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OT WE 16 JUL 25 ~ Maine

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 6:22am

Howdy folks. Doing the annual lakeside cabin routine now.

We enjoy the Belgrade Lakes region in central Maine. Small towns, mostly rural.
This Lake is called Long Pond. Quite large and quiet. A few anglers out on
occasIon putting around. Lots of loons and a few eagles. I love the stillness.

We are on Long Pond, which is the lower left one. It is about 7 miles long to give you
a perspective. The weather is here. Wish you were beautiful.

Open thread as usual. The floor is yours.

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Submitted by QMS on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 7:34am

Hey, good morning

.
Just another day in paradise here.

Other wildlife spotted: Heron, Falcon, Turtles, Owls, fishes and assorted little critters.

What is it like in your corner?

Happy Birthday William Bell (1939)

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by on the cusp on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 8:29am

Well, Well, Cap'n!

@QMS A local news blog published a meme. It pictured a couple and a child enjoying sitting by their rv, sitting in their outdoor chairs, enjoying a river view. "Let's don't go back.", says the man. Well, it referred to the rat race of work, the city, the noise, the pressures, etc... Unfortunately, it was published just after the Guadalupe River flood and the death and destruction of camps that will likely never be reconstructed, the camp area never again to be trusted. The blog publisher had to apologize.
What a beautiful view of a beautiful lake! I'm jelous and happy for you at the same time, dear friend!
Thanks for the OT!
Gaze away!

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 8:53am

Hey OTC

@on the cusp
.
yes, returning to reality
is always tough
the only thing on the agenda today
is to go for a swim when the sun gets high
drink some brewskis and read the murder
mystery set in western Atchafalaya.
Life is good.

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by soryang on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 9:30am

Morning QMS

@QMS

早上好

Lucky you! I've only been to Maine a couple of times. Both trips were memorable. The scenery is wonderful. I went for some survival training there with the military for five days. That was the first week in March a half century ago. It was quite cold, snow on the ground etc. Didn't eat for a few days. That was an experience!

In a related (?) vein, I heard about this book, "Mission," in an 8 minute PBS "interview" with the author Tim Weiner, who was apparently promoting it. The association is so called "enhanced interrogation" and "psyops." The 8 minute interview of Weiner was pretty much bs. I found this in the AP write up-

‘The Mission’ reveals troubling political meddling in CIA after 9/11

Half of the book details how the CIA swerved far out of its intelligence-gathering lane after the 9/11 attacks and morphed into a paramilitary organization, calling its torture tactics “enhanced interrogation techniques” and killing many thought to be terrorists absent the oversight that governs the military services.

For example, one agent let a prisoner freeze to death in a dungeon-like “fetid hellhole” at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

In the agent’s defense, the post 9/11 months and years were a time of pervasive fear of another attack and relentless pressure on the CIA to prevent that. Some notable successes followed; agents penetrated both the Kremlin and Saddam Hussein’s government.

Knowledge is the essential tool of national security and peace and “The Mission” makes it clear we let the CIA go off track at our peril.

Some analyst I used to follow years ago, called this kind of pub "soldier of the lie." I haven't read it, but I don't think I'm being unfair. Mix a few lies, and unfounded characterizations in with some true disclosures. Enhances the credibility. Or at least it helps the medicine go down. Sure seems in the excerpt above someone is trying to justify torture and killing. Who knows maybe things are as mainstream journalists say and all else is "conspiracy theory."

Sun is out here after the latest "invest" passed. Great tune! Don't think I've heard it before.

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 10:30am

Thanks for the link

@soryang
.
A lot of that stuff stinks
done in the name of just us.

Going in for the first dip of the day.

Take good care.

#1 早上好 Lucky you! I've only been to Maine a couple of times. Both trips were memorable. The scenery is wonderful. I went for some survival training there with the military for five days. That was the first week in March a half century ago. It was quite cold, snow on the ground etc. Didn't eat for a few days. That was an experience! In a related (?) vein, I heard about this book, "Mission," in an 8 minute PBS "interview" with the author Tim Weiner, who was apparently promoting it. The association is so called "enhanced interrogation" and "psyops." The 8 minute interview of Weiner was pretty much bs. I found this in the AP write up- ‘The Mission’ reveals troubling political meddling in CIA after 9/11 Half of the book details how the CIA swerved far out of its intelligence-gathering lane after the 9/11 attacks and morphed into a paramilitary organization, calling its torture tactics “enhanced interrogation techniques” and killing many thought to be terrorists absent the oversight that governs the military services. For example, one agent let a prisoner freeze to death in a dungeon-like “fetid hellhole” at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. In the agent’s defense, the post 9/11 months and years were a time of pervasive fear of another attack and relentless pressure on the CIA to prevent that. Some notable successes followed; agents penetrated both the Kremlin and Saddam Hussein’s government. Knowledge is the essential tool of national security and peace and “The Mission” makes it clear we let the CIA go off track at our peril. Some analyst I used to follow years ago, called this kind of pub "soldier of the lie." I haven't read it, but I don't think I'm being unfair. Mix a few lies, and unfounded characterizations in with some true disclosures. Enhances the credibility. Or at least it helps the medicine go down. Sure seems in the excerpt above someone is trying to justify torture and killing. Who knows maybe things are as mainstream journalists say and all else is "conspiracy theory." Sun is out here after the latest "invest" passed. Great tune! Don't think I've heard it before.

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 10:55am

Hola Soryang. IMHO, the CIA was always hybrid - they had an

@soryang

"intelligence division" of sorts, mostly college kids reading foreign language newspapers and magazines, and no doubt a few "spy" type foreign agents. They also had their clandestine ops department charged with destabilizing countries, regime change operations, blackmail, assassinations and the like, ab initio. It came to light during the overthrow of Mossadegh, the Guatemala Coup, and much more, but was no doubt part and parcel of the organization all along. Hell, it's formative years were under Allen Dulles, not an intel kind of guy. 911, at most, shifted the balance in the direction of greater clandestiner/paramilitary and fewer intel workers and tasks. Jusy my opinion, of course.

be well and have a good one

#1 早上好 Lucky you! I've only been to Maine a couple of times. Both trips were memorable. The scenery is wonderful. I went for some survival training there with the military for five days. That was the first week in March a half century ago. It was quite cold, snow on the ground etc. Didn't eat for a few days. That was an experience! In a related (?) vein, I heard about this book, "Mission," in an 8 minute PBS "interview" with the author Tim Weiner, who was apparently promoting it. The association is so called "enhanced interrogation" and "psyops." The 8 minute interview of Weiner was pretty much bs. I found this in the AP write up- ‘The Mission’ reveals troubling political meddling in CIA after 9/11 Half of the book details how the CIA swerved far out of its intelligence-gathering lane after the 9/11 attacks and morphed into a paramilitary organization, calling its torture tactics “enhanced interrogation techniques” and killing many thought to be terrorists absent the oversight that governs the military services. For example, one agent let a prisoner freeze to death in a dungeon-like “fetid hellhole” at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. In the agent’s defense, the post 9/11 months and years were a time of pervasive fear of another attack and relentless pressure on the CIA to prevent that. Some notable successes followed; agents penetrated both the Kremlin and Saddam Hussein’s government. Knowledge is the essential tool of national security and peace and “The Mission” makes it clear we let the CIA go off track at our peril. Some analyst I used to follow years ago, called this kind of pub "soldier of the lie." I haven't read it, but I don't think I'm being unfair. Mix a few lies, and unfounded characterizations in with some true disclosures. Enhances the credibility. Or at least it helps the medicine go down. Sure seems in the excerpt above someone is trying to justify torture and killing. Who knows maybe things are as mainstream journalists say and all else is "conspiracy theory." Sun is out here after the latest "invest" passed. Great tune! Don't think I've heard it before.

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by soryang on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 11:43am

no doubt EL

@enhydra lutris

I think Dulles fancied himself a cloak and dagger guy. Or at least the puppet master type.

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by Lookout on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 8:50am

Have a great time...

Looks great! I'm headed to the other end of the Eastern seaboard...Florida. More on that trip later.

Never been to the Maine lakes...in fact I've barely made it into Maine. One day maybe. I have been to the Muskoka Lakes in Ontario.

So enjoy your visit and we'll see you around the site. Thanks for the OT!

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 8:56am

It is a convenient escape

@Lookout
.
about 4 hours from home
depending on Boston traffic.

Cheers!

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 11:11am

Good morning Cap'n Q. Lucky you, sounds like a great spot.

Do beware of ticks, of course, they're supposed to be particularly bad this year.

Today my mind is drifting toward thinking about mental set and what it tells us. Examples from Guardian headlines:

What should Jewish New Yorkers make of Zohran Mamdani?

Clearly already answered. Not people nor even New Yorkers, but Jews. If one is, first and foremost, princiaplly and primarily a Jew then one is viewing everything from that specific perspecrtive.

Women in the US: if you’re single, tell us why

WTF, almost everybody is born single. Why not have the marrieds explain why?

DNC chair Ken Martin ignoring ‘internal bullshit’ to focus on re-earning voters’ trust

SOS, change the message, change the image, build trust, why the fuck not try DOING stuff, helping the hoi polloi and reigning in the oligarchs and MIC. Seemingly because talking is what they do.

AND - to what extent does this kind of shit in the press report of expose these kinds of mind sets and to what extent to they create, build and reinforce them?

Ah well, not a rabbit hole but a whole damn warren, time to get busy in the yard.

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 11:40am

Enjoy your break!

I know I enjoyed mine- it refreshes the soul.

Here's a blast from the past, from happier times. Fat boy me going off the rope swing on the yardarm on Diamant, on the hook in Port Elizabeth Harbor, Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Christmas Day 2010...

Swimming pool? We don't need no steeeenking swimming pool... (;-)

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 12:18pm

surprised the hat and beard

@usefewersyllables
.
stayed attached
that was a good plunge

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 1:01pm

They were one piece,

@QMS

so I held them on with my hands when I covered my face doing that preacher's seat. Came pretty close to waterboarding myself with the beard/stache on the swim back to the ladder, though. (;-)

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by Socialprogressive on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 11:53am

It's a lake called a pond?

Now I'm confused.
Well, whether it's a lake or a pond, it looks peaceful and serene. Enjoy your time there.

Some midweek humor.

So much for my sobriety coin.

—

MAGA
Morons
Are
Governing
America

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 12:16pm

Yes, it is confusing

@Socialprogressive
.
where I grew up a pond
was a small thing and a
lake was a bigger body
of water. Here it is willy nilly.

Thanks for the humor.

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by humphrey on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 1:39pm

The US preaches following the "rules based order" until it

comes across something it doesn't like then it simply does whatever suits its fancy.

It is amazing what a few well placed $$$ can accomplish.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/16/trump-third-country-deportation...

The Trump administration deported five migrants from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen to the small Southern African nation of Eswatini on Tuesday, continuing “third country deportations” after the Supreme Court allowed the administration to maintain the practice last month.

The move comes after the Supreme Court in June paved the way for third country deportations — where immigrants are deported to a country that is not their home nation — lifting an order from a federal judge in Boston requiring the administration to give deportees advance notice of their removal.

“NEW: a safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed — This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X.

The five deportees all have a criminal history, according to McLaughlin’s post. ~~Likely something like jaywalking~~

The Trump administration has made the practice of third country deportations a cornerstone of its immigration policy in an effort to speed up its mass deportation agenda, seeking to reach agreements with several nations to accept migrants from other countries.

Submitted by on the cusp on Wed, 07/16/2025 - 8:08pm

I just booked a short stay at

our favorite cottage in The Hill Country for late September. I sit out on the back porch, watch deer, turkeys, cattle, and see turtles and water birds at the pond.
Earthling1 will get a kick out of this: I remembered how much I loved The Everly Brothers, I told JtC that I would even book a tribute concert, since their songs are commonly covered. He just did a quick search, found a tribute duo was playing at his favorite concert venue which is in Fredericksburg! So, we can also scope out both Luckenbach and Albert Ice House and Dance Hall while we are there.
We can look, listen, and relax for 3 days.
So, we are breaking our "no tribute bands" rule!

edited to add "venue"

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981