Sleeper Cells
15/10/23 07:09
In the wake of the massacre in Israel a day or two ago, I'm now seeing warnings on social media about sleeper cells here in the United States. Sleeper cells that have been allowed to walk into our country at the invitation of Joe Biden and the Democrat Party. At last count, Biden has looked the other way, allowing some 8 million illegals to come across our southern border. Many have been young, military-age single men from countries like Syria and other hellholes across the globe. Don't ask me why Biden hasn't been thrown out of office or otherwise impeached for his failure to protect our borders. I don't know. What I do know is that he and his fellow Democrats know exactly what they're doing. The warnings I'm seeing are telling Americans to get out of our major cities before these sleeper cells are activated.
We now have warships on the way to the Middle East in the wake of the attacks on Israel. If push comes to shove, and no one doubts that Iran was the instigator behind the attack on Israel, I can easily see the United States attacking sites in Iran on behalf of Israel. Then again, Joe Biden was at the White House last night while Israel was still under attack. He and Dr. Jill were partying hardy with a live band while enjoying a BBQ outing with friends and family. Is that what a President of the United States does while one of our most important allies in the Middle East has just suffered an egregious attack on the level of Pearl Harbor on their home soil? I know, I know. This is all very confusing. Then again, the Wall Street Journal came out with a story overnight about Iran's role in the attack on Israel. Make no mistake, this story was leaked to the WSJ by our intelligence agencies. It sets up a predicate for taking action against Iran before there is any provable evidence to the contrary. Who knows? Maybe bombing the bejesus out of Iran will give Bumbles the boost he desperately needs to up his standings in the polls. Is that what this is all about?
I don't know enough about Middle Eastern politics to know what's best for Israel or Palestine when it comes to solving their seemingly intractable issues about this or that territorial dispute. What I find disturbing in the wake of the attacks on Israel, among other things, is the support across the world for the Palestinians. I hope to God the support has more to do with their belief that the Palestinians have every right to their own homeland and less to do with the carnage laid at the feet of the Israeli's on their home turf. Then again, massive gatherings of people supporting the Palestinians in American cities like Chicago and New York City last night were unmistakenly celebratory in nature. Were they actually celebrating the horrible rapes, kidnappings, and murders of innocent Israelis at the hands of the Palestinians? Do I need to make a distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian people? Is one the militant wing of the other? If they were celebrating the murders and mayhem, one can more easily comprehend how the horror of the holocaust found a footing in the psyche of the German people back in the day. Never again, is what I say.
I sat down to watch what I expected to be a fairly close and competitive football game yesterday between the New England Patriots and the New Orleans Saints. The Patriots were 1-3 going into the game, and the Saints were 2-2. The stats seemed to suggest that we'd see a pretty good skirmish between the two teams. The Patriots had come off a 30-something to 3 loss against a team whose name I can't recall. It was a pitiful performance, to be sure, by the clownish quarterback, Mac Jones, and his cocksure but addled coach, Bill Belichick. I figured we'd see the Patriots get it back together for the game against the Saints. Besides, when have the Patriots ever been down 1-4 in the first five games of their season? Well, the Patriots scored zero points against the Saints, who put 30-something points on the board in what turned out to be a routing of epic proportions against a once-vaunted team in the Eastern Conference. In their last two games, the Patriots scored a total of 3 points to 72 points for the opposing teams. The dirty little secret here is that I despise the Patriots, so I was happy as a clam taking it all in. The only thing that would have given me more pleasure is to see Bob Kraft fire Belichick on the sidelines of the game while playing at home. If you heard the boos of the fans in the stands that I heard yesterday, me thinks that a lot of Patriots fans agree with me.
You would think that as President of the United States Bumbles Biden would issue an ultimatum to the Hamas terrorists holding our people hostage that should they harm even one American, they will face the wrath of the United States. Instead, what do we hear from Biden? It's fucking crickets. Is he even awake yet? My guess is that these hostages, who have yet to be identified, have already been moved to Iran along with any and all other high-profile captives taken by Hamas. Israel can bomb Gaza back to the stone age but it won't do much to get back our hostages. It's also interesting that we know nothing about these so-called American hostages. You would think their names would be plastered all over social media and elsewhere if for no other reason than to put a face to the problem. Surely, they have mothers, brothers, sisters, and fathers who know that they are likely in the hands of the terrorists. Maybe that would be outing them when outing them might not help their situation. If I were a hostage, I think it might help that my keepers know that Joe Biden just gave Iran $6 billion for five American hostages.
This has the potential to become the fiasco that we saw with President Jimmy Carter back in the day when he sent a few helicopters into Iran to free some 50 or so hostages. The helicopters got sidelines in some godawful dust storm, as I recall, and that was the end of that mission. It was also one of the more enduring and defining moments of Jimmy Carter's presidency, forgetting if we can about interest rates hitting 18% during his first and only term, and it would forever cast the Democrat party as weak and feckless when it comes to foreign affairs. That doesn't mean that the Democrats don't love to start wars, because they do. I also don't want to discount the Israeli hostages who likely face a far worse fate if only because they have no one offering $6 billion dollars to save them. Maybe Bumbles offers another $6 billion for all the hostages, Americans, and other nationalities. I don't know where I'm going with all of this other than to hope and pray that not another life is lost in this seemingly protracted affair.
I'm hearing that the United States convinced Israel to send a good portion of its offensive weaponry to Ukraine in the weeks and months leading up to this attack by Hamas. That could leave them a bit shorthanded when it comes to waging a full-out frontal assault against Hamas, and it gets even more challenging should Hezzbollah weigh in on Israel's northern border. Being shorthanded is not where you want to be if you're Israel. I have to believe that even the United States has less to offer because they have given generously. perhaps too generously, to Ukraine in their war with Russia. This is where countries take sides, and the next thing you know, you have a world war on your hands. I suppose the cherry on the sundae now would be for China to invade Taiwan. I don't know about you, but I'm a little less concerned about our overseas ventures than I am about the invading forces that have come across our southern border, yes, all 7 million of them, since Biden became president. Suffice it to say that there's a lot on our collective plates.
The stock market actually went up here in the United States on the first workday after Israel declared war on Hamas. That was a little bit of a surprise. I thought the financial markets didn't like uncertainty. Maybe the trading was thin, thanks to yesterday being Columbus Day here in the States. For the politically correct, it was the Indigenous People's Day. Fuck that. I don't care how many slaves Columbus had. It's still Colombus Day in our household. Had I had my wits about me last night, I would have celebrated with a large bowl of pasta and marinara sauce. Columbus was of Italian heritage. Right? The price of Brent Crude crept up a few cents but a lot less than I would have thought, given the potential for clogs in the process given the issues in the Middle East. I think we're seeing around $80 something a barrel right now, but that could easily go a lot higher if things get ugly. I'll be looking today at treasuries to see how they're faring as a result of all of this tumult. Higher rates and escalating gas prices at the pump are never good for the stock market. That said, reactions thus far have been fairly benign to muted, so I'm not sure what it's going to take to move markets lower.
Has anyone noticed the difference between the images coming out of Israel and images coming out of Ukraine? It's like night and day. If Ukraine wonders why they're having trouble keeping their coffers full of cash and armaments, all they have to do is look at what Israel is doing in the wake of the Hamas attacks. There is nothing like pictures and videos of pure savagery against the innocent to whip up sentiment and get the dollars and the weaponry flowing into the hands of the people being savaged. I think that the grifter Zelensky decided early on that showing the end result of Russia's bombing was not something he wanted to do. He never wanted nations around the world to see that Russia had any success in their campaigns against Ukraine. He preferred that countries funding his country think that the weapons systems they were providing were instrumental in preventing damage to their people and their infrastructure. One way to do that was not to show, or, at a minimum, control what gets shown and what doesn't, and that in and of itself would keep the money and arms coming in by the boatload. Just ask yourself this morning: which country has an American aircraft carrier group off its coast? Hint: It's not Ukraine. I rest my case.
I know this sounds far-fetched, but I will throw it out there anyway. I think Biden is in cahoots with Iran to ensure his reelection. Remember the six billion sitting in escrow that Biden unfroze in exchange for the five Americans being held by Iran? We all thought it was crazy that Biden would give them access to that kind of money knowing what Iran is famous for doing, i.e., spreading terrorism around the globe. Here we are just a few weeks out from that deal, and we see what Hamas, who is allegedly funded by Iran, was able to do with those monies. Hamas not only massacred Israelis in their homeland but also took a hundred or more hostages during their incursion into Israel. It's becoming very obvious now that the assets unfrozen by Biden had less to do with the five hostages freed by Iran and more to do with the horror laid at the feet of the Israelis on that fateful Saturday morning. But, there's more. Is it possible that Biden worked with Iran to create a scenario whereby he could free said hostages and come out of the deal looking like a hero? Surely, that would assure his reelection.
Iran has benefitted hugely from Biden's time in office. There is very little they wouldn't consider if they had an opportunity to keep Biden in office for another four years. What better way to ensure that Biden stays in office than to help him burnish his image in the eyes of the American populace? If anyone knows anything about America and Americans, they know that every American loves a hero. Who doesn't love a president who stands in the breach while promising to protect our allies and bring the terrorists to justice while freeing hostages at the same time? Do you think it's a coincidence that we already have an extraction team in place in the Middle East? Do you think it's a coincidence that Biden never mentioned Iran in the one speech he gave in response to the horrors unleashed by Hamas on Israeli soil? Why is it that Biden, knowing everything he knows about the assault on Israel by Hamas and knowing full well that Hamas is controlled by Iran, is unwilling to re-freeze the six billion in assets sitting in a bank in the Middle East? For Joe Biden, it's business as usual.
I suppose we'll have to endure a few beheadings in the interim at the hands of Hamas so we can more fully appreciate the efforts of our "beloved" president once he effectively frees and glad-hands the ragtag array of international hostages on the tarmac and under the klieg lights at some shit hole of an airport in the dusty backwater in the Middle East. The once-reviled and most corrupt president in America's history will rise up like a Phoenix out of the ashes to claim his prize of a second term. Any and all efforts to impeach Biden due to his alleged treasonous activities will become a mere footnote in the history books. The cacophony of voices of his detractors will trail off into a whisper, and his dutiful followers in the left-wing media will sing his praises day in and day out. He'll waltz into the final months ahead of Election Day with the wind at his back and with any and all opposition polling outside the margin of error. Dr. Jill is already putting out her fishnet stockings for the Inaugural ball, despite being months away. Hunter is cleaning up his contact list in anticipation of inviting his wealthier clients to the ball. Life is good for the Bidens. It will be even better, and more lucrative, if that's possible, once he's reelected.
I'm seeing and hearing some pushback when it comes to the tactics Israel is using to punish Hamas within Gaza. Some of Israel's neighbors are making it clear that they do not want the good people in Gaza punished for the deeds committed by Hamas. My guess is that you can only unleash so many bombs, you can only destroy so many buildings, you can only uproot so many people before your work is considered done. There is no way to really know how many Hamas fighters still exist or, if they do exist, how much of a threat they still pose to your country or your fellow countrymen. With more fronts opening by the day, Hamas may the the least of Israel's problems. Hezbollah is far more dangerous and far better equipped to inflict damage inside of Israel. That's what I'm reading anyway. My theory about Biden's getting in bed with the Mullahs only works if what we're seeing today in the Middle East doesn't escalate out of control. That may explain why we now have two aircraft carriers sitting off the coast of Israel instead of one. That is not sitting well with President Erdogan of Turkey. He wants to know what they're doing there in the first place. That's not something you want to hear, especially considering that Turkey is a fellow NATO member. Erdogan isn't the only one asking questions.
You would think that if some terrorist organization killed 22 Americans in a foreign country that it might get the attention of our president. The Iranians killed one American contractor during President Trump's first term, and Trump killed their defense guy, Solemani. That's precisely the right message for the moment. On another occasion, Trump dropped a MOAB (Mother of all bombs) on a bunker filled with militants. Has Biden even said anything about the 22 Americans killed by Hamas? Does he have any intention of retaliating in any way, shape, or fashion? What about the Americans being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza? When Jimmy Carter was president, and Iran held our hostages, not a day went by when someone in the media didn't count off the day as one more day our hostages were in Iranian jails. Is there any recognition anywhere about any of the hostages that Hamas is holding? I think the New York Times published a few pictures of the missing but, again, just a handful. We know they have more. And then we saw Mr. Milquetoast himself, Anthony Blinken, Biden's Secretary of State, who went to Israel to offer his support to government officials, and he didn't bother to meet with any of the relatives of the missing or dead while there. What is it with these pathetic fucks in the Biden Administration?
When I see hundreds of Israeli reservists amassed on the border between Gaza and Israel, I see sitting ducks. Why would anyone even televise those photos? A missile or bomb, strategically placed, could end the lives of every last one of those reservists. It would take them out in one fell swoop. Poof! I just don't understand why they do that. And, what should we think about Israel's plan to shut off water, power, and food to Gaza, thereby starving them to death until they cough up the hostages? Maybe the idea is to weaken them just enough such that they will be easier to find and kill once the Israeli troops put boots on the ground in Gaza. I'm also guessing that Israel has lost enough innocent lives in the wake of the attack by Hamas, and they have little to no desire to lose more by sending troops into the lion's den (Gaza) any sooner than necessary. As strategies go, when has starving your foes to death ever worked in the annals of wars and skirmishes? I'm no war historian, so don't look to me for that answer.
It seems to be all Israel all the time this week. What the hell? Today is day of the jihad or some silly shit like that. It's when Muslims around the world come together to support their fellow Muslims in Gaza. I don't know that it's an anti-Jewish thing, per se. I've only seen one story this morning as I'm getting up about a Jewish person in China who was attacked. I don't even know, nor does the story suggest, that the Jewish person was attacked because of their ethnicity. Maybe I'm being just a little naive. I hear the NYC police have ordered all vacations canceled today in anticipation of what could be a crazy, and maybe violent day, on the streets of the Big Apple. It's all hands on deck, boys and girls. As for the hostages that were taken by Hamas just a week ago, it seems to be radio silence. If they're beheading them for the Western Media in response to the shelling by Israel, I've seen none of it. Nor, have I heard anything about it. I wouldn't watch that shit if you paid me to watch it. Israeli men and women continue flying into Israel from around the world to take up arms and fight for their country. God bless them all! Long live Israel!
The left-wing media and their Marxist moonbats in the liberal establishment are obsessed with domestic terrorists and Trump supporters, but cheer on Hamas and every other Palestinian cause under the sun. When I say they cheer on Hamas, I'm saying that they know full well the extent of what Hamas did to innocent Israelis just a week ago now, and they fully endorse their actions. That's some kind of hypocrisy. Right? That's like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Maybe it shouldn't surprise anyone that one of the hotbeds of outright hostility to Jewish people when it comes to this Hamas stuff lies smack dab in the middle of Harvard Square, Harvard University. They are particularly rabid in their political beliefs when it comes to the state of Israel and whatever it is that they think the State of Israel is responsible for doing to the Palestinian people. The good news is that people on the outside looking in are taking names and making sure that these crazy bastards face an uphill battle when they leave the University and start looking for a job. Maybe this marks the beginning of the end of the total radicalization of some of our institutions. It works for me.
Did I mention that we had our roof reshingled yesterday? The missus and I got out of town as quickly as we could so as to let these guys do their work and, more to the point, get away from all the banging and whatever that goes on when you have your roof done. We went up Maine way for the better part of the day and arrived home a little after four in the afternoon. It was raining a little bit, so I was surprised to see a few of the workers still up on the roof and hammering away when we got home. They were still putting down tiles even in the rain. That's not a good thing. Is it? I thought, at a minimum, that they might cover the unshingled portion with a tarp and return at a later date to finish the job. I thought roofing jobs were "weather dependent." What do I know? They also uncovered quite a bit of rot on the boards at the edge of the shingling, so we had all of that replaced at an additional cost. I should have seen that coming. We hadn't factored any of it into our cost estimates. We also lost a few gutters in the process, so we'll have to have them taken care of at some point. One last thing that surprised me was the amount of debris produced in the process. We've got a huge dumpster in our driveway even this morning since the workers aren't quite finished. I'm not sure the dumpster is big enough.
I think I'm going to need some new gutters now that they've stripped away my existing gutters when they reshingled our roof. I've put up a limited section of gutter in years past on our house without too much trouble, so I may take a whack at that again and see if I can save a few bucks. I think if I take one section at a time, I can get it done reasonably quickly. I'm not in a huge hurry, but the sooner it's done, the sooner I can stop waking up every day with gutters on the brain. Or, I can pay someone to do the job. I have to believe that it's probably one of those jobs that is quite expensive to have done by professionals. The cost of materials is minimal, so I'm probably paying for their expertise and their time. The roofing company that did our roof has a gutter division, and they have all of the measurements they need to give me an estimate, so I'll listen to what they have to say. I just want to be careful, after spending so much money on roofing, not to turn around and create even more expensive problems elsewhere by not taking care of this gutter thing. Does any of this make any sense?
I told the missus that I want to strip down the wood floor in our computer room next Spring and put down a new coat or two of polyurethane. That will be a big job. Not because renting a sander and sanding the floor is difficult, but rather because the room has so much furniture in it that needs to be removed before I can start the job. There are couches, treadmills, bookcases, desks, filing cabinets, and television stands, just to name a few. Some things will need to be disassembled and taken out one drawer at a time because I haven't the muscle or the inclination to kill myself in the process. I warned her that she may have to put up with the smell of polyurethane for the time that it takes to either get used to it or until it dissipates. The dust from the sanding is less of an issue. I can just shut the door and open the windows. I've sanded floors before, too, with great success, so it is not a job that I need to consider outsourcing. It's just too late in the season to consider doing it now, and I have lots of other things on my plate that need doing before Winter arrives.
Can we get back to the hostages held by Hamas for a moment? Can you imagine the hue and cry that we'd hear from the liberal media if Trump were president and the hostages were still being held by Hamas? It would be intolerable. It would be 24/7 nonstop wailing. Why hasn't he (Trump) freed them? How many more hostages have to die because of his (Trump's) incompetence? Both Trump and Netanyahu have blood on their hands! Did I already cover this in this week's blog? You know how I hate repeating myself. The hostages are still in the hands of Hamas, or already in Iran is what I'm thinking, and the mainstream media says nothing. Biden is their boy, and they'll do nothing to cast any more shade than is necessary between now and Election Day in 2024 to thwart his ascension to a second four-year term. Biden has his praetorian guard, the media, on a very short leash when it comes to messaging. There's not much he can do to control what they show when he's stumbling up or down this or that ramp or slurring his speech since other outlets have the same footage. All that aside, they are doing Biden's bidding at every turn. God help them if they don't.
I've also noticed that the videos I'm seeing on social media these days of Trump making this or that speech have been seriously doctored. One speech has him praising Hezbollah in no uncertain terms. Of course, none of that is true. Other cuts, and I have no idea where these are coming from, have him rambling on talking about Obama as though he thinks he's running against Obama. It seems that the game now is to give people the impression that Trump is no better than Biden when it comes to cognitive acuity. We're supposed to take from all of this that we're better off with a younger, more intellectually nimble president. You know, someone like Nikki Haley or, God forbid, Ron DeSanctimonious. If you can create enough doubt about your candidate and nibble away at the edges of his base, then that may be just enough to give Bumbles Biden the edge when the votes are tallied on Election Day. In a twisted sort of way, maybe Trump is putting these clips out. You know Trump. Right? He'll be the first to tell you that bad press is better than no press at all.
Trump was on a radio interview with Brian Kilmeade yesterday and mentioned Obama again. Kilmeade tried to correct him, and Trump pushed back by saying that Biden wasn't running our country and, more than likely, Obama was behind the scenes calling the shots. Trump clarified that this was merely his hypothesis or words to that effect, but that he was more often right than wrong when saying such things. I don't know if this was Trump cleaning up on aisle nine because of previous comments he made about Obama or not. My take on all of it is that I'd rather have a senile Trump running the country than a level-5 demented Marxist like Biden. Or, should I say, a level-5 Marxist like Obama because I agree with Trump when he says that Biden isn't running anything. I'd like to know what drugs his handlers pump him up with when he's out on the stump pushing his Bidenomics or some such malarkey. They have got that shit down to a science. Not because Bumbles ever looks or sounds normal, because he doesn't, but because he shows up and does what he has to do, gaffes and all. So that you know, he's not fooling anyone with that stupid stilted little jog he does when he arrives to give a speech. That has dementia written all over it.
It seems like every hour on the hour, we have another military asset or class of assets appearing out of nowhere in the Middle East. Zelensky must be seeing all of this on the telly and thinking to himself that if Ukraine had half the assets that the United States has sitting off the coast of Israel, they would have pushed Putin and his marauding troops back across the border by now. It does make you wonder what we're really trying to accomplish, or not accomplish, as it were, in Ukraine. Anyway, it's hard to make sense of everything we see and hear coming out of Israel. It's just a damn firehose of information. Everybody and their brother seem to be weighing in on the conflict. I'm talking about countries and their leaders here. China says Israel has gone too far. I'm guessing they'd like to see a more measured response. Iran is threatening to create an "earthquake" if something or other continues. What the hell does that mean? Do they have a damn nuke? Some other country is threatening to shut off the flow of natural gas to the West if they continue bombing Gaza. We have politicians in our country saying that we should not be opening our doors to any of the displaced people now living in Gaza. I think Biden is saying that the U.S. will assist if Hezbollah gets involved. The American hostages being held by Hamas seem to be the least of anyone's concerns. That tells us a lot about where this all seems to be going.
I wish Trump would stop saying that if he were president, none of this would be happening. It's just a stupid thing to say. It's unknowable, really, and he knows it. Just because none of this sort of thing happened while he was in office doesn't mean that it would never happen. Maybe he can find a way to say it where it makes more sense. Things were less hostile, if that's the right word when he was in office, so I think he can claim that to be true. Were things less hostile across the globe because he was president? I'd like to see some polling on that, but I think the results of said poll would be favorable to Trump's version of the world according to Trump. I'm not saying that I expect Trump to be less Trumpy. This is no time for carnival barkers or snake oil salesmen. Biden, or should I say Obama, has brought us to the brink of nuclear war or, at a minimum, World War III. We need more Henry Kissingers and fewer Hillary Clintons. We need someone to push back against the tyrannies of China, the Marxists in our midst, the New World Order, and the World Health Organization, all of whom are an existential threat to our viability as a sovereign country. Yes, more statesmen and fewer carnival barkers. A man for the moment that we find ourselves in, if you will.
We now have warships on the way to the Middle East in the wake of the attacks on Israel. If push comes to shove, and no one doubts that Iran was the instigator behind the attack on Israel, I can easily see the United States attacking sites in Iran on behalf of Israel. Then again, Joe Biden was at the White House last night while Israel was still under attack. He and Dr. Jill were partying hardy with a live band while enjoying a BBQ outing with friends and family. Is that what a President of the United States does while one of our most important allies in the Middle East has just suffered an egregious attack on the level of Pearl Harbor on their home soil? I know, I know. This is all very confusing. Then again, the Wall Street Journal came out with a story overnight about Iran's role in the attack on Israel. Make no mistake, this story was leaked to the WSJ by our intelligence agencies. It sets up a predicate for taking action against Iran before there is any provable evidence to the contrary. Who knows? Maybe bombing the bejesus out of Iran will give Bumbles the boost he desperately needs to up his standings in the polls. Is that what this is all about?
I don't know enough about Middle Eastern politics to know what's best for Israel or Palestine when it comes to solving their seemingly intractable issues about this or that territorial dispute. What I find disturbing in the wake of the attacks on Israel, among other things, is the support across the world for the Palestinians. I hope to God the support has more to do with their belief that the Palestinians have every right to their own homeland and less to do with the carnage laid at the feet of the Israeli's on their home turf. Then again, massive gatherings of people supporting the Palestinians in American cities like Chicago and New York City last night were unmistakenly celebratory in nature. Were they actually celebrating the horrible rapes, kidnappings, and murders of innocent Israelis at the hands of the Palestinians? Do I need to make a distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian people? Is one the militant wing of the other? If they were celebrating the murders and mayhem, one can more easily comprehend how the horror of the holocaust found a footing in the psyche of the German people back in the day. Never again, is what I say.
I sat down to watch what I expected to be a fairly close and competitive football game yesterday between the New England Patriots and the New Orleans Saints. The Patriots were 1-3 going into the game, and the Saints were 2-2. The stats seemed to suggest that we'd see a pretty good skirmish between the two teams. The Patriots had come off a 30-something to 3 loss against a team whose name I can't recall. It was a pitiful performance, to be sure, by the clownish quarterback, Mac Jones, and his cocksure but addled coach, Bill Belichick. I figured we'd see the Patriots get it back together for the game against the Saints. Besides, when have the Patriots ever been down 1-4 in the first five games of their season? Well, the Patriots scored zero points against the Saints, who put 30-something points on the board in what turned out to be a routing of epic proportions against a once-vaunted team in the Eastern Conference. In their last two games, the Patriots scored a total of 3 points to 72 points for the opposing teams. The dirty little secret here is that I despise the Patriots, so I was happy as a clam taking it all in. The only thing that would have given me more pleasure is to see Bob Kraft fire Belichick on the sidelines of the game while playing at home. If you heard the boos of the fans in the stands that I heard yesterday, me thinks that a lot of Patriots fans agree with me.
You would think that as President of the United States Bumbles Biden would issue an ultimatum to the Hamas terrorists holding our people hostage that should they harm even one American, they will face the wrath of the United States. Instead, what do we hear from Biden? It's fucking crickets. Is he even awake yet? My guess is that these hostages, who have yet to be identified, have already been moved to Iran along with any and all other high-profile captives taken by Hamas. Israel can bomb Gaza back to the stone age but it won't do much to get back our hostages. It's also interesting that we know nothing about these so-called American hostages. You would think their names would be plastered all over social media and elsewhere if for no other reason than to put a face to the problem. Surely, they have mothers, brothers, sisters, and fathers who know that they are likely in the hands of the terrorists. Maybe that would be outing them when outing them might not help their situation. If I were a hostage, I think it might help that my keepers know that Joe Biden just gave Iran $6 billion for five American hostages.
This has the potential to become the fiasco that we saw with President Jimmy Carter back in the day when he sent a few helicopters into Iran to free some 50 or so hostages. The helicopters got sidelines in some godawful dust storm, as I recall, and that was the end of that mission. It was also one of the more enduring and defining moments of Jimmy Carter's presidency, forgetting if we can about interest rates hitting 18% during his first and only term, and it would forever cast the Democrat party as weak and feckless when it comes to foreign affairs. That doesn't mean that the Democrats don't love to start wars, because they do. I also don't want to discount the Israeli hostages who likely face a far worse fate if only because they have no one offering $6 billion dollars to save them. Maybe Bumbles offers another $6 billion for all the hostages, Americans, and other nationalities. I don't know where I'm going with all of this other than to hope and pray that not another life is lost in this seemingly protracted affair.
I'm hearing that the United States convinced Israel to send a good portion of its offensive weaponry to Ukraine in the weeks and months leading up to this attack by Hamas. That could leave them a bit shorthanded when it comes to waging a full-out frontal assault against Hamas, and it gets even more challenging should Hezzbollah weigh in on Israel's northern border. Being shorthanded is not where you want to be if you're Israel. I have to believe that even the United States has less to offer because they have given generously. perhaps too generously, to Ukraine in their war with Russia. This is where countries take sides, and the next thing you know, you have a world war on your hands. I suppose the cherry on the sundae now would be for China to invade Taiwan. I don't know about you, but I'm a little less concerned about our overseas ventures than I am about the invading forces that have come across our southern border, yes, all 7 million of them, since Biden became president. Suffice it to say that there's a lot on our collective plates.
The stock market actually went up here in the United States on the first workday after Israel declared war on Hamas. That was a little bit of a surprise. I thought the financial markets didn't like uncertainty. Maybe the trading was thin, thanks to yesterday being Columbus Day here in the States. For the politically correct, it was the Indigenous People's Day. Fuck that. I don't care how many slaves Columbus had. It's still Colombus Day in our household. Had I had my wits about me last night, I would have celebrated with a large bowl of pasta and marinara sauce. Columbus was of Italian heritage. Right? The price of Brent Crude crept up a few cents but a lot less than I would have thought, given the potential for clogs in the process given the issues in the Middle East. I think we're seeing around $80 something a barrel right now, but that could easily go a lot higher if things get ugly. I'll be looking today at treasuries to see how they're faring as a result of all of this tumult. Higher rates and escalating gas prices at the pump are never good for the stock market. That said, reactions thus far have been fairly benign to muted, so I'm not sure what it's going to take to move markets lower.
Has anyone noticed the difference between the images coming out of Israel and images coming out of Ukraine? It's like night and day. If Ukraine wonders why they're having trouble keeping their coffers full of cash and armaments, all they have to do is look at what Israel is doing in the wake of the Hamas attacks. There is nothing like pictures and videos of pure savagery against the innocent to whip up sentiment and get the dollars and the weaponry flowing into the hands of the people being savaged. I think that the grifter Zelensky decided early on that showing the end result of Russia's bombing was not something he wanted to do. He never wanted nations around the world to see that Russia had any success in their campaigns against Ukraine. He preferred that countries funding his country think that the weapons systems they were providing were instrumental in preventing damage to their people and their infrastructure. One way to do that was not to show, or, at a minimum, control what gets shown and what doesn't, and that in and of itself would keep the money and arms coming in by the boatload. Just ask yourself this morning: which country has an American aircraft carrier group off its coast? Hint: It's not Ukraine. I rest my case.
I know this sounds far-fetched, but I will throw it out there anyway. I think Biden is in cahoots with Iran to ensure his reelection. Remember the six billion sitting in escrow that Biden unfroze in exchange for the five Americans being held by Iran? We all thought it was crazy that Biden would give them access to that kind of money knowing what Iran is famous for doing, i.e., spreading terrorism around the globe. Here we are just a few weeks out from that deal, and we see what Hamas, who is allegedly funded by Iran, was able to do with those monies. Hamas not only massacred Israelis in their homeland but also took a hundred or more hostages during their incursion into Israel. It's becoming very obvious now that the assets unfrozen by Biden had less to do with the five hostages freed by Iran and more to do with the horror laid at the feet of the Israelis on that fateful Saturday morning. But, there's more. Is it possible that Biden worked with Iran to create a scenario whereby he could free said hostages and come out of the deal looking like a hero? Surely, that would assure his reelection.
Iran has benefitted hugely from Biden's time in office. There is very little they wouldn't consider if they had an opportunity to keep Biden in office for another four years. What better way to ensure that Biden stays in office than to help him burnish his image in the eyes of the American populace? If anyone knows anything about America and Americans, they know that every American loves a hero. Who doesn't love a president who stands in the breach while promising to protect our allies and bring the terrorists to justice while freeing hostages at the same time? Do you think it's a coincidence that we already have an extraction team in place in the Middle East? Do you think it's a coincidence that Biden never mentioned Iran in the one speech he gave in response to the horrors unleashed by Hamas on Israeli soil? Why is it that Biden, knowing everything he knows about the assault on Israel by Hamas and knowing full well that Hamas is controlled by Iran, is unwilling to re-freeze the six billion in assets sitting in a bank in the Middle East? For Joe Biden, it's business as usual.
I suppose we'll have to endure a few beheadings in the interim at the hands of Hamas so we can more fully appreciate the efforts of our "beloved" president once he effectively frees and glad-hands the ragtag array of international hostages on the tarmac and under the klieg lights at some shit hole of an airport in the dusty backwater in the Middle East. The once-reviled and most corrupt president in America's history will rise up like a Phoenix out of the ashes to claim his prize of a second term. Any and all efforts to impeach Biden due to his alleged treasonous activities will become a mere footnote in the history books. The cacophony of voices of his detractors will trail off into a whisper, and his dutiful followers in the left-wing media will sing his praises day in and day out. He'll waltz into the final months ahead of Election Day with the wind at his back and with any and all opposition polling outside the margin of error. Dr. Jill is already putting out her fishnet stockings for the Inaugural ball, despite being months away. Hunter is cleaning up his contact list in anticipation of inviting his wealthier clients to the ball. Life is good for the Bidens. It will be even better, and more lucrative, if that's possible, once he's reelected.
I'm seeing and hearing some pushback when it comes to the tactics Israel is using to punish Hamas within Gaza. Some of Israel's neighbors are making it clear that they do not want the good people in Gaza punished for the deeds committed by Hamas. My guess is that you can only unleash so many bombs, you can only destroy so many buildings, you can only uproot so many people before your work is considered done. There is no way to really know how many Hamas fighters still exist or, if they do exist, how much of a threat they still pose to your country or your fellow countrymen. With more fronts opening by the day, Hamas may the the least of Israel's problems. Hezbollah is far more dangerous and far better equipped to inflict damage inside of Israel. That's what I'm reading anyway. My theory about Biden's getting in bed with the Mullahs only works if what we're seeing today in the Middle East doesn't escalate out of control. That may explain why we now have two aircraft carriers sitting off the coast of Israel instead of one. That is not sitting well with President Erdogan of Turkey. He wants to know what they're doing there in the first place. That's not something you want to hear, especially considering that Turkey is a fellow NATO member. Erdogan isn't the only one asking questions.
You would think that if some terrorist organization killed 22 Americans in a foreign country that it might get the attention of our president. The Iranians killed one American contractor during President Trump's first term, and Trump killed their defense guy, Solemani. That's precisely the right message for the moment. On another occasion, Trump dropped a MOAB (Mother of all bombs) on a bunker filled with militants. Has Biden even said anything about the 22 Americans killed by Hamas? Does he have any intention of retaliating in any way, shape, or fashion? What about the Americans being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza? When Jimmy Carter was president, and Iran held our hostages, not a day went by when someone in the media didn't count off the day as one more day our hostages were in Iranian jails. Is there any recognition anywhere about any of the hostages that Hamas is holding? I think the New York Times published a few pictures of the missing but, again, just a handful. We know they have more. And then we saw Mr. Milquetoast himself, Anthony Blinken, Biden's Secretary of State, who went to Israel to offer his support to government officials, and he didn't bother to meet with any of the relatives of the missing or dead while there. What is it with these pathetic fucks in the Biden Administration?
When I see hundreds of Israeli reservists amassed on the border between Gaza and Israel, I see sitting ducks. Why would anyone even televise those photos? A missile or bomb, strategically placed, could end the lives of every last one of those reservists. It would take them out in one fell swoop. Poof! I just don't understand why they do that. And, what should we think about Israel's plan to shut off water, power, and food to Gaza, thereby starving them to death until they cough up the hostages? Maybe the idea is to weaken them just enough such that they will be easier to find and kill once the Israeli troops put boots on the ground in Gaza. I'm also guessing that Israel has lost enough innocent lives in the wake of the attack by Hamas, and they have little to no desire to lose more by sending troops into the lion's den (Gaza) any sooner than necessary. As strategies go, when has starving your foes to death ever worked in the annals of wars and skirmishes? I'm no war historian, so don't look to me for that answer.
It seems to be all Israel all the time this week. What the hell? Today is day of the jihad or some silly shit like that. It's when Muslims around the world come together to support their fellow Muslims in Gaza. I don't know that it's an anti-Jewish thing, per se. I've only seen one story this morning as I'm getting up about a Jewish person in China who was attacked. I don't even know, nor does the story suggest, that the Jewish person was attacked because of their ethnicity. Maybe I'm being just a little naive. I hear the NYC police have ordered all vacations canceled today in anticipation of what could be a crazy, and maybe violent day, on the streets of the Big Apple. It's all hands on deck, boys and girls. As for the hostages that were taken by Hamas just a week ago, it seems to be radio silence. If they're beheading them for the Western Media in response to the shelling by Israel, I've seen none of it. Nor, have I heard anything about it. I wouldn't watch that shit if you paid me to watch it. Israeli men and women continue flying into Israel from around the world to take up arms and fight for their country. God bless them all! Long live Israel!
The left-wing media and their Marxist moonbats in the liberal establishment are obsessed with domestic terrorists and Trump supporters, but cheer on Hamas and every other Palestinian cause under the sun. When I say they cheer on Hamas, I'm saying that they know full well the extent of what Hamas did to innocent Israelis just a week ago now, and they fully endorse their actions. That's some kind of hypocrisy. Right? That's like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Maybe it shouldn't surprise anyone that one of the hotbeds of outright hostility to Jewish people when it comes to this Hamas stuff lies smack dab in the middle of Harvard Square, Harvard University. They are particularly rabid in their political beliefs when it comes to the state of Israel and whatever it is that they think the State of Israel is responsible for doing to the Palestinian people. The good news is that people on the outside looking in are taking names and making sure that these crazy bastards face an uphill battle when they leave the University and start looking for a job. Maybe this marks the beginning of the end of the total radicalization of some of our institutions. It works for me.
Did I mention that we had our roof reshingled yesterday? The missus and I got out of town as quickly as we could so as to let these guys do their work and, more to the point, get away from all the banging and whatever that goes on when you have your roof done. We went up Maine way for the better part of the day and arrived home a little after four in the afternoon. It was raining a little bit, so I was surprised to see a few of the workers still up on the roof and hammering away when we got home. They were still putting down tiles even in the rain. That's not a good thing. Is it? I thought, at a minimum, that they might cover the unshingled portion with a tarp and return at a later date to finish the job. I thought roofing jobs were "weather dependent." What do I know? They also uncovered quite a bit of rot on the boards at the edge of the shingling, so we had all of that replaced at an additional cost. I should have seen that coming. We hadn't factored any of it into our cost estimates. We also lost a few gutters in the process, so we'll have to have them taken care of at some point. One last thing that surprised me was the amount of debris produced in the process. We've got a huge dumpster in our driveway even this morning since the workers aren't quite finished. I'm not sure the dumpster is big enough.
I think I'm going to need some new gutters now that they've stripped away my existing gutters when they reshingled our roof. I've put up a limited section of gutter in years past on our house without too much trouble, so I may take a whack at that again and see if I can save a few bucks. I think if I take one section at a time, I can get it done reasonably quickly. I'm not in a huge hurry, but the sooner it's done, the sooner I can stop waking up every day with gutters on the brain. Or, I can pay someone to do the job. I have to believe that it's probably one of those jobs that is quite expensive to have done by professionals. The cost of materials is minimal, so I'm probably paying for their expertise and their time. The roofing company that did our roof has a gutter division, and they have all of the measurements they need to give me an estimate, so I'll listen to what they have to say. I just want to be careful, after spending so much money on roofing, not to turn around and create even more expensive problems elsewhere by not taking care of this gutter thing. Does any of this make any sense?
I told the missus that I want to strip down the wood floor in our computer room next Spring and put down a new coat or two of polyurethane. That will be a big job. Not because renting a sander and sanding the floor is difficult, but rather because the room has so much furniture in it that needs to be removed before I can start the job. There are couches, treadmills, bookcases, desks, filing cabinets, and television stands, just to name a few. Some things will need to be disassembled and taken out one drawer at a time because I haven't the muscle or the inclination to kill myself in the process. I warned her that she may have to put up with the smell of polyurethane for the time that it takes to either get used to it or until it dissipates. The dust from the sanding is less of an issue. I can just shut the door and open the windows. I've sanded floors before, too, with great success, so it is not a job that I need to consider outsourcing. It's just too late in the season to consider doing it now, and I have lots of other things on my plate that need doing before Winter arrives.
Can we get back to the hostages held by Hamas for a moment? Can you imagine the hue and cry that we'd hear from the liberal media if Trump were president and the hostages were still being held by Hamas? It would be intolerable. It would be 24/7 nonstop wailing. Why hasn't he (Trump) freed them? How many more hostages have to die because of his (Trump's) incompetence? Both Trump and Netanyahu have blood on their hands! Did I already cover this in this week's blog? You know how I hate repeating myself. The hostages are still in the hands of Hamas, or already in Iran is what I'm thinking, and the mainstream media says nothing. Biden is their boy, and they'll do nothing to cast any more shade than is necessary between now and Election Day in 2024 to thwart his ascension to a second four-year term. Biden has his praetorian guard, the media, on a very short leash when it comes to messaging. There's not much he can do to control what they show when he's stumbling up or down this or that ramp or slurring his speech since other outlets have the same footage. All that aside, they are doing Biden's bidding at every turn. God help them if they don't.
I've also noticed that the videos I'm seeing on social media these days of Trump making this or that speech have been seriously doctored. One speech has him praising Hezbollah in no uncertain terms. Of course, none of that is true. Other cuts, and I have no idea where these are coming from, have him rambling on talking about Obama as though he thinks he's running against Obama. It seems that the game now is to give people the impression that Trump is no better than Biden when it comes to cognitive acuity. We're supposed to take from all of this that we're better off with a younger, more intellectually nimble president. You know, someone like Nikki Haley or, God forbid, Ron DeSanctimonious. If you can create enough doubt about your candidate and nibble away at the edges of his base, then that may be just enough to give Bumbles Biden the edge when the votes are tallied on Election Day. In a twisted sort of way, maybe Trump is putting these clips out. You know Trump. Right? He'll be the first to tell you that bad press is better than no press at all.
Trump was on a radio interview with Brian Kilmeade yesterday and mentioned Obama again. Kilmeade tried to correct him, and Trump pushed back by saying that Biden wasn't running our country and, more than likely, Obama was behind the scenes calling the shots. Trump clarified that this was merely his hypothesis or words to that effect, but that he was more often right than wrong when saying such things. I don't know if this was Trump cleaning up on aisle nine because of previous comments he made about Obama or not. My take on all of it is that I'd rather have a senile Trump running the country than a level-5 demented Marxist like Biden. Or, should I say, a level-5 Marxist like Obama because I agree with Trump when he says that Biden isn't running anything. I'd like to know what drugs his handlers pump him up with when he's out on the stump pushing his Bidenomics or some such malarkey. They have got that shit down to a science. Not because Bumbles ever looks or sounds normal, because he doesn't, but because he shows up and does what he has to do, gaffes and all. So that you know, he's not fooling anyone with that stupid stilted little jog he does when he arrives to give a speech. That has dementia written all over it.
It seems like every hour on the hour, we have another military asset or class of assets appearing out of nowhere in the Middle East. Zelensky must be seeing all of this on the telly and thinking to himself that if Ukraine had half the assets that the United States has sitting off the coast of Israel, they would have pushed Putin and his marauding troops back across the border by now. It does make you wonder what we're really trying to accomplish, or not accomplish, as it were, in Ukraine. Anyway, it's hard to make sense of everything we see and hear coming out of Israel. It's just a damn firehose of information. Everybody and their brother seem to be weighing in on the conflict. I'm talking about countries and their leaders here. China says Israel has gone too far. I'm guessing they'd like to see a more measured response. Iran is threatening to create an "earthquake" if something or other continues. What the hell does that mean? Do they have a damn nuke? Some other country is threatening to shut off the flow of natural gas to the West if they continue bombing Gaza. We have politicians in our country saying that we should not be opening our doors to any of the displaced people now living in Gaza. I think Biden is saying that the U.S. will assist if Hezbollah gets involved. The American hostages being held by Hamas seem to be the least of anyone's concerns. That tells us a lot about where this all seems to be going.
I wish Trump would stop saying that if he were president, none of this would be happening. It's just a stupid thing to say. It's unknowable, really, and he knows it. Just because none of this sort of thing happened while he was in office doesn't mean that it would never happen. Maybe he can find a way to say it where it makes more sense. Things were less hostile, if that's the right word when he was in office, so I think he can claim that to be true. Were things less hostile across the globe because he was president? I'd like to see some polling on that, but I think the results of said poll would be favorable to Trump's version of the world according to Trump. I'm not saying that I expect Trump to be less Trumpy. This is no time for carnival barkers or snake oil salesmen. Biden, or should I say Obama, has brought us to the brink of nuclear war or, at a minimum, World War III. We need more Henry Kissingers and fewer Hillary Clintons. We need someone to push back against the tyrannies of China, the Marxists in our midst, the New World Order, and the World Health Organization, all of whom are an existential threat to our viability as a sovereign country. Yes, more statesmen and fewer carnival barkers. A man for the moment that we find ourselves in, if you will.