc., all belong in the slammer, and held personally liable for the outrageous crimes they committed against American citizens, Flynn being only one. They shredded the Constitution for their political gain.

Who was that Masked Man? Life in the Time of the ChiCom Virus ...

I gave up. I had sworn that no mask would hide the ol' Diplovisage in my heroic battle with the ChiCom virus. That vow, however, did not take into account the Diplowife's need to purchase a new vacuum cleaner at the local Costco. That once venerable institution of Big Boxing now has adopted a policy of allowing nobody in the building without a mask. When I heard that, I swore never to set foot again in that place until that absurd policy ended, but . . . well, see sentence three of this para . . .

We got some crappy blue masks from Amazon and off we went: cue William Tell Overture . . .

We looked like extras in a cheapo Netflix dystopian future movie. We joined a small spiritless crowd of other masked extras wandering in the cavernous expanse of Costco. While we walked, loud speakers regaled us with the latest revealed wisdom from the CDC. "Members! Remember to wear your masks. Members! Keep six feet apart!" We had marks on the floor to tell us in which direction to march and where to stand. While the Diplowife went off to look at vacuum cleaners, I wandered, careful to maintain my prescribed social distance, over to the meat counter. There a burly masked man in a white coat dispensed "one meat product per member!" to the beaten down throng in line. In America?!? You must stand in line to get "one meat product"? Did I get transported back to 1970s Georgetown, Guyana? Am I in Venezuela? Where is the portrait of Hugo Chavez? 1960s China? Where is Mao?

What is happening? All this because of a virus not much deadlier than the typical flu season . . . insanity driven by "experts" and their models . . .

This still being America, however, I retained access to my computer . . . at least for now, that is.

Bored, frustrated, angry, I did what Americans always have done in times of crisis . . . shop online.

Thank you, Al Gore!

I ordered this brand new baby from a Chevy dealer in Nashua, New Hampshire a few days before my Costco misadventure:

I wanted a black, manual transmission, ZO6 coupe; the Diplowife wanted a red, automatic transmission, Stingray, convertible . . . so we compromised. You can see the compromise: a red, automatic transmission, Stingray, convertible . . . sigh. In the three days or so I have had it, I have placed not quite 5 miles on it. The Diplowife says I can't drive the Stingray if it's going to rain; that might get water spots on it. I can't drive it when it's sunny; the pollen, you understand . . .

I have sat in it in the garage, paired my cell phone to the nifty entertainment center, and activated the satellite radio.

I hear the car drives great, but will have to read the reviews to find out . . .

You're welcome, America. Not all heroes wear capes . . .

Other than the ChiCom Virus, What?

OK, folks. Here I go again.

I will try to write about something other than the ChiCom virus and the disastrous global response to it based on the disastrous advice from disastrous "experts" and their disastrous models. I won't mention, either, the glee with which many lefties and their media mouthpieces have greeted the economic shutdown and how they resist ending it. I won't mention how the death tolls are padded and "infection rates" exploited, to wit, making them sound like "death rates," to keep us all cowering and crying for more government control over our lives. I won't mention, again, my long-standing warning that whenever the media and the political class seize a complex social or scientific issue, make slogans, foster activists, and create government programs to deal with the "issue" which now has become a "problem" . . . well, then, you better have the BS meter charged, tuned, and ready to go: that BS meter is sounding loud and clear right now--but I won't mention that, nope, not at all.

Well, let's neither talk about nor even mention the disaster produced by the exaggerated response to the ChiCom virus, e.g., the ventilator and hospital bed crises that never were. No. Let's talk about some other disasters.

Over three years ago, this humble blog labelled the Putin-Trump collusion story a hoax made up by the Democrats (here). Those of us who doubted the story proved right; all those prancing and preening commentators and politicos, e.g., Adam Schiff, who promoted it year after year proved not only wrong, but disastrously wrong. In fact, many of them knew it was a lie but, regardless, charged ahead with the "investigation." We now know that almost from the start of the story, the FBI leadership knew that Putin-Trump collusion did not exist; the FBI also knew that the info in the infamous Steele dossier, upon which 99.9% of the story rested, came from a Russian disinformation operation in conjunction with paid-for DNC fabrications. We know that the FBI lied to the FISA courts and got warrants based on this fake story. We also now know of a concerted plot to frame and nail National Security Advisor Lt. General Flynn, including the use of KGB-style tactics of threatening his family to push him into a guilty plea. The FBI agents and their supervisors knew that Flynn had not colluded with the Russians but decided to try to destroy the man as part of a larger plot to remove Trump from the White House.

This was a coup attempt, as this humble blog noted long ago (here).

Now, as this little and inconsequential blog also has long noted, leftist politics are all about the BIG LIE. The BIGGER the BETTER.

Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, and all the other leftist murderers, murderer-enablers, and haters of democracy and individual freedoms and rights who have appeared on the scene since, at least, the French Revolution, have relied on the massive lie. We have seen many such lies. In recent times, of course, one of the biggest, if not the biggest, is the man-made global climate change hoax. Once again, we see political activists parading as "experts," producing models that predict impending gloom and doom--and, prove wrong, wrong, wrong. That doesn't matter; the object is not to prove right, but to gain power over our lives using, once again, fear as a weapon. At that, the global climate change hoaxsters have proven very adept.

Another one of the great hoaxes has been the #MeToo (MT) movement. As with its big brother, global climate change, it starts with a legitimate concern--pollution in one case, sexual abuse in the other--and morphs into a political/social movement aimed at expanding governmental power over our lives, yes, once again, we see the drive for power. If we didn't need a reminder of the political motivations behind MT we have to look only at how its most ardent practitioners have treated Bill Clinton and Joe Biden; compare that to how we have seen them treat Justice Kavanaugh and, earlier, Justice Thomas with the lynch mob back then led by no less than then-Senator Joe Biden.  Couldn't make this stuff up . . .

To use the very words of the left in the Kavanaugh case, we have "credible" accusations that Senator Biden engaged in a sexual assault against a staffer, Tara Reade. This was not just some rude behavior; this appears to have been a full-on assault. There are reports from the era, unlike the Kavanaugh story. Biden has gotten a pass from most of the commentariat with only a soft-ball interview today, five weeks after the story broke. Is Reade telling the truth? I don't know. To use the standards of the left, we need to investigate, and not let Biden put limits on where the investigators can search. Believe all women, Joe! And, of course, that ol' rape-enabler Hillary Clinton has jumped in to endorse Biden. How does she have any credibility on sex assault issues?

OK. Getting ready to go off to a "gender reveal" party at my son's home in Raleigh. Apparently the child, in this case, at least, does not get to pick his/her/its gender. My son is a brutal dictator!