Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Computer hackers got into the hotel’s electronic key system and locked guests out of their rooms until management paid a ransom.

 It’s a variation on the ransom-ware scam being used with other computer users.  Pay up or you won’t get your system back.

 This is modern-day piracy.  There should be world-wide jurisdiction to pursue them, and bounties paid for their scalps.  

 Joe Doakes

No argument here.  In fact, we‘ve touched on this before.

We’ve fallen a little behind on our World War I series.  Over the next few weeks/months, we’re going to work to get caught-up to the calendar.

It was well after midnight on December 29th, 1916, but the staff of the Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg was preparing for a party.

The Palace’s wine cellar had been temporarily redecorated for their expectant visitor.  Furniture and carpets had been moved in, along with a gramophone playing “Yankee Doodle” on a continuous loop.  Several bottles of wine had been set aside for the occasion, in addition to a variety of sweet petit fours.  The number of attendees were unknown – only a few key members of Russia’s nobility and their assistants would later amid to being present.  The host, Prince Felix Yusupov, was attempting to entertain his guest of honor – Grigori Rasputin.  Yusupov had sought out the supposed “mad monk” weeks earlier to attempt to learn some of the controversial holy man’s healing techniques.

What followed was a mixture of partial facts blended with mysticism and politically-motivated exaggeration.  Popular legend states that Yusupov fed Rasputin treat after treat laced with potassium cyanide to no effect.  Re-interpretation suggests that one of the night’s conspirators, a doctor, couldn’t violate his Hippocratic Oath to poison the famed mystic.  Reality suggests the food was either never poisoned or was administered before being baked, evaporating the cyanide in the process.

After an hour, an exasperated Yusupov had tired of playing guitar and listening to an increasingly drunk Rasputin.  The Prince would retrieve his gun and, according to his testimony years later, “a shudder swept over me; my arm grew rigid, I aimed at his heart and pulled the trigger.”  Rasputin was seemingly dead – only to reanimate himself and stumble out the door where he kept moving despite four more shots.  Only a following head shot supposedly slayed the infamous corruptor of the House of Romanov.

In reality, Yusupov’s first shot had passed through Rasputin’s mid-section without major damage.  One of the Prince’s co-conspirators, politician Vladimir Purishkevich, had fired multiple times at Rasputin and connected only once – a bullet to his spine.  The body was dumped in the Malaya Nevka River with such haste that one of Rasputin’s galoshes was stuck in the bars of the bridge.  Unsure of how to react, the participants dismissed the police sent to investigate the gunshots heard at the Palace, only to re-invite them back to brag about killing Rasputin…all the while insisting the officers keep the incident quiet.

Grigori Rasputin had been an enigma in life – his role in Tsarist Russia a subject of heated debate then and now.  In death, the man from the Siberian Plain would become a legendary indictment of Russia’s nobility and government in the First World War.

The truth of Rasputin is difficult to uncover – many “facts” of his life have later been proven false.  Allegations abound as to his behavior and influence over the Romanovs

By the winter of 1916, St. Petersburg had become a national paradox – the seat of government for Tsarist Russia, yet a capitol increasingly void of political power.

Tsar Nicholas II had long since left the capitol for Moghilev, some 400 miles away, after appointing himself Commander-in-Chief following the Russian army’s rout in the summer of 1915.  Left behind in St. Petersburg to manage the domestic affairs of state were Nicholas’ wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, and a deeply divided State Duma with little actual authority.   (more…)

40,000 Muslims deported, due to fear of terrorism.

From Muslim Saudi Arabia.

Obvious bigotry against the Religion of Peace by redneck deplorable…Sunni.

Students at the University of California San Diego are protesting an appearance by the Dalai Lama, caling him “offensive” and “oppressive”.

The students are, of course, from China, and are parroting the chanting points given to them by their Communist government back home.

Ignorant students trying to shut down free speech by people that people “above” them in the progressive hierarchy deem dangerous.    We’ve just described not only the entire campus protest movement, but most of the campuses themselves.

How trashed is the NoDAPL “protest” site?

The ongoing series of media mistakes, distortions and lies re: President Trump.

And today’s ♫ music playlist.

Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – is on the air!

Today on the show:

• MNGOP Chair candidate Chris Fields joins me.
• A challenge to MPR, the Strib, Alondra Cano, and other MInnesota liberals

Don’t forget – King Banaian is on from 9-11AM on AM1440, and Brad Carlson is normally heard on “The Closer” edition of the NARN Sundays from 2-3PM.

So tune in the Northern Alliance! You have so many options:

• AM1280 in the Metro
• Streaming at AM1280’s Website
• Streaming on IHeartRadio
• On Twitter (the Volume 2 show will use hashtag #narn2)
• Via my UStream video and chat channel.
• Send us an SMS text message – 651-243-0390
• Good ol’ telephone – 651-289-4488
• Podcasts are now available; for my show and for Brad’s
• And make sure you fan us on our new Facebook page!

Join us!

Ted Mondale and Michelle Kelm-Helgen resigned from the Metro Sports Utilities Commission yesterday, after the corruption in the MSFC’s use of luxury skyboxes as a spiff for the Twin Cities’ DFL became to great for even the Metro old-boy-and-girl network to hush up.

Mondale and Kelm-Helgen faced cascading criticism and scrutiny since the Star Tribune reported in November that they and other MSFA commissioners hosted friends, family and well-connected DFLers at two 18-person luxury suites at the stadium during Vikings games and at several concerts. The two said the state-owned suites were needed to market the building, but an investigation by Legislative Auditor James Nobles revealed the suites were used mostly for entertainment by the MSFA commissioners and staff.

The Legislative Auditors report sounds like it’s good reading:

[Legislative Auditor James Nobles’] 100-page report faulted Kelm-Helgen and Mondale’s leadership of the MSFA, saying they had violated a core ethical principle by using public office for personal gain, by handing out free tickets, VIP parking, food and drink to friends and allies.

Combined, the two made nearly $300,000 in taxpayer-funded salaries. They oversaw construction of the $1.1 billion stadium, which was funded in part with a $498 million public subsidy.

And the saga of Michelle Kelm-Helgen, DFL grandée extraordinaire,  sounds like a “how-to” for any political glad-hander in a one-party city;

Even before the suite usage blew up, an unclear division of duties between Mondale and Kelm-Helgen became an issue. Former authority members Duane Benson and John Griffith had questioned the need for two taxpayer-funded executives in similar roles. They also raised concerns about Kelm-Helgen’s lack of collaboration.

“We were on a board that had an inability to get information,” Benson said, adding that Kelm-Helgen also refused to let the board participate in her job reviews.

Remember way back when Zygi Wilf was yanking the DFL-led Legislature and Governor Flint-Smith Dayton around, threatening to move the team if the state didn’t pony up to improve his investment for him at public expense?  And we asked – what could possibly go wrong when you entrust half a billion dollars to an bunch of unaccountable bureaucrats whose sole qualification was their DFL political connection?

Because you should remember it.

Over at the WashEx, a catalog of the ongoing reportorial flubs, context-manglings, bobbled facts, unreliable anonymous sources with the wrong story, and just plain made-up BS…

…in the past not-quite-a-month.

It’s not only helpful to view the MSM as Democrat operatives with bylines; it’s pretty much the only intellectdually honest approach.

Sally “I Went To Harvard” Kohn believes “most recently-defeated presidential candidate” is on the presidential order of succession.

Actually, the headline is misleading – Kohn believes that a successful impeachment leads to a special election.

Which is, if anything, even dumber.

Which is as good a nickname for Kohn as any.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Trump has only been President four weeks and already, inflation is out of control.  Higher than it’s been during the entire last term of President Obama’s administration. 

That . . . or the Obama administration faked the numbers and only now are the true numbers coming out.  Nobody wants bad economic news; but I’d rather have real bad news than fake good news.  But that’s not the real meaning of this story, here’s the deeper meaning:

The Federal Reserve during most of 2016 refrained from raising rates too quickly for fear of interrupting a fragile recovery but has taken a different view of the likely course of monetary policy in 2017, citing “uncertainty” as any expansionary fiscal policies from President Donald Trump have yet to take shape.

In other words, the Deep State and Quasi-Government wonks are Liberals who held down rates when they thought it would benefit Democrats in the election, but now intend to torpedo Trump any way they can.  One of the easiest is to “discover” rampant inflation so they can jack up interest rates to fight the rampant inflation they’ve suddenly discovered. 

Higher interest rates will panic consumers, kill housing, stifle growth, and mushroom debt service on The Light Bringer’s 20-Trillion Debt.  Shifting dollars to debt service will kill the possibility of a realistic budget and doom The Wall.

Liberals and Never-Trumpers will then proclaim it’s all Trump’s fault, except for the parts that are Bush’s fault.

Joe Doakes

There’s a reason the Establishmet is, well, established.

Recently, a series of phony social media accounts, and a phony job posting, have appeared for a “Draft Jacob Frey for Congress” committee.   Frey is, of course, the extreme-extreme-liberal city councilman who is challenging extreme liberal mayor Betsy Hodges in the upcoming Minneapolis mayoral race.

Turns out it all came from someone in her campaign; Hodges’ campaign manager blames “an intern”.

She delivered an “apology” yesterday:

“It happened. I did not know about it until it was brought to my attention, and when it was I immediately took action to remedy the situation,” Hodges wrote on Facebook. “That is not the kind of campaign I choose to run nor the kind of person I choose to be. I extend my apologies to [Council Member] Frey and his team for the incident and will work to make sure nothing like that happens from my team again.”

Hodges said she learned of the fake posting Monday night from Contreras, and told campaign staff that if something like this happens again, someone will lose their job.

“I communicated to my team, with vehemence, what my values are, what my expectations are about how we operate, that this falls outside my values, and that if it happens again the result will be termination,” she said.

Translation:  it was no intern.  It was someone on her team.

As Sarah Janecek notes – show us the intern.

(And as Janecek points out, that intern had better be making $15 an hour.  If they exist.  Which they do not).

Lena Dunham.

On the one hand, she writes indulgent, entitle twaddle like Girls.  Including lines like:

… and the other thing about me is I give zero f***s about anything, yet I have a strong opinion about everything, even topics I’m not informed on.”

Which is simultaneously risibly vacuous and as perfect a sample of Urban Liberal Privilege as you can find.   (The phrase “Zero F****s Given” is a primary indicator of a deeply vapid person).

On the other?  She throws Paul Krugman under the bus.

Talk about a fight where there is no winner, except all the rest of us.

Connecticut’s governor Dannell Malloy is proposing quadrupling fees for carry permits, as well as raising fees for background checks by 50%:

As part of his budget, Malloy is proposing to increase the state portion of the pistol permit fee from $70 to $300. He also is proposing the cost of the initial 5-year pistol permit fee from $140 to $370.

The increase in fees for gun owners will bring in another $9 million to the state annually, according to the governor’s budget estimates.

Additionally, Malloy is proposing to increase background check fees from its current $50 to $75.

Malloy has, of course, been merely the latest of a series of liberal governors that have spent the last couple of decades turning Connecticut – a state that is home to four of America’s wealthiest cities, a place that by all rights should be financially well-set – into a fiscal basket case, a green fiscal Detroit, a place with the highest per-capita state debt in the country, with a business climate that under decades of stultifying Democrat rule has gone from one of America’s best states for business to the very, very bottom of the pile.

His idea to balance his $3,7 billion deficit?  Raise about $9 million in fees for shooters, thereby making it harder for the poor to protect themselves.

How passive-aggressive is that?

Question:  Name a book that Trulbert may have outsold?

Answer:  Chelsea Clinton’s debut tome.

Almost no one is buying the Clinton title, co-authored by Devi Sridhar, a Global Public Health Professor at the University of Edinburgh.  It currently stands at No. 74,374 on the Amazon Bestsellers Chart.

The book profiles global health organizations and the work they do. Chelsea is Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation which prioritizes improving global health.

Published by Oxford University Press, the book is well-intentioned but bland in the extreme. And there is no answer given to the question “Who Runs the World and Why?”

In related news, “the Peter Principle” may soon be re-named “The Chelsea Principle”.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

By 1963, before we had The Great Society, before we had Civil Rights, before we had a Department of Education, feminism, no-fault divorce, abortion on demand, unlimited immigration, the EPA, Clean Water Act, public employee unions the prevailing wage and transgender bathrooms, Americans had built Hoover Dam and the Empire State Building, won a world war, rebuilt Europe and the Far East, started the interstate highway system and were on the way to putting a man on the moon not just once, but several times.  The United States was a great nation.

 Could any of that happen today?

 If not, what would need to change in order to make it possible again?

 Joe Doakes

Step one:  put government back in the place where it belongs; defending the country and its interests, and running a court system, and not a hell of a lot more.

You’d never know it from watching/reading the WaPo, the NYTimes, NPR and the big three – but the American public trusts used car salesmen more than journalists.

Nope – not making it up:  According to an Emerson College, poll, the public trusts the Trump about a quarter more than the mainstream media:

The Trump administration is more trusted than the news media among voters, according to a new Emerson College poll.

The administration is considered truthful by 49 percent of registered voters and untruthful by 48 percent.

But the news media is less trusted than the administration, with 53 percent calling it untruthful and just 39 percent finding it honest.

Question:  what are the other 39% thinking of?

The Daily Caller notes that the “database” used by the liberal media to try to create hysteria about mass shootings, overstates the number of such incidents by at least an order of magnitude:

The website “Mass Shooting Tracker” (MST) has been regularly used by news outlets, like The Washington Post and PBS, to claim “mass shootings” occur much more frequently than they actually do. MST uses an alternative definition of “mass shooting” that greatly overstates their frequency relative to the commonly-accepted definition used by law enforcement and academics.

MST openly acknowledges it uses the alternate definition to “punch a hole in the NRA argument.”…MST’s defines a mass shooting as any shooting where four or more people are injured or killed, not counting the shooter. This isn’t an official definition taken from law enforcement or academia, but appears to be originally created by anti-gun activists on Reddit.

Of course, it’s something that Shot In The Dark readers knew well over a year ago.

Congress’s Democrat brain trust jumped on the news that former National Security Advisor Flynn had tweeted he was a scapegoat.

They were obliging enough to do it on video:

And who can blame ’em?  It was in the NYTimes and the WaPo.

Of course, it was fake news.  When it’s political and it’s in the Times or the WaPo, one should assume it’s fake, and verify.

It didn’t pass the stink test, of course.   When it comes to this administration, it almost never will.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

I was promised by every Liberal in the nation that if Betsy DeVos was confirmed as Secretary of Education, she would end public education.

 She got confirmed earlier this week.  So why were there so many school busses on the road this morning, blocking up traffic?  Shouldn’t those kids be sitting at home, stultifying in ignorance?

 Joe Doakes

We were also supposed to be at war with the Soviets…er, Russians.

No, wait, that was Hillary.  Never mind.

I’ve been re-reading Modern Times:  The History of the World from the 1920s to the 1980s by the great historian (and former leftist intellectual) Paul Johnson.

I highly recommend it for a sold re-grounding ni the history of the 20th century, including the century’s most noxious, toxic, and yes, evil impulses – the intertwined phenomena of Communism and Naziism, and the west’s initial bout of insanity – abandoning the great tenets of western civilization for the callow blandishments of “progressivism”, and the side effects that had.

And I was thinking – as bad as the sixties and seventies were, the current rot – of which Barack Obama was just a loud, friendly symptom – in many ways may be as bad as the intellectdual cancer of the thirties.

Along those lines, and reading just after the Berkeley “Yiannopoulos” riots, I found this quote – Johnson quoting Lionel Teilling, writing about the western lefts reaction to Stalin’s show trials in the thirties.  Trilling described…:

…an imposed monolithic government they saw the promise of rest from the particular acts of will which are needed to meet the many, often clashing, requirements of democratic society … they cherished the idea of revolution as the final, all-embracing act of will which would forever end the exertions of our individual wills.

In other words, the only thing worse than politics is the complete lack of politics.

Which you get, among other ways, by making politics too painful, risky and dangerous for those in “the middle”.

They’re right on track.

When I was a kid, I’d go into the local bakery, whrere area farmers would be sitting and talking.  When they talked, there were two subjects:

If it was raining out:  complaining that it was too wet.

If it wasn’t raining about:  complaining about how dry it was.

Over this past few months, watching California go from being a parched wasteland to a potentially flooded wasteland,, and hearing Californians complaining about it, I’ve thought:

1. Hey!  Just like North Dakota farmers!
2. And you expected what, building a society in an almost uninhabitable desert, prone to almost nothing but extremes?

Dear Cali:  hope your dam doesn’t break.  If you hurry up and secede from the union, you might just be able to recover from a dam break without all that pesky help from a federal government you hate!

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

We took very precise, very careful climate temperature measurements that did not show the result we wanted, then ran them through a black box that nobody understands and we cannot replicate.  And what do you know, now the results DO show the result we wanted.  You can’t deny science.  

 Joe Doakes

When you politicize science, you don’t get scientific politics;  you get politicized science.

When I saw that Democrat protesters – led, inevitably, by paid activist shills – were howling and stomping at Republican town hall meetings, I knew it was a matter of time before our dimbulb media started making comparisons with the Tea Party.

And sure enough, they are.

So with two “Tea Parties” floating around, how can you tell the difference?

Never let it be said I’m not here to help.   Here’s the Shot In The Dark “Tea Party Field Recognition Guide.

Hope that helps!

We’ve fallen a little behind on our World War I series.  Over the next few weeks/months, we’re going to work to get caught-up to the calendar.

The men of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Battalion of the Imperial Rifle Regiment Nr.III likely considered themselves fortunate.  Stationed at the summit of Mount Marmolada, the highest peak in the Dolomites section of the Alps, the soldiers were on a fairly passive part of the Italian front.  Their barracks, build into the mountain side in the summer of 1916, was well protected by rock cliffs, which limited the effectiveness of Italian artillery.  Even the weather was reasonable.  Despite the massive snowfalls of that winter, the temperatures were warming.

The roar that the battalion heard at 5:30 in the morning on Friday, December 13th, 1916, didn’t sound like artillery.  It groaned and seemed to move closer towards them, shaking the very earth under their feet.  Most the men in the unit had been awakened by the sound, only moments before 200,000 tons of snow and ice collapsed on top of them.  In an instant, 270 Austro-Hungarian soldiers were killed by an avalanche – a part of 10,000 men killed by falling snow in December of 1916 alone.

The Italian front continued to find new ways to claim lives.

Austro-Hungarian troops survey their position – the Hapsburgs would suffer nearly 2.4 million casualties on the Italian front

It had taken multiple failed offensives, and a nearly successful Austro-Hungarian counter-offensive, but Italy’s fortunes in the Great War had finally improved.

The late summer of 1916 had presented Italy with an opportunity.  Between the Battle of Asiago and the Brusilov Offensive of that summer, the Dual Monarchy was on the verge of a military collapse.  Vienna had transferred hundreds of thousands of men from the Eastern front to the Italian front, and when that gambled failed, had been forced to do the same back to the East as the Romanians pressed into the underbelly of the Habsburg Empire.  Despite five different attempts at breaking the deadlock at Isonzo over the course of a year and a half, for the cost of over 175,000 casualties, Italy now held something it never had before – a numerical advantage.    (more…)

I’m running a round of usability testing this entire week.

Which means I’m going to be in a lab, focusing on people doing stuff with software.

Which means if your comment goes in the moderation queue, it will be likely late afternoon before I can get around to approving comments.

That is, of course, for those of you whose comments get approved pro forma.  Those of you on suspension will still need to do what you were asked to do to unblock your comments.

I apologize for the inconvenience.