HAMAS MUST LOSE

I’ve been watching the war in Gaza fairly closely. Not close enough to call myself an expert by any means, but probably more closely than most.

So Hamas did start the war. They sent a force into southern Israel roughly equal in size to a brigade. They were not a cohesive unit by any means and disparate groups had assigned targets and attacked. They were primarily directed at homes or Kibbutzes. They reportedly had training in irregular warfare in Iran and put it to good use. Their attack was successful early on. They murdered and killed many, and took hostages back to Gaza.

I am of the opinion that the Hamas leadership genuinely believed the Israeli hostages newly being held in Gaza would stop the Israelis from attacking Gaza. They were wrong.

The Israelis began systematically attacking Gaza. Going house to house looking for Hamas fighters. The Hamas fighters hid amongst the general population. Civilian casualties mounted and continue to grow.

It’s interesting to me now, the success of the propaganda being pushed by Hamas. I engage in twitter/X to some small amount, and my timeline there is full of muslims decrying the genocide in Gaza. They are having quite a bit of success, although, at least in the US, the war in Gaza is starting to take on domestic political tones.

There is no genocide in Gaza. A genocide is simply put, an attempt to kill all of the members of some group. Nazis/Jews is the most famous attempt. But there have been many in history. Turks/Armenians, English/Irish, Spanish/Caribs, Chinese/Uighur and the list goes on. There were 400,000 Palestinians in 1948 after they famously refused their own state in a UN partition plan. Now there are 4 million. If the Israelis are attempting to exterminate the Palestinians, they are doing the worst job ever.

But the slogan, From the River to the Sea, is a cry for genocide. Genocide of the Israelis. Don’t be fooled, or doubt it. Many Arab/muslim organizations have openly called for genocide for decades. That is still their goal.

No, the war in Gaza is a siege. Plain and simple. Think of the Nazis outside of St Petersburg for a 1000 days. It is nasty over there I am sure. Hamas shows no fear, no hesitancy to hide amongst civilians, or in Hospitals, or schools. And on the other side, the IDF shows no hesitancy to kill/ attack Hamas wherever they think they are. Civilian deaths mount. Both sides accuse the other of war crimes. It’s getting hard to tell.

I am no friend of Israel. But neither am I a hater. They are our allies. I would see the US keep her word and honor alliances. I had 2 port visits there while I was in the Navy. Best port visits I had. Vivid life memories. I even made it to the West Bank.

The war is expanding. Hizballah in Lebanon has been shooting Katyushas into northern Israel (They sometimes call it Western Gallilee in the news) for some time.

Yemen says they are willing to attack, and have made attacks on merchant shipping. But that looks like it has all but stopped now. Israel did attack one of their ports. It may be nothing more from Yemen but words.

Syria has been quiet.

Iraq is reportedly sending troops through Syria to Lebanon in order to aid Hizballah. But I think that is just wishful thinking on the part of some muslims I follow on X.

Iran is the real threat. If they initiate hostilities, it will very likely end in World War 3. They recently announced that they do in fact have the bomb. Despite our piss poor 3rd rate efforts to deny them the bomb. That will be an aerial war. There is no shared border.

So now we wait. What will the other Arab states do. Turkey? Saudi? Egypt?

Tel Aviv is empty right now. Iran is threatening retribution, and the Israeli citizens believe them.

This could all end in a flash. Hamas could just release their hostages. Sue for peace.

But for lasting peace. Hamas MUST LOSE. Any peace Israel agrees to, the Hamas position MUST be WORSE than when the war started. And concessions will be viewed as a victory. That will lead to a re-arming, and yet another war in the future. 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Israel must force Hamas to retreat 3 steps. Or they are just giving Hamas a breathing space to rearm.

HAMAS MUST LOSE.

Princess Kate

Not again.

I know the title says Princess Kate. Bear with me.

I really liked Princess Diana. She was just beautiful. And I don’t mean that in a lascivious Hot Tropic model sort of way. She was the total smoke show in every way.

I was in Spain when she died. Chased by self serving photographers looking to get some sort of compromising pic to make a fortune for themselves. Or a name.

I pretty much lost interest in all things Royal Family.When William married Kate, I kind of took notice. But didn’t really care too much. But slowly, Kate has grown on me. Couldn’t really care less about all of the rest. Quick and Dirty?

I really liked the Queen. She was a truck driver/mechanic in WW2. Just a really nice lady.

Prince Charles? Dissed Diana? And he divorced her for the Doberman? Loser. I have a dim of the current King.

Prince William. Rescue Pilot in the Royal Navy. Good for him. But I have no real opinion. Best thing he ever did was marry Kate.

Harry? He was in Afghanistan the same time I was. I had a huge amount of personal respect for him. What special torment awaited him if the Taliban had managed to capture a member of any Royal Family.? Then there’s Megan. What a train wreck. I have them blocked on all of my social media. I. Just. Don’t. Care.

Andrew. Accused of being a client in the Epstein pedo trafficking ring. Eh. She was 17 in London. I believe 16 is legal. Epstein did the physical moving of Virginia Roberts. I’m not sure Prince Andrew broke a law. If he did, put him on trial. Other than that, Does Prince Andrew matter?

Kate. Really the only member of the Royal Family I care about.

And now people are saying she might be dead? Not like I could, or would actually do anything. This is an English problem. Some people are saying she was sick. Some say that she had a bad surgery. (I’ve actually heard that it was a hysterectomy gone bad). Some say she is dead. Some are saying that Prince William killed her. I’ve actually heard that the “She got Diana’d”.

When I heard that, early on, I thought that William had taken on some floozy like his dad did, and that a divorce was imminent.

But DEAD. Come on now. No.

A List of Shows

I’ve been watching tv y’all. I imagine we all did. Especially during lockdown. But something that happened around that time, I really started watching the series’. The advent of the multi episode epic with multiple episodes. I just hadn’t really thought about how much I was enjoying them. I guess the first one I really watched was Rome.

In San Antonio, I got used to watching shows in my garage while smoking cigars with my buddy Doug. That’s over. I live in N Texas now. But we saw a lot of good shows and had some good times.

Most recently I just finished season 5 of Fargo. Mr Munch is a great character.

Just for fun, and to keep this from becoming nothing but a serious political rag, I figured I could give you a quick and dirty of some of my favorite shows with a quick “why”.

Shows.

Scyfy:
Battlestar Galactica: I loved the original as a kid. Loved the reimagining. It’s a little heavy on God. Makes some younger atheist types not like it. Some good realism in space battles
The Expanse: Good special effects. Good original idea. Lots of good characters.
The Mandalorian: I liked all of the Disney Star Wars shows.
The Book of Boba Fett.: They killed Jennifer Beals way too early
Andor. Animal Kingdom in Space
Strange New Worlds: Watch this one if you are a trekkie.
Picard: Not really that good
The Colony: Post Alien Invasion
Lost in Space:. Good show. Kid friendly
Caprica.: Pre Battlestar. 1 season.
The Peripheral: Great show. 1 season. Writer’s strike killed it.



Crime/Cops:
Bosch: Good books. Good detective figure it out puzzles.
Animal Kingdom: Don’t let the title fool you. Good show. One of my favorites. This is often described online as the SoCal Sopranos. Its a Point Break type show.
Peaky Blinders: Also one of my favorites. Probably my most favorite. Gypsy family criminals/gang in Manchester between WW 1 and 2. Movie coming. This’ll take 4-5 episodes to really get going.
Homeland: Terror.
Ozark. Ruth Langmore! Enough said.
Tulsa King: Stallone in Tulsa, Unrealistic
Justified: Season 5 is about the best season of tv ever, in my opinion.
Narcos: Pablo Escobar
Narcos Mexico. I love the way the kept the same actors across both series.
Jack Ryan: Ryan is a dick.
The Recruit:
The Night Agent: Night watchman at the FBI gets a call
The Diplomat: Ambassador girls are the smartest in the world
Reacher: Reacher always wins!
Breaking Bad. Anti hero. Filmed in NM.
Banshee. Fighting and boobs
Magic City: Havana. Before Castro
Goliath: Lawyer takes on big cases. Billy Bob Thornton
Dark Winds: Joe Leaphorn. I read the books when I lived in the area. NW NM.
Snowfall: Great show. Rest in Power Jerome.
The Old Man.: Old spy has to come back into action.



HBO:
Game of Thrones: Dragons and boobs
Entourage: Famous people. Guy humor
Rome: Ancient Sopranos
True Blood. Vampires and …. more
Spartacus. I know. not HBO. Fucking and fighting.
Big Little Lies.: Chick drama. I watched it cause it’s filmed in Monterey



Misc:
Billions. Ri9ch dudes fucking with each other
The Boys: Super Heroes and the regular guys who want to kill them.
Stranger Things: 80s D&D nostalgia
Cobra Kai: Karate kid carries on. Low budget. Funny as hell
Taboo: Tom Hardy. Voodoo. 1 season. Surprisingly good
Vikings: Somewhat historically accurate. Ok
Carnival Row:. Steam Punk. Orlando Bloom and Cara de laVigne
Reservation Dogs: Indians on the Res in Oklahoma. William Knife Man steals the show
Station 11.: Post apocalypse. Comic book is central. Slow. I enjoyed it.



Misc:
Billions. Ri9ch dudes fucking with each other
The Boys: Super Heroes and the regular guys who want to kill them.
Stranger Things: 80s D&D nostalgia
Cobra Kai: Karate kid carries on. Low budget. Funny as hell
Taboo: Tom Hardy. Voodoo. 1 season. Surprisingly good
Vikings: Somewhat historically accurate. Ok
Carnival Row:. Steam Punk. Orlando Bloom and Cara de laVigne
Reservation Dogs: Indians on the Res in Oklahoma. William Knife Man steals the show



Westerns:
Longmire: The best of them. Wyoming Sheriff.
Yellowstone: Kevin Costner
1883: Wagon Train fromFt Worth to Oregon. From a woman’s point of view
1923: I’m still waiting for resolution
Bass Reeves: The actual Lone Ranger.



Foreign:
Babylon Berlin: German cop show pre Hitler
Casa de Papel: Spanish thieves rob a mint
BeForeigners: Norwegian tim e traveling vikings. Sort of.
No Man’s Land: Kurdish chick snipers in Northern Iraq fight Isis.
Tehran: Israeli. Edge of your seat. Great watch.
White Lines: Brits in Ibiza.
Suburra: Italian poor try and make it.
Ghosts of Beirut: Bomber comes of age.
Baghdad Central: Baghdad city cop tries to survive and be a cop in the occupation chaos

Taylor Swift

Why does she matter?

She’s dating one of the Kelce’s. Good for them. Hope it works out for them. Who celebrities are dating stopped mattering a long, long time ago for me. I just don’t care.

There’s a lot of people though, actually cheering against the Chiefs just so she won’t get to go to the Superbowl.

Do yourselves a favor and quit worrying about them.

Now about politics. Taylor Swift evidfently has a lot of pull with the younger demographic. I don’t know why. Isn’t she famous for singing about her bad relationships? About her breakups? Why on earth would anybody listen to her? Let her pick any guy for them? 😉

I can’t honestly name one of her songs. I’m sure she is NOT heartbroken about that. But she is selling mad music. So she must be good at it.

Just watch the game and leave her be. If I hit the powerball, I may rent a skybox to watch a few football games too.

Anybody want to come? Reserve your seat now.

The Border

I’m going to start a little thing. When I make my posts, I used to include, at the end, some simple things and maybe some links. Just little tidbits I found funny or was following in the news. Maybe another blogger. I’m going to start doing that again, but I’m going to put them at the top.

So, here ya go

I’m currently watching some reaction videos on youtube. It’s pretty much just watching other people watching a show. They edit out the boring parts. So it is kind of like watching reruns, but only the highlights. Right now, I’m watching “funnylilgalreacts” react to “The Expanse”.

I found an old Navy friend on Twitter/X. Hit on her a little. Tried chatting her up. But ghet this. And some of you will find this hard to believe. She is WAAAAY further left than I am right. To her I am a MAGAt. So she nuked me. Then she killed her page and started over and I was back! She tolerated me for a bit. Then…. I got nuked again. Sigh. Time to move on. 🙁

So let’s talk about the border. Y’all know the border patrol runs heavy in my family? My “Granddad” was a border patrolman. I have cousins down there right now. Right in the middle of this shit. It hits kind of heavy.

I have actually considered myself bringing a lawsuit against the Federal Govt myself. The constitution delineates border security to the Federal Govt. It is explicit. And looking at the 10th Amendment, Texas has no right to maintain the border. So I was looking for a way to force the Fed Govt to perform their duties. They plainly aren’t. How many Illegal Aliens are there in the US? There have been millions for decades. You might almost say it is policy.

I’m so happy somebody is doing something. But I’m more than a little bit afraid it could legit start a shooting civil war. I’m not real happy with the prospect of a shooting war starting outside my door.

It appears that for the moment the Biden Admin has blinked, but it could change quick. Because right now. Governor Abbott is only playing with Eagle pass. Wait until he expands it to the entire Texas border. Will other border states follow suit? Almost certainly California/Newsome will not. I tend to believe that Katie Hobbs of Arizona will not, but I think she is highly susceptible to the weather. Couldn’t tell you about NM.

Maybe we can finally get control of immigration.

The Thing About Nikki

I couldn’t care less that Nikki is Indian. The Press, MSM, keep trying to mak ethat a big deal. The keep trying to invent some sort of racism there. I just don’t think there is. Listen To Vivek, listen to the positive responses he gets for his positions. And he’s Indian. If he didn’t have the Trump movement running against him, her might even get some ground.

I think everybody has seen the response that the new Argentine President is getting as well. He’s not exactly bona fide English.

I won’t try to tell you there is no racism, on either/any side of the political spectrum. But I do maintain the MSM tries to use it as a cudgel against the right. They ARE partisan.

So the thing about Nikki. How come the press never lambasts her? Pretty much since I have been aware of politics, the MSM has been in the conservative ass. Don’t believe me?

Reagan: He’s too old. He’s not a real politician. He has Alzheimers.
Bush: He had an affair. He’s in the Skull and Bones! His resume is so long because he can’t hold a job.
W Bush: Nepotism! He can’t pronounce Nukular, He’s always feeling up Laura on camera. Skull and Bones!
Trump: He’s a reality TV star! He rapes!

And these are just the people who won. The landscape is littered with people / men, that have been disparaged by the MSM. The favorite slur is some kind of sexual scandal mistake.

Look at what happened to Kavanagh / Clarence Thomas / Trump. Again and again.

Show me the photos of Trump grabbing a pussy. I’ll be happy to show you one of Hunter Biden snorting coke off of his naked niece’s ass. I know he wasn’t running for office. He’s just his dad’s bagman.

It’s just something that I have noticed. Nikki isn’t getting attacked. Could it have something to do with the fact that her political positions magically changed to nearly match Joe Biden’s?

Who is supporting her?
Look Here

Charlie Kirk did a video about her supporters. I’ve been watching for a while.

Of course this can all be summed up real easily. The MSM won’t talk trash about Nikki Haley. Hell, you might even say they like her.

Put even more simply, Nikki is a swamp thing.

And that’s enough for me. I won’t be voting for Nikki.

Life Status

So I moved around 6 months ago. Left San Antonio after some 19 years. I miss my friends, but am very happy with my new job, and the new salary.

I still have my house down in San Antonio. Hasn’t sold yet. Can’t wait. I’ll be able to start house hunting up here. Get out of this tiny apartment. Property values have dropped, and I haven’t budged.

I still have the same cars. I wear mostly sweatshirts and slacks to work as it is cold in the building. Very cold lately. I wear a coat inside right now.

I’m tired of the election. I’m a conservative, so I’ll vote that way. Pretty much, whomever is the most conservative will get my vote. I’m ready for some changes though. Still a PaulBot

Still smoking cigars, though I have cut way, way back. Ie, I smoke maybe twice a week, instead of 6-7 days a week. For those of you whop know, check our Stolen Thrones – Crook of the Crown. Like the houka up above? I like the basic apple.

https://stolenthronecigars.com/our-cigars/

Do people still call AF people Zoomies? We used to call USAF people Zoomies in a derogatory way. Kind of the same way people called us “Squids”. We got a new employee today. She’s a Zoomie. People just looked at me like I was speaking Arabic. Zoomie? What’s that?

Had a beer with an old pledge brother last weekend. I’ve seen him 3 times in the last 30+ years. And I’ve seen him more than anybody else in my old fraternity.

So now that my blog is working, I need to start playing with some video, and video editing software. Won’t that be fun?!

https://www.cyberlink.com/products/director-suite/overview_en_US.html?affid=2581_-1_80_DS-B&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAkp6tBhB5EiwANTCx1OcaTcNJl11seVvoSUfcUt50U2Hjqdx–kfzzc53QE94-47393q6rRoCE70QAvD_BwE

The Widening War

So previously, I wrote about the Houthis in Yemen, and how they were going to widen the war by trying to close the Bab al Mendib strait.

I have predicted that if the Yemini/Houthi are successful in halting merchant ship traffic in the Red Sea, It will cause Egypt to enter the war. Well, this hasn’t happened yet, but I have some more info for everybody.

https://apnews.com/article/houthi-drone-attacks-ship-gulf-aden-9949c0b224812fd37958709ed19dd365

This link talks about a Yemini attack in the gulf of Aden (Inbound to the southern entrance of the Bab al Mendib) on a merchant ship by a bomb laden drone.

https://www.voanews.com/a/egypt-worries-us-british-attacks-on-houthis-could-escalate-gaza-conflict/7438907.html

And this link is about Egypt’s hope for a slow of hostilities. They have already noticed a 30% drop in Suez canal traffic since December.

And y’all, I’m really only watching 1 flash point for the kickoff of WW3. Let’s hope that doesn’t come to pass. With time, I may write about some of the others.

  1. China invades Taiwan.
  2. Russia and Ukraine
  3. Venezuela invades Guyana
  4. Iran at war with US/UK/Pakistan

So much can happen.

The Houthi War

Years ago, I was in the Navy. Most of you who know me, know this already. When in the USN, I was taught Arabic at DLI in Monterey. One of my instructors was named Abdul Wahab AlHouthi.

Abdul was young and a little vivacious. He was popular. He had a lot of interesting stories about being a child in Yemen. Eating Grasshoppers and people smuggling guns. He spoke about the temperments and habits of the people there. Whenever I hear about the Houthis in Yemen and their attacks in the Red Sea, I visualize a thousand of Abdul running around, shooting rockets and yelling at me to study my verbs.

Just a little explanation as to why I’m thinking so much about this. I’ve been there. I know people who spoke to me personally about their cares and views. (Everything in the region is the fault of the British and how they drew the maps)

Egypt is going to enter this war. Purely on self interest. Yemen, and whether they are doing this at the behest of Iran or not is moot, is attacking shipping in the Red Sea. The chokepoint very near Yemen is called the “Bab al Mendib”. Yemen is going to close that chokepoint, and make it financially attractive for merchant shipping to avoid the Bab al Mendib and the Red Sea altogether. It will be cheaper to go all the way around Africa, than to lose your ship as well as its contents, by getting sunk or seized in a war zone

This will be disastrous for Egypt. At the top of the Red Sea is this place called the Suez canal. When I went through, (Once southbound, and once northbound), it was a million bucks a pop. That was in the 90s. If ships quit going thorough the Red Sea because of Houthi attacks on merchant shipping, it will hammer the Egyptian Economy particularly hard.

It will to a much lesser extent also hurt the Saudis and their port of Jeddah. But it will still hurt them.

How long will it take before Egypt and Saudi team up to directly express their displeasure with the Houthis.? The Houthis are being backed by the Iranians, and their has already been some friction between the Saudis and the Iranians.

I’m not exactly going out on a limb by predicting that the war in the Middle East is going to expand. But here is a specific for you. International merchant shipping will begin to avoid the Red Sea. When that happens….

Tick Tock Abdul. I bet they are already talking about your relatives in Riyadh and Cairo.

Hello world!

This is Dave.

Slowly but surely I’ll figure out the new interface. I’ll be posting rants along the way.

First thing though, I have to customize my skin to get back to more of my old blog style.

What you see here right now is just a generic skin. I liked the format so I picked it. Now, I’ll just start to change things around a bit to make it mine.