Now That's A Take There Russia

A spit-take mind you, but quite a take all the same:

That the Russians are saying that is rather hilarious. 

That thread on Twitter of the Russians going on how the Maduro grab was unimpressive and they would have done it so much better is just amazing for its pure distortion and inversion of reality.

We will note the Russian special forces attempted just such a smash and grab in Ukraine and it happily failed spectacularly, leaving lots of dead "elite" Spetsnaz and VDV troops behind - smashing the myth of Russian Special Forces awesomeness and even their delusions of adequacy.

Heck, Russia went from being touted as the second best military in the world to being the second best military in Ukraine.

It Is Not Just That Politicians Can Be Bought

But how cheaply they can be bought.

The extensive Somali fraud that is now estimated at over $9 Billion dollars, while remarkable for the amount of the funds misappropriated, is unremarkable for the number  of kickbacks and donations the perpetrators were making to Democrat politicians.

Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz apparently received all of $10,000 in donations from Somali fraudsters: Washington Examiner: Walz received $10,000 from donors tied to Somali-run day care centers.

$10k in return for billions stolen with the state being remarkably, if not deliberately, incurious of the ongoing thefts and operations. 

The Feeding our Future scandal that bilked the state and feds of $250 million alone donated $50,000 to Minnesota Democrats.

A $50k payoff to the Dems in return for pocketing $250 million is not a bad investment at all for the fraudsters. 

Biden's Tweet Aged Like Milk

Yep, this tweet, among the many, didn't age well:

Funny how it took Trump to stand with the Venezuelan people and democracy to actually do something effective, eh?

2026 Starting Off With A Bang

Waking up to find Venezuela's dictator in custody, and Venezuelans around the world are celebrating is rather a nice way to begin a Saturday.

The US went in and grabbed Maduro, ostensibly for drug and terrorism charges and his role in importing illegal drugs into the United States.

The unsealed indictment makes for interesting reading.  

The drug conspiracy and terrorism charges  seem rather convincing, but some of the indictment, namely the firearms charges, reads like it was pulled off a domestic drug dealer form indictment.

The firearm charges - namely possession of machine guns, and the carrying of firearms in furtherance of a crime -  appear rather aout of place - considering there is no allegations that the firearms were ever carried in the US or US territory by any of the named defendants. 

Strange stuff indeed. On the upside that's one dictator removed and a chance for the actually elected opposition to have a chance to dismantle the chavismo dictatorship and have a free(r) country again.

In other news, protests against the regime continue in Iran, and those protests should be supported. With any luck the mullahs too will experience regime change and the middle east will become a lot more stable and free as well.

Certainly an interesting start to the year. 

The Sopranos Must Be Regretting Their Life Choices

All the drama, all the deaths, and all the hardship involved in racketeering, theft and garbage schemes -- and for what? A pretty mid take and most of their crew ending up in prison or in the ground.

Instead, they could have just opened some daycare centers and did some medicaid fraud in Minneapolis and stole billions the easy way.

MSN:  Somali scammers allegedly stole almost as much in Minnesota as entire Somalia GDP

Back After Quite The Voyage

Took the kids on a cruise last week.

It began well enough with a nice flight to New Orleans that was on time, easy transfer to the ship from the New Orleans airport, with the only downside that the fellow in front of me was coughing quite a bit -- more on this later. 

We then had a pretty quick embarkation onto the ship and settled in.

The first day at sea was great, a nice time wandering the ship, relaxing and having some nice meals, including a specialty meal at the steakhouse that was magnificent.

The second day we got to Cozumel and had decided to go to the Kuza beach and adventure park. 

We got there from the port and had a nice time on the beach and had a nice lunch, and more time on the beach, but then it started raining heavily. The rain would not stop and it was really coming down

So we got out of there a bit early and got back to the ship rather thoroughly soaked. 

Apparently, late December in the Western Caribbean is the rainy season. 

The next day we landed at Roatan.  It was raining a bit which meant the visibility for the planned dive would be less than great.

And it was rather choppy and wavy too. 

This meant the Leah got to experience being seasick for her first certified ocean dive.

She along with another diver were rather green.  She did the first dive anyways.

Luckily the surface interval was done back at the dock rather than on the boat.

Both she and the other diver decided that since the dock was still moving (it wasn't)  they were going to skip the second dive.

We then headed back to the ship.

The next day it was raining again as we docked in Belize.  The rain also came this time with a healthy dose of thunder and lightning.

Not good when you're signed up to do zip-lining.  High above the trees on a steel cable in a lightning storm- what could possibly go wrong?

Yep, that got cancelled.

We went ashore anyways in rain ponchos and wandered around a bit and went back to the ship. 

At this point I was coming down with a heavy cough and feeling rather lousy. 

I was feeling really out of it the rest of the day and the next morning, having coughed through the night and not gotten much sleep, and basically stayed in the room sleeping for most of it, coming out for dinner. 

The next day it was rough and rainy again so Costa Maya was skipped as a port and we had a day at sea. 

Still feeling lousy, I discovered that eating a honey packet actually stops a cough.  The ship had pretty much no cold or flu meds to buy and we had neglected to pack any.  But, the honey really helped.  Good to know.

We then had our scheduled day at sea.   Honey was consumed by me in mass quantities.

I was feeling a bit better.

The next day, Sunday,  we disembarked early and got to the airport early.  Had I known that early arrival and debarkation would happen, I would have booked the earlier flight out and the next bit of fun would not have happened.

The flight home was delayed, and then delayed some more, being stuck in Detroit for maintenance. So we were stuck in the airport for hours.

After a three-hour delay, the plane it arrived and the gate attendant said she had good news and bad news.

The good news - the plane was here.

The bad news - the flight attendants had timed out due to the delay and there was no replacement crew so the flight wasn't going anywhere. 

 That the airline hadn't anticipated this was a bit of a problem and was rather dumb. 

There were no scheduled flights to Detroit for the next day so they booked us on another airline through Chicago leaving at 6 am. At least they put us up in a hotel.

We finally got to the hotel after 9pm and went to sleep and then got up at 4 am and headed back to the airport.

At least we had some beignets and coffee for breakfast there.

The flight to Chicago was no problem.   Easy boarding and a smooth fliught with just a little turbulence

We then had to dash to the gate for the flight to Detroit, only to be told we were on standby as we were the last to check in and the flight was oversold.

We were the last to check in as we had just been delivered there.

 We did manage to get seats and were soon on the aircraft waiting to depart.

And waiting.

And waiting.

We got deiced and waited some more,

And more. Apparently waiting for the deicing paperwork.

We finally departed over an hour and a half later.

Quite a bit of turbulence. Funnily enough it didn't bother me at all but it really bothered the kids.

Finally got to the airport and then home and that was that. 

I promptly took some NyQuil and went to sleep. 

Not quite the vacation I wanted, but it was the one we got so we made the best of it.

MSU Chabad House Vandalised On Hanukkah

 Lansing State Journal: Police ask public for help after East Lansing Jewish Center vandalized twice

 Police are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect who appears to have thrown rocks at the center, 115 Albert St., and painted Nazi symbols on its front door during Hanukkah, an eight-day holiday in the Jewish faith marked by the nightly lighting of candles.

Interestingly enough, neither the Detroit News nor the Detroit Free Press felt the two vandalism attacks apparently by the same black-clad mask wearing a-hole were worth mentioning.

The attacker first threw rocks at the building and then returned a few hours later to spray-paint the windows and throw more rocks. 

Unfortunately, this is just more of the globalizing the intifada that the left has been pushing.

Well Progressives, I Guess That's One Way To Get Crime Stats Down

Not by doing anything to actually stop crime mind you.  

Instead the progressive solution is to have police ignore crimes.

The Detroit Free Press: Could Detroit end minor traffic stops? Michigan cities offer road map

Detroit police oversight board members hoping to limit minor traffic stops after a series of police shootings that started with issues including alleged license plate and tinted window violations can look to the experiences of at least three Michigan jurisdictions that have restricted such stops in recent years.

“Driving equality”-style ordinances and policies in Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor and East Lansing have aimed to prevent racial profiling and reduce citizen contacts with police. . .

Yep, if you ignore low-level crimes, and don't pursue them, you let the more major criminals continue their actions uninterrupted, then you will get less interactions where criminals are caught by police.  

You will also get more serious crimes committed by these criminals as a result as they weren't stopped and then caught for lesser offenses on their way to commit more serious crimes.

People aren't being shot by police for license plate and tinted window violations nor for failing to have their cars registered and up to date.

They are getting shot when, after being pulled over, they're found to have more serious warrants, or are driving drunk, or otherwise committing illegal acts and THEN THEY FORCEFULLY RESIST ARREST.

If you want less people getting shot while committing crimes, great or small, maybe teach them to stop resisting arrest. 

But, that would imply personal responsibility (and lack thereof) is the cause of the issue, and not the systemic racism nonsense the progressives are spouting.