Al Fin: "Cowboy Commentary", aka "Eat your veggies" The Flag banner is posted in order to defy those who would make patriotic symbols illegal or disreputable.
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
How Italian Enigma code was broken and contributed to success of the WWII North Africa campaign
There are more of these kinds of stories than you can shake a stick at.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Winning the battles, losing the wars -- Part 4
It went kinetic with the Iran War.
In post war geopolitics, the USA has stopped declaring wars, and has engaged in limited wars of supposedly limited duration. All the while, it sought to win it by not disturbing the fragile world order.
The fragility was more obvious during the Cold War Era. It is not as obvious now, as it is more economic than military. Not that military force could flash into a major world war, but any such war could result in a nuclear exchange. Hence the limited and supposedly short durations within a fragile context. That part remains unchanged.
Has Trump blundered into another Vietnam scenario that he vehemently criticized? The US stopped winning its wars, he said. But what if this latest war does the same thing as Korea, Vietnam, and the War on Terror did? In all of these wars, the USA won its battles, but seemed to lose the war.
The big problem for Trump now is to get out of the war he started. He has to get out with some sort of victory, or he will have delivered yet another losing war.
I don't want to be negative here, but there seems to have been a few hiccups in this plan here already. The war is already 3+ weeks old, and he said that it would be over in 4. The Strait of Hormuz has to be opened, or this thing will go on for a long time. As for the knock-on effects of the closure of the Strait, these are already guaranteed to last for months into the future. This will have a political cost associated with it. He has rolled a pretty big pair of dice, you could say.
In post war geopolitics, the USA has stopped declaring wars, and has engaged in limited wars of supposedly limited duration. All the while, it sought to win it by not disturbing the fragile world order.
The fragility was more obvious during the Cold War Era. It is not as obvious now, as it is more economic than military. Not that military force could flash into a major world war, but any such war could result in a nuclear exchange. Hence the limited and supposedly short durations within a fragile context. That part remains unchanged.
Has Trump blundered into another Vietnam scenario that he vehemently criticized? The US stopped winning its wars, he said. But what if this latest war does the same thing as Korea, Vietnam, and the War on Terror did? In all of these wars, the USA won its battles, but seemed to lose the war.
The big problem for Trump now is to get out of the war he started. He has to get out with some sort of victory, or he will have delivered yet another losing war.
I don't want to be negative here, but there seems to have been a few hiccups in this plan here already. The war is already 3+ weeks old, and he said that it would be over in 4. The Strait of Hormuz has to be opened, or this thing will go on for a long time. As for the knock-on effects of the closure of the Strait, these are already guaranteed to last for months into the future. This will have a political cost associated with it. He has rolled a pretty big pair of dice, you could say.
No more Lunar Gateway
Not many tears will be shed over the "loss". It was a solution seeking a problem for it to solve. In other words, a boondoggle.
House passed SAVE act as a "privileged" status, which means no filibuster allowed
Thune is preventing a majority vote passage of the Save Act in order to protect RINOS who oppose the bill.
Here's a revelation to yours truly. If the House can pass such bills that prevent filibusters, then why can't the GOP majority pass needed bills like this. Sean Davis explains below in on X:
Understand what Thune is doing right now. It’s not enough for him to kill the SAVE America Act. Thune has to kill it while also protecting his worst RINO colleagues from being
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 10, 2026
exposed for opposing it.
How does Thune accomplish his? By avoiding a simple majority vote at all…
I read a lot of stuff on the web. It wasn't until now that I learned about "privileged" bills from the House. Why is that? That is why I posted this. Perhaps it is not well-known how a small minority can stop the public will from being expressed. Think of it. Just a handful of these people can prevent a bill's passage that has support of close to 80% of the public. And the Democrats are about Democracy??? Hah!
Monday, March 23, 2026
What the Ship (Ep 140)
Interesting video. Not only the video, but the channel could be worth monitoring on a regular basis. This is the first time for me at this channel.
What's Going on With Shipping?
What's Going on With Shipping?
Regulate the corporate media
What can be done about "news" outlets that do not tell the truth?
The truth can be a slippery thing, so what is it? What the truth actually is can actually be debated. But a lie can be defined. A lie is when the truth is known, and something false is substituted knowingly in its place in order to deceive. It is codified in the US Code what fraud is. Fraud is a type of lie. To paraphrase from memory: A fraud is a misrepresentation of fact in order to gain a benefit that would not necessarily be granted.
If news is defined as being "the truth about happenstance", then what passes as news these days is all to often a fraud, imo.
If news is a product, then consumer law protects the public from product fraud. It would seem that the news industry can definitely be regulated, but there is a thing called the First Amendment. But settled law says that the First Amendment protection is not granted to the extent that merchants can defraud their customers. It seems that a lawusuit could be filed against "news" outlets that claim to be delivering the "news" when it is in fact not true. Just sayin'.
Sunday, March 22, 2026
The Big Lie
The Grokipedia entry is preferred over the Wikipedia one.
Surely in this day and age, The Big Lie is alive and well. There is no need to concentrate on the Third Reich for examples, it appears everywhere.
The contradictions that exists imply that much. How can it be otherwise?
The country was shutdown over the so-called COVID pandemic. Was it truly a dangerous phenomenon or not? Surely it cannot be both at the same time. Somebody had to be lying, and lying BIG TIME.
Is the USA winning its fight against Iran, or losing? Surely both cannot be true at the same time. It's one or the other, it cannot be both.
Is the shutdown the fault of Democrats or Republicans? It cannot be both. The objective fact lies in the vote. Who's fault is it?
Lies are at the bottom of many evils. Indeed all of them. Satan is the Father of Lies, it says in the Gospels. Trouble is, how is it that such a thing as The Big Lie exist, unless there is something very wrong in the world.
Surely in this day and age, The Big Lie is alive and well. There is no need to concentrate on the Third Reich for examples, it appears everywhere.
The contradictions that exists imply that much. How can it be otherwise?
The country was shutdown over the so-called COVID pandemic. Was it truly a dangerous phenomenon or not? Surely it cannot be both at the same time. Somebody had to be lying, and lying BIG TIME.
Is the USA winning its fight against Iran, or losing? Surely both cannot be true at the same time. It's one or the other, it cannot be both.
Is the shutdown the fault of Democrats or Republicans? It cannot be both. The objective fact lies in the vote. Who's fault is it?
Lies are at the bottom of many evils. Indeed all of them. Satan is the Father of Lies, it says in the Gospels. Trouble is, how is it that such a thing as The Big Lie exist, unless there is something very wrong in the world.
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