I can't recall if this is your last or not, but in addition to thanking you for all your columns, I want to wish you a very happy and enjoyable "retirement"

I start cooking mañana, so I've got to take farmers' market very seriously today, especially insofar as I only have one specific meal, tomorrow, more or less completely planned. Much will depend on what's available today, though it is not fully determinative since the chain retailers will also have "fresh" veggies from the Imperial Valley and even Mexico. Zukes, tomatoes, and peppers for example are simply never "out of season" here.

PSA's from the feebs need to have a cautionary PSA warning you about them appended thereto. They regularly grind out ludicrous carp with bulletins about this or that thing which maybe actually happened once or twice but also incorporates a lot of total misunderstanding such as when they had their big thing about "gang signs" a great many of which were old hobo markings and random graffitti, or their declaration that Juggalos were a dangerous gang and the infamous alert to cops everywhere to be watchful of the "Black Identity Extremists" in our midst. I suggest something of the form "(this and that) has been identified as a threat, risk or danger by the feebs. Based on real evidence from normal media and the presence or absence of internet communications and word of mouth you should maybe give it a (insert numeral from 1 to 10 here)."

Zo, breakfast beckons and I intend to make a sandwich, and ergo must go slice a loaf of bread because we finished off the old one yestidday.

be well and have a great one and a fun and fulfilling retirement.

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sounds like a great plan. Wishing you success!
It has been very generous of you to post the potlucks
and share your interests. Hope to see you around soe.

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Why is the agreement with Pfizer so significant? Because it turns the state from a sovereign entity into an agent of a commercial pharmaceutical company seeking to operate in its territory. A role of the state is to protect the well being of its citizens and residents.

193 countries also did that and kept their deals with big pharma secret including America. And once the harms started coming out they ignored them and kept repeating safe and effective and left those harmed hanging in the wind. Remember that Israel was the first country that showed that the jab caused myocarditis and other problems.

Austin did a bait and switch on the military by telling them that the jabs had been FDA approved except it was the Pfizer Comamidty that wasn’t available here. One soldier just won his lawsuit against the military for being dishonorably discharged because of the lie and is upgraded to honorable. Austin also defied congress by mandating them to get jabbed or else after the anthrax vaccine debacle that also destroyed a lot of lives. I’m curious whether he and the other military brass took it or were they exempt like congress was as well as many other groups? Might be karma if he did.

But any lawsuit against big pharma will fall because the government has given them total immunity.

This doctor has been pro vax and encouraged her listeners to get jabbed and she did the same for her family and jabbed her kids and now she regrets it all.

Why does she regret it? She read Dr. McCollough's recent article.

COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines: Lessons Learned from the Registrational Trials and Global Vaccination Campaign

She learned that Pfizer only tested the jab on healthy people aged 19-55 and of course they never tested it to see if it blocked infection or transmission. Nor on the elderly or pregnant women. lately the wording has been changed to pregnant people.

Thanks again for all your OTs and I’ll see you down the road. It’s sunny and warm here and Sam has been outside all morning sun bathing.

Your weekly columns have been so informative and compelling, a must read each Saturday here in France.

I know how much work goes into a weekly Open Thread and you have produced so many with current geo-political and important news focus.

No small feat.

Your life on the farm and focus on family and friends sets a bar for all of us and keeps us grounded in ways we so need today.

Many thank yous.

We are in a season where all the hedgerows are now manicured to a standard height and everywhere you look hedges are neat as a pin. It must be done before birds start nesting or it must wait until after end of summer.

It is also the season of 'gosh where do we put all the manure' from cows kept in barns from mid November to mid March. Large tractors (those not in Paris) trundle over roads to get to pastures where the manure can be spread with giant spreaders or just tipped into piles for future moving around. It can be quite intense oder-wise until a good rain melts it into the underlying soils.

Even though days are rapidly reaching eleven hours we see tractor lights in the dark working away. Farmers are never done with their jobs.

We have seen Cattle Egrets, Great White Egrets, Herons, many Hawks and this week two Stork sightings. All up from Africa and journeying to Spring nesting grounds in Scandinavia and Northern Europe.

WE've had an unusual period of warm weather above 15°C off and on, but maybe more Winter yet to come. We need to have more cold to keep birds from nesting too soon, insects from hatching too soon (I've seen three adult Butterflies so far) because the insects and birds are no longer in synch with each other.

There has been almost no snow at all in the Pyrenées and the Alps are very spotty, causing great distress in the skiing and winter sports geography.

LIfe is indeed chaotic nowadays.

We are homesteading as best we can while trying to secure our domicile from all kinds of tribulation. We have been successful in some arenas and not so much in others.

We have found more sources of bio beef, porc, chicken, eggs and are looking for non-pasturized milk maybe goat locally if we can find it. If it's there it's probably kept for cheese, which is wonderful.

Wishing you the very best in your retirement. You have certainly earned it and the grateful appreciation of your many readers. Again thank you.

Great military commentary from Brian Berletic.

Pentagon Admits Ukraine Aid Unsustainable + Why Neutrality is Ukraine's Only (Good) Option

It's interesting that the Pentagon knows this isn't working.

Brian just nails the problem with "supporting the Ukraine war effort." I knew this would be a problem with any option to provide aviation assets to Ukraine. Aviation logistics, maintenance, operations, support and planning is a culture developed over decades of experience, one doesn't just learn how to fly and maintain F-16s or operate unfamiliar missile batteries effectively in a few months. I also made similar observations on, tanks, armor, trucks, etc. It isn't like delivering a new car from the showroom. For this reason after the initial tranche as it were of indigenous (older legacy Russian equipment) used by Ukrainian forces was destroyed, I expected Ukraine to enter an asymmetric warfare type posture against Russia after just a few months. Wrong. The US for some reason seeks to repeat the process. The DUMPEX is profitable for certain interests.

It seems as if things haven't changed from the cold war, when Russian military equipment had a reputation for reliability in the field, and yet still possessed sufficiently effective performance characteristics to compete in the battle zone. With less complexity they could be produced (and maintained) in great numbers with lower cost. My understanding is that military production was centered in Eastern Ukraine, the part that Russia occupies. So this was another Ukrainian disadvantage from day one. The US always bragged about it's technical superiority, but the associated complexity is a liability under the actual conditions of war and operations in the field. The introduction of different brands of tank, armor and trucks from different NATO allies is another shortcoming.

The Mi-17 vs. UH 60 Blackhawk example in Afghanistan is telling. It brought to mind the US Vietnam war effort. A sustainment effort for aviation or other technically complex equipment involves a huge expanding commitment like the US expansion of its effort during the Vietnam war. Fletcher Prouty pointed out in his book on the Vietnam war that eventually the US lost thousands of helos in Vietnam; bases and maintenance infrastructure to maintain them were primary targets of Vietcong, forcing the US to commit greater and greater ground forces to defend the maintenance and operations units on the ground from attack. Any large scale military infrastructure aimed at sustainment and logistics (the 85 percent Brian discusses), inside Ukraine would be similarly targeted by Russia, and would not be supportable. except from inside NATO countries. This means mechanized forces near the front would still just operating in a sacrifice zone. Sustainment from NATO would not be effective and yet increases the war's risks and costs by multiples as Brian points out.

Thanks for all your weekly Potlucks in the past SOE. I always looked forward to Saturday to read them. Enjoy your retirement!

(edited typos, grammar, omissions)

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Accuracy in Media reported on a letter from almost two dozen groups at Columbia suggesting violence by Hamas terrorists against innocent civilians was inevitable, “If every political avenue available to Palestinians is blocked, we should not be surprised when resistance and violence break out.”

The letter went further and hinted at more violence, “There can be no future of safety and freedom for all Israelis and Palestinians without holding the Israeli occupation accountable for its actions and putting an end to the untenable status quo of Israel’s apartheid and colonial system.”

Although the university suspended two pro-Palestine student groups, five Jewish students have filed a lawsuit against the institution, claiming the school has allowed “rampant antisemitism” to flourish on its campus.

The UN rep from China said that Palestinians have every right to throw off their oppressors and Hamas is their representative. America and Israel tried to rig the vote against them, but when they won they were immediately called terrorists. Abbas rules the West Bank and pretty much lets Israel do whatever the hell they want. There are close to 10,000 Israelis illegally living there and they have destroyed numerous homes belonging to Palestinians and the fcking world has been silent about it.

Biden has been in government for 50 years and not once has he gone against Israel. Schumer, Pelosi and countless other Democrats have been there for 4-5 decades and are just as useless as Biden.

BTW, Pelosi just made over a million dollars in just days in stock trades. Anyone else thoroughly disgusted with our corrupt government? See my sigline.

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This is brilliant by Orf.

"If you tell a lie enough people will believe the lie"

Schumer guarantees that if Ukraine gets their $61 billion then they will win the war. If they don’t then they won’t win the war. He also said that if republicans don’t release the money then American troops will have to fight Russia. Yeah good luck with that. Ukraine had 7 years to get prepared to fight Russia and Advika had the most dug in defenses and don’t forget that they also had one of the biggest armies in Europe…Russia defeated the first army in months and then they defeated the 2nd army and now they just defeated the 3rd. If Russia hadn’t destroyed so much of their equipment then the little Z wouldn’t have spent the last 2 years going from country to country begging for more.

The big European poobahs were in Kiev laying flowers at one of the many Ukrainian cemeteries. Sadly almost 500,000 Ukrainians have been killed and many more have been wounded. And for what? Seriously why did all those men have to die?

Shoigu gave the figure as 2,400 casualties just in the final two days of the collapse:

Thank you. I'm so grateful for your Saturday Potluck and will miss it. But looking forward to learning more from you as you move into retirement and gracefully aging in your homestead. We are hoping to do the same soon!