Monday, December 31, 2018

New Yr.'s Eve Seamanship

FRI 31 DEC 1943
Pacific
Four PBY-5As from Attu, Aleutians, bomb Shimushu and Kashiwabara, Kuriles.

Submarine Greenling (SS-213) sinks Japanese transport Shoho Maru in Eastern Carolines, 05°40'N, 160°20'E, and evades counterattacks by submarine chaser Ch 30.

Submarine Herring (SS-233) attacks Japanese convoy, 31°46'N, 138°22'E (see 1 January 1944).

Atlantic
Destroyer Lea (DD-118) is damaged when she is accidentally rammed by U.S. freighter Elihu Yale, 33°29'30"N, 48°12'30"W.
Fuckin' Yalies.

Let's Drop The Big One!!

We don't need no stinkin' 2019!! We're rats in a cage; let's get the whole mess over w/ already. Enough is enough!
Jane C. Timm / NBC News:
U.S. Strategic Command deletes New Year's Eve joke about dropping something ‘bigger’  —  “If ever needed, we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger,” the unified command, part of the Defense Department, tweeted.  —  U.S. Strategic Command made an unexpected joke in a now-deleted Twitter post …
This reporter suggests we start w/ the landlords.
We can finish w/ every one of you bastards who wears a uniform, from the Chairman of The Joint Chiefs to every low-life shithead meter-reader & U.P.S. driver. TAKE OFF YOUR UNIFORMS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!!

FUCK THE TROOPS 2018!!

Retired Army Maj. Gen James Grazioplene is scheduled to stand trial in late April in civilian court for allegedly raping his daughter in the late 1980s.

Grazioplene's court date has been set for April 29 in Prince William County General District Court, according to the Associated Press.

The 69-year-old two-star general, who retired from the Army in 2005, remains in custody at the Prince William - Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center, jail officials told Military.com on Monday.

A Prince William County judge denied Grazioplene's bail request at a Dec. 20 hearing two weeks after he was arrested on Dec. 7.

A Virginia grand jury indicted Grazioplene on three counts of rape and three counts of incest against his daughter between Aug. 1, 1987 and May 31, 1988, according to the Dec. 3 indictment documents.
[Military.com]

Sunday, December 30, 2018

TUES 18 DEC 2018

2019-2021 PST

This bullshit was once illegal. Actual episode.
This crap probably should be illegal.
Mean streets.
Angry streets.

Both Sides Are Idiots,
Probably Criminally

Stupidity & greed will kill you all, but not nearly soon enough.
Los Angeles Times:
Here's how Paradise ignored warnings and became a deathtrap … The fate of Paradise was cast long before a windstorm last month fueled the deadliest fire in California history.  —  The ridge settlement was doomed by its proximity to a crack in the mighty wall of the Sierra Nevada, a deep canyon that bellowed gale-force winds.
Can not wait to see the executives of Pacific Gas & Electric strung up &/or electrocuted on their power grid.
Or gassed. Or blowed up real good in a pipeline explosion. (Not the first time PG&E has murdered its customers.)
The suckers of Paradise may have paid enough for their cretinous, selfish idiocy & hubris. Stupid jerks. Fuck 'em.

All Pacific, Sub & Planes Again

THU 30 DEC 1943
Pacific
Submarine Bluefish (SS-222) sinks Japanese oiler Ichiyu Maru, Java Sea, 02°45'S, 109°10'E.

U.S. aircraft sink Japanese guardboat Ukui Maru off Rabaul.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Deflated

Thanks But No Thanks

Nagonna happen!

Slversides Shows Off

WED 29 DEC 1943
Pacific
Off Palau, submarine Silversides (SS-236) sinks Japanese transport Tenposan Maru, 08°09'N, 133°51'E; army cargo ship Shichisei Maru, 08°00'N, 133°51'E; and merchant cargo ship Ryuto Maru, 08°03'N, 134°04'E; and damages army cargo ship Bichu Maru.

USAAF B-24 attacks Truk-bound Japanese cargo ship Katori Maru, 06°12'N, 167°45'E.

USAAF aircraft sink Japanese merchant cargo ship Kakuzan Maru and transport Daitei Maru in the middle Yangtze River.
If you missed the item w/ the Silent Service episode about Silversides embedded many moons past ... thar she blows!

A Plant Grows On Sixth Street

Back Door Man

Capitalization questionable.

No One Is Safe ...

... The Police Are Everywhere!

Non-American Bandstand

Four days if you're lucky.

Null Set

Friday, December 28, 2018

Neither Burgers Nor Shakes

Chain Link

YOUR SPEED 27

Unsuccessful Attack

TUE 28 DEC 1943
Pacific
Amphibious Training Base, Kamaole, Maui, T.H., is established.

Submarine Muskallunge (SS-262) unsuccessfully attacks Japanese convoy at 08°50'N, 147°20'E.

Navy PV-1 attacks Japanese net tender Katsura Maru off Kwajalein.

USAAF B-25s and P-40s sink Japanese merchant cargo vessels Heizan Maru, Unyo Maru and Koka Maru in Yangtze River, 30°40'N, 117°30'E.

Indian Ocean
U.S. freighter Robert F. Hoke en route from Abadan, Iran, to Mombasa, Kenya, is torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-26 at 20°05'N, 59°58'E, and abandoned by all but the 27-man Armed Guard, who remain at their guns and fire upon the I-boat's periscope to keep the enemy down. I-26 abandons any further attacks and retires while Robert F. Hoke remains afloat. The crew reboards the ship but is not able to get the ship underway and she is abandoned a second time. An RAF crash boat rescues all hands (41 merchant sailors and the Armed Guard) and the abandoned freighter is later towed to Aden by British rescue tug HMS Masterful. Robert F. Hoke is later towed to Suez but never returns to active service and is written off as a total loss.

Indian Navy minesweeper RINS Rajputana rescues the survivors of U.S. freighter Jose Navarro, torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-178 the day before, and transports them to Cochin.

Atlantic
PB4Y (VB 105) on patrol over Bay of Biscay sights five German destroyers and six torpedo boats returning from attempt to rendezvous with blockade runner Alsterfurer, sunk the day before by an RAF No. 311 (Czech) Squadron Liberator. Of 15 PB4Ys dispatched as a strike force, six (five from VB 105 and one from VB 103) contact the enemy force and attack it. Contact reports by Navy planes, meanwhile, draw British light cruisers HMS Glasgow and HMS Enterprise to the scene, resulting in the sinking of German destroyers Z 27 and torpedo boats T 25 and T 26, the survivors of which are rescued by the British ships, an Irish steamer, and four Spanish destroyers.

Ghost Restaurant

Sensing a theme?

Business Stinks All Over

Although opening a restaurant must be the dumbest risk ever.
Sucks to be you, huh Eric?

¿Qué Pasa, New York?

Fun City Losing Edge?

Paul Berger / Wall Street Journal:
New York City Traffic Deaths Set to Hit 100-Year Low  —  City officials credit traffic initiatives for reducing road deaths, on pace to fall for fifth consecutive year  —  The number of annual traffic fatalities in New York City is on course to fall beneath 200 for the first time in a century, transportation officials say.
Graham Rayman / New York Daily News:
Silent night: City records no murders for five days and counting Christmas week  —  All is calm, all is bright.  —  The city has gone five straight days with no homicides, making for a remarkably peaceful Christmas week.  —  The most recent reported slaying in our city of 8.5 million people was Friday.
At least Con Ed can still be counted on to keep it interesting, if prosaic.
On the other extremity, the F.D.N.Y. doesn't say it wasn't extraterrestrial, only that there was no evidence thereof. I'd have been thinking/praying Gojira,
had I seen it w/o knowing what it was.This reporter would guess it's more the cloud cover than the actual sky, but whatever, WSJ.

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Bombardment At Bougainville

MON 27 DEC 1943
Pacific
Two cruisers and four destroyers (Rear Admiral Walden L. Ainsworth) bombard Kieta area, Bougainville, Solomons.

Coastal transport APc-15 is damaged by dive bomber, New Britain, 06°12'S, 149°03'E.

Submarine Flying Fish (SS-229) sinks Japanese fleet tanker Kyuei Maru, 21°25'N, 118°05'E.

Submarine Gurnard (SS-254) damages Japanese transport (ex-armed merchant cruiser) Gokoku Maru, 34°23'N, 138°24'E.

Submarine Ray (SS-271) sinks Japanese fleet tanker Kyoko Maru (ex-Dutch Semiramis) west of the Celebes, 05°00'S, 121°22'E.

Submarine Tautog (SS-199) damages Japanese seaplane carrier Kimikawa Maru off Shionomisaki, 33°25'N, 135°33'E.

Indian Ocean
U.S. freighter Jose Navarro, bound for Calcutta, India, is torpedoed by German submarine U-178 at 08°20'N, 73°35'E. A volunteer crew returns to the ship after she is abandoned in hopes of saving her but go over the side before U-178 finishes off the freighter in a second attack. There are no fatalities among the 46-man merchant complement, the 34-man Armed Guard, or the 86 embarked troops (only one man of that aggregate total is injured) (see 28 December 1943).

We Like This Guy

During testimony Thursday morning, a U.S. Forest Service investigator described his bizarre interview with Clark, who claimed he hadn’t slept and had been fasting for 40 days around the time the fire erupted Aug. 6 in Holy Jim Canyon, where he has a cabin. As a result, Clark said he couldn’t be sure if his recollections of what happened that day were just a lucid dream or reality, investigator Albert Banh testified.

[...]

Clark told the officer he had recently been released from a hospital on a “5150 hold,” which is police slang for someone involuntarily committed to be evaluated for mental health issues. The defendant also admitted he had stopped taking his medication because he considered it “poison,” Banh testified.

Clark told Banh he had lived in Cabin 14 in Trabuco Canyon for about 18 years, and right away he had issues with his neighbor — Romero — in Cabin 15, where investigators believe the blaze originated.

Clark claimed Milligan set the fire and he knew that because he has a “third eye” and could “see” him doing it, Banh testified. Clark also claimed he could “smell the KKK cigarettes” of Milligan, Banh said.

[...]

On Aug. 6, the day the Holy Fire erupted, Clark allegedly threatened to kill a neighbor about 7:30 a.m., prosecutors said in a previous motion to deny him bail.

As the neighbor walked to his truck, Clark told him that he “(expletive) FUCKED with the wrong person,” according to the motion. “The defendant stated that he was `crazy’ and noted it was `perfect’ because he could do anything he wants and get away with it.”

Later that day, he allegedly set fire to his neighbor’s residence. The Holy Fire ultimately also destroyed 13 other residences in Holy Jim Canyon and adjacent Trabuco Canyon.

Orange County sheriff’s investigator Jennifer Hernandez said in an affidavit supporting the motion to deny bail that Clark “could be heard on video telling (a victim), `Mark my words, you’re gonna die at 12:37… I have 100 percent plausible deniability. You’re gonna die. I’m gonna murder you.”’
In completely unrelated news, got my pension check today, giving me the entire wknd. in which to buy a gun (& plenty of ammo) to show to my corporate landlord & his incompetent flunkies. Fasting, huh? Good idea too. Couple days w/o eating & I'll be so angry I could eat a horse kill a humanoid.
[Inspiration from mynewsLA.com.]

The Pearl Of Great Price

Dep't. Of Horseshit

Are people really this inane? (Don't answer that.)

Paranoid Nincompoop Of The Day

Are there no mental asylums?
Dan Zak / Washington Post:
What is Ginni Thomas saying now?  The evolution of an unusually outspoken Supreme Court spouse  —  What is going on with Ginni Thomas?  —  She still looks and sounds like the Washington wife of yore, with the pearl earrings, the Reagan-red cocktail attire, the sunglasses tiara'd atop her blond bob.

[...]

But her most visible work is on Facebook, which she considers a prime conduit for influencing the conservative base. Her specialty is meme warfare — sharing loving tributes to Trump, derogatory takedowns of progressives and broadsides against congressional Republicans. A week after a neo-Nazi killed a woman by driving a car into a crowd in Charlottesville, Thomas derided House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for not speaking out against violence on the left.

“LiberalFascists have their useful idiots,” she wrote, and we are left to wonder, as always: What is going on with Ginni Thomas?

These memes come off the assembly line of jingoistic conservative Facebook groups with names such as the Citizens Mandate and the Great American Movement, which have 160,000 followers between them. The groups seem as automated and leaderless as many of the murky forces in social media these days, but the latter appears to be linked on Twitter to a fellow Groundswell member, and the former was apparently born of a 2014 pledge to “Stop the Fundamental Transformation of America” — which was signed by anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly, evangelical James Dobson and 50 other conservatives, including a few that Thomas has honored with “impact” awards.

“I can’t believe that the wife of a Supreme Court justice would be spreading such dangerous lies,” wrote a Facebook commenter named Elizabeth in October, after Thomas equated Democrats with rioting and mob rule.

A handful of Thomas’s fellow warriors, when asked about her Facebook activity, say they haven’t observed it or haven’t caught anything objectionable, though at least one says she can overreach at times.

“She’s hardcore to a fault,” says an alumnus of the Heritage Foundation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly. “Sometimes it clouds her political judgment.”
Dangerous lies & "meme warfare": Politics for pinheads who have to move their lips when they read. You know, conservatives & the religious.

They Killed It!

Murderers!

Making It Up As He Goes Along

He's a lying sack of shit,
Felicia Sonmez / Washington Post:
Trump claims without evidence that ‘most of the people not getting paid’ in partial government shutdown are Democrats  —  President Trump on Thursday claimed that “most of the people not getting paid” in the partial government shutdown are Democrats, days after he contended that many federal workers support …
he's a lying sack of shit.

Fact check: Trump brags to troops about 10 percent pay raise he didn't actually give them

The president also got it very wrong when he claimed during his trip to Iraq that service members haven't had a wage hike in 10 years.
[N.B.C. News]

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Crabby?

You bet I'm crabby.

Apparently You WILL be Replaced

The Halal Guys move in at one end of the block,
next thing you know the Mickey D's at the other end of the block is replaced by "RETAIL For Lease".

Oh Ugly World, W/ Such Ugly
Things In It

I shot 140 peopleics today & you're going to look at every last one of them if/until it kills you.

Today In Urban Camping

Now that the holidays are over, you can go back to forgetting the least among us until next Thanksgiving, you filthy, filthy hypocrites.
Twice a yr. it's stale but free doughnuts, future leftovers & a "gift bag" w/ toothpaste & a pair of socks for them, & the remaining 363 days of the yr. they can suck wind.
There being no apparent Gawd, I s'pose it's on me to burn your houses & let you suffer that to which you've condemned your fellow humanoids.

Crane Of The Future

Operation BACKHANDLER

From.
SUN 26 DEC 1943
Pacific
1st Marine Division (Major General William H. Rupertus, USMC) is landed at Cape Gloucester, New Britain, by Seventh Amphibious Force (Rear Admiral Daniel E. Barbey) after heavy preinvasion bombardment and bombing by ship gunfire and aircraft in Operation BACKHANDLER. During retaliatory Japanese air strikes, destroyer Brownson (DD-518) is sunk by dive bomber off Cape Gloucester, New Britain, 05°20'S, 148°25'E; destroyers Lamson (DD-367), Shaw (DD-373), and Mugford (DD-389) are damaged by dive bombers; and tank landing ships LST-66 is damaged by horizontal bomber.
Caribbean
U.S. tanker Chapultepec en route from Aruba, N.W.I., to Cristobal, C.Z., is torpedoed by German submarine U-530 at 10°33'N, 79°10'W. While there are no fatalities among the 53-man merchant complement or the 28-man Armed Guard, two of that aggregate total are injured. The ship reaches her destination under her own power and discharges her cargo of fuel oil. Subsequently, U.S. tanker Esso Buffalo,, en route from Aruba, N.W.I., to the Canal Zone (ultimate destination: Melbourne, Australia), most likely accidentally rams U-530 at 10°25'N, 78°28'W. There are no casualties among the 47-man merchant complement or the 28-man Armed Guard.

Dumb S.O.B. Can't Do Anything Right

Menace To Society. Or At Least The Military.

James LaPorta / Newsweek:
Donald Trump Twitter Account Video Reveals Covert U.S. Navy SEAL Deployment During Iraq Visit  —  President Donald Trump and the White House communications team revealed that a U.S. Navy SEAL team was deployed to Iraq after the president secretly traveled to the region to meet …
Of course the SEALS might've resisted the urge to pose w/ the fucking puke.

$10 TO STOP

In The News

Obligatory

[The news]

Fragging Time!!

If he returns from Iraq alive, it will be proof that not a single one of our baby-killers over there is a patriot.

Mental Illness Round-Up

Predictions from the "prophetic". And pathetic.

2018: The Year in False Prophesies and Failed Predictions

If Jesus loves these morons, why does he let them embarrass themselves on a daily basis?

[Weasel Watch]

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

LAUNDRYWOOD

Clean for Christmas.

War On Christmas Day

SAT 25 DEC 1943
Pacific
TG 50.2 (Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman) attacks Japanese ships at Kavieng. Planes from aircraft carrier Bunker Hill (CV-17) and small aircraft carrier Monterey (CVL 26) sink transport Tenryu Maru, 02°36'S, 150°49'E; and damage minesweepers W.21 and W.22 and transport (ex-armed merchant cruiser) Kiyozumi Maru.

Submarine Skate (SS-305) torpedoes Japanese battleship Yamato northeast of Truk, Carolines, 10°05'N, 150°32'E.

USAAF B-25s damage Japanese Patrol Boat No.14 50 kilometers east of Hong Kong.

Atlantic
German blockade runner Osorno arrives off the Gironde Estuary, met by six destroyers and six torpedo boats. Although Osorno has run the gantlet and avoided damage from her foes, she fouls the submerged wreckage of sunken German auxiliary vessel Sperrbrecher 21, necessitating the blockade runner's being beached.

Koreatown Christmas Lights

Very tasteful.

Monday, December 24, 2018

Xmas Eve Afloat During War

FRI 24 DEC 1943
Pacific
Task force of three cruisers and four destroyers (Rear Admiral Aaron S. Merrill) bombards Buka-Bonis area, Solomons.

Allied aircraft sinks Japanese auxiliary minelayer Koa Maru, Marcus Bay, New Britain.

Destroyer escort Griswold (DE-7) sinks Japanese submarine I-39 off Koli Point, Guadalcanal, 09°23'S, 160°09'E.

Submarine Gurnard (SS-254) sinks Japanese transport Seizan Maru 27 nautical miles east of Miki cape, 33°57'N, 136°19'E, and auxiliary minesweeper Naruo Maru, 34°17'N, 136°55'E.

Submarine Raton (SS-270) torpedoes Japanese transport Heiwa Maru in Kaoe Bay, Halmahera, 02°57'N, 127°32'E; Heiwa Maru is intentionally run aground in shallow water to prevent her sinking.

USAAF B-24 aircraft damage Japanese cargo ship Kensho Maru, Kwajalein.

Atlantic
Advanced Amphibious Base, Dartmouth, England, is established.

Escort carrier Card (CVE-11)'s screen continues to battle concentration of U-boats. Destroyer Schenck (DD-159) sinks German submarine U-645, North Atlantic, 45°20'N, 21°40'W; but Leary (DD-158) is torpedoed and sunk by U-275 and U-382, 585 miles west-northwest of Cape Finisterre, Spain, 45°00'N, 22°00'W.

Xmas Canada Goose Cooked

Two birds are recovering at a wildlife care center after officials said the animals overdosed on pills dumped at a park in Huntington Beach.

Last week, authorities said, a man spotted hundreds of pills on the grass at Carr Park. After seeing a goose in distress, he called animal control.
[L.A. Now]

50 Yrs. Pass Like Nothing

Earthrise, by Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders, taken 24 December 1968, mission time 075:49:07 (16:40 UTC).
West Africa is visible just above Terra's terminator line. The lunar horizon is ~780 kilometers from the spacecraft.
Width of the photographed area at the lunar horizon is about 175 kilometers.
Two craters visible on the image were named 8 Homeward and Anders' Earthrise in honor of Apollo 8 by IAU in 2018.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

U-Boat Attacks Battleship

THU 23 DEC 1943
Pacific
USAAF B-25s sink Japanese gunboat Nan-Yo 35 miles south of Formosa Straits, 25°30'N, 119°30'E.

Atlantic
Escort carrier Card (CVE-11) and destroyer Decatur (DD-341) are attacked unsuccessfully by German submarine U-415 as they steam toward Horta, Azores, from escorting convoy GUS 24. Destroyer Schenck (DD-159), in Card's screen, attacks and probably damages another enemy boat in the vicinity, U-645 (see 24 December 1943). FM aircraft from Card locates blockade runner Osorno, bound for the Gironde Estuary (see 25 December 1943).

German submarine U-471 unsuccessfully attacks battleship Arkansas (BB-33) screening convoy TU 5 in the North Atlantic, 300 miles west of Rockall Bank.
Slightly more manly than attacking barely-armed & completely unarmored merchant shipping.

Bog-Monkey From Boeing To Keep America Safe Profits High For Defense Contractors


Meet Trump's acting Pentagon chief  —  When Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wanted him to be his top deputy, Patrick Shanahan was instructed to focus “down and in,” as he describes the approach to managing the government's largest bureaucracy.  —  But the former Boeing executive who came to be known as …
Can we declare a moratorium on appointing military-corporate drones of Irish-Roman Catholic descent/extraction to any more Trump admin. jobs, acting or otherwise? Not that anyone will be taking any such positions on any but a temporary basis anyway.

Less than an hr. later:
The Daily Beast piles on.

Today In Murder America

What in hell is wrong w/ this fucking country?

Two Arrested In Killing Of Homeless Man

He was accused of killing a Portland teen. Feds believe the Saudis helped him escape

[mynewsLA.com/The Oregonian]

Xmas In Jail

Perfect illustrations for this NYT item.

How to Keep Baby Jesus in the Manger? Bolts, Cameras and Tethers

As thefts at nativity scenes rise, communities are turning to elaborate security measures.
St. Basil's has its boy locked up tight.
Speaking of, we almost forgot this relevant program.And the remake thereof.

Saturday, December 22, 2018

Krauts In The Pacific

WED 22 DEC 1943
Pacific
Submarine Gurnard (SS-254) damages German cargo ship Havelland east of Kashinosaki, 33°30'N, 135°57'E; the ship never returns to active service.

Navy F6Fs and SBDs and USAAF P-39s raid Mili Atoll, Marshalls, sinking Japanese transport Nankai Maru, 06°05'N, 171°43'E.

USAAF aircraft sink Japanese merchant cargo vessel Ginrei Maru, 20°12'N, 113°40'E.

Oxymoron Of The Day

There is no hope, you fucking losers.

Poinsettias In Prison

War On Christmas

Where has this valuable resource been disappeared?

This site can’t be reached

The webpage at http://www.fuckchristmas.org/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
ERR_NAME_RESOLUTION_FAILED

Friday, December 21, 2018