The man who might have been king

The Duke of Edinburgh has died at the age of 99:

Her Majesty announced her husband's death at midday as the Union Flag was lowered to half-mast outside Buckingham Palace and on public buildings across the UK and Commonwealth. 

The Royal Family said in a statement: 'It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

'His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements will made in due course. The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss'. 

Her Majesty, who remains at Windsor Castle, is now expected to enter an eight-day period of mourning. She will not carry out any duties, even in private, while laws will not be given the Royal Assent and affairs of state will also be paused. 

As with all royal births, marriages and deaths, a notice announcing Philip's passing was displayed outside Buckingham Palace.

The British Empire is no more, and now those who were witness to its end are passing away as well. The question is if the West will do the same.

Operational support or Boomer dodos?

I can understand why AC is suspicious of old people standing around calmly providing play-by-play commentary as a wind-up toy runs around shooting people, including police, right in front of them, but then, it could simply be Boomers booming. I don't think those who are younger than Gen X realize how much the average Boomer resembles a dodo bird with regards to their total inability to register danger:

I’m telling you, the old people in this, just standing in the front door, all blase and relaxed texting on their phone, saying, ‘Yeah, the shooter went in the store, right in there behind me,” as gunshots go off right behind them, or standing around the back of the building with walkers but not moving away to safety, are surveillance, and I would say it is 99.9% they are some form of operational support for the shooting, watching the perimeter for the central control running the operation. 

I can’t explain exactly what it is I see when I look at them, but they are coverage – I see that all the time. It is almost like they are on a different frequency as they stand there, and it stands out from what you would expect them to look like they are doing and thinking. Ask yourself, if you were an obese, decrepit old geezer, and some dude was popping shots off inside that store, and you had dead bodies strewn about your feet as you stood in the doorway, and a livestreamer nut was screaming in front of you, would you just stand there in the middle of the carnage, looking down into your phone, only pausing to look up saying, “Oh yeah the shooter is right behind me, in the store, he went in right that way over there” as you text away and gunshots go off? Or would you be too busy getting the hell out of there? 

And there is the old couple in back with a walker. How did they get there, given the store floor level is about four feet higher due to it being a loading dock behind them, and there are no cars anywhere near? Did they walk around back there from the front, with a walker, instead of going to their car? Why aren’t they moving to a car, or at least away from the store, given a shooter could come out a door there at any moment? What are they doing there? And there just happens to be a guy on the opposite side of the back covering the other corner towards them, who walks away from the streamer as he approaches, and another guy with a semi-afro, watching the side, from the back corner up to the front. 

None of them are rendering aid, they are not seeking cover or concealment, or moving to their car, or even assessing where the shooter might be. They are all just on post, with no sense of danger, and for some reason know they aren’t going to get shot. Notice vehicular units driving through the parking lot too, all throughout it. At least a few of those are support coverage. I will bet if I was in the parking lot and pulled an AR-15 out of my trunk, to sneak around back, go inside and confront the shooter, minuteman style, those people would radio that into control, in its basement control center, and control would get on the shooter’s earpiece to guide him to either meet me or describe to him how to evade me and make it to a new site, based on what perimeter surveillance was telling him about my movements in real time. 

That cop may very well have been sacrificed just like that to make this a heinous shooting for maximal effect. I will bet this is why we do not see more of these characters offed by armed patriots on the spot. These operations are run under much more controlled conditions, with far more resources than we would believe possible.

It is peculiar how many of these "active shooter incidents" always seem to take place in locations where there are a lot of bystanders around but very few of them are armed in any way. Despite the fact that I don't even know anyone, male or female, who doesn't at least carry a knife, if not a concealed firearm on a daily basis, you never seem to hear about any of these active shooters being jumped by several people and being stabbed or beaten to death.

It's not like people don't fight back in real life. My grandfather took on a 28-year-old carjacker armed with a .38 in Alexandria, Virginia. He slapped the gun out of his face, repeatedly punched the guy in the face so many times that he broke his hand, then shoved the stunned guy into the car and locked him into it. He was 73 at the time.

My mother was furious with him, of course, but he was unconcerned. He'd survived Guadacanal and Tarawa, so "some punk with a popgun" hardly counted as dangerous from his perspective.

Yeah, she looks into it

Add it to the list of anomalies. Someone is burning Cuomo. Normally this sort of thing stays swept well under the rug:

A woman named Anna Ruch says Cuomo made her feel “confused and shocked and embarrassed” during a wedding event in September of 2019. Ruch, who is now 33, told The New York Times that it was the first time she met Cuomo.

Ruch says she thanked him for his complimentary remarks about her newlywed friends when the Governor placed his hand on her lower back. Ruch claims Cuomo called her “aggressive” when she forcibly removed his hand from her back.

Shockingly, Ruch says Cuomo then placed both hands on her face and asked, “Can I kiss you?”

“I was so confused and shocked and embarrassed,” Ruch said. “I turned my head away and didn’t have words in that moment.”

Ruch provided The Times with a photograph of the encounter as well as text messages regarding the incident.

I don't know why. I don't know who. But I don't buy that Team Kamala is doing it, since either a) she doesn't matter or b) she'll be the incumbent come 2024, depending upon which narrative you utilize. 

The Third World comes to Texas

Karl Denninger explains what happened and why it's not going to get better any time soon:

The Bidens and AOCs of the world are literally going to kill you.

You're seeing it right here and now across the nation, including in Texas.

Texas, like so many other areas, has put up windmills and solar "farms" for the last 20 years, shutting down older coal-fired plants and not modernizing and improving their "fossil fuel" energy production infrastructure.  At the same time on a national basis the natural gas pipeline operators, in service to the woke green mob, have replaced fuel-fired pumps (that run on the gas in the pipe, therefore are failsafe so long as the pipe has something in it and is intact) with electrically powered booster pumps because, of course, you can get the power for them from "green" sources instead of all that eeee-vile carbon.

I remind you that natural gas does not freeze at other than cryogenic temperatures and as such the problem is not the gas freezing and as for machinery you have plenty of heat source in the pipe.  By putting up with and responding to the "woke mob" instead of immediately frying and eating their entire blood line these companies took an ultra-reliable and essential energy delivery system that other than by physical destruction would nearly-always continue to operate and turned it into a fragile system dependent on multiple outside elements where if any of those elements failed so does the natural gas delivery.

Winter in the south is when nuclear plants are typically taken down for maintenance as well -- since it's the middle of summer when the A/C is blasting away.  But those NatGas peaking plants and coal-fired base load infrastructure, well.... it's not green enough, so let's turn that stuff off and rely on the windmills and solar panels -- and hope it doesn't get destabilized.

Of course the "Globull Warming" screamfest folks always and forever have prognosticated that it will forever get warmer, that wind levels will rise forever and thus both solar panels and wind will forevermore continue to yield more and more useful energy.

All of that got blown up this week.

Texas is seeing wind chills in negative (Fahrenheit) numbers along with single digit or below temperatures.  That plus moisture = ice, and windmill blades are wings and not only suffer the same problem an airplane wing does when it gets loaded in addition they go out of balance and thus the windmill has to be shut down lest it destroy itself.  At the same time ice and snow cover solar panels and reduce their output to an effective zero.

The problem with the power grid is that in the event you demand more of it than can be delivered it becomes unstable due to a number of factors including, in the case of A/C transmission, phase sag.  If expected resources are not available -- such as when your wind turbines ice up -- then you have no alternative but to shed load (turn off people's power intentionally) because if you don't you will get an uncontrolled collapse and possible severe equipment damage.  Further most nuclear plants cannot quickly load-follow -- if you need more power quickly you better have something else, and if a bunch of load drops off rapidly you better have some other generation source you can shut down.  Go outside the operating parameters and a nuke plant will "trip" and if they do most of them cannot immediately restart due to a phenomena called "xenon poisoning"; if the fuel has some age on it you must wait until that bleeds off because the core does not have enough reactivity to go critical until it does, which can take a couple of days or even more.

That's exactly what happened.

I know it's serious. I know a lot of people are enduring things that are very difficult. But, I have to admit, as a survivor of some of Minnesota's coldest-ever winters, it's hard not to be just a little bemused by people prophesying doom on the basis of "temperatures expected to drop to as low as 11F in Houston and 9F in San Antonio."

I mean, in 1983, I once waited 30 minutes for a bus in -40F windchill temperature. They didn't even cancel school! So, if you want some advice from a genuine Zero Hero:

• Layers. Always layers. It's nearly impossible to be cold with five layers. T-shirt, turtleneck, sweater, windbreaker, parka, especially if you move at all.
• Mittens are better than gloves. Fur-lined mittens are better than regular mittens.
• Wet feet freeze. Three layers of socks are best. First the thin silver socks, then regular socks, then thick socks. Moon Boots rock.
• Hat and facemask works best. A scarf is good because you can cover your face with it if you don't have a mask. That being said, I never wore a scarf.
• Back to the wind. Always keep your back to the wind as much as possible.
• Snow is warm. Use it to build windblocks.

The talent has been returned

 RIP Rush Limbaugh.

Sendoff ceremony Andrews AFB

One curious anomaly: 17 US flags behind the podium.

UPDATE: FFS, who gives a flying fuck about vaccines at this point? If this is a headfake, it's a damnably convincing one. About the only good thing one can say is that Melania looks great.

UPDATE: Okay, "we will be back in some form" and "we will see you soon" is mildly encouraging. Still no mention of the election, Biden, or a concession. It looks over, to be sure, but it isn't actually over. Not yet, anyhow.

UPDATE: Shills, please note that Biden is still not the President of the United States. If, against my expectations, he does somehow become President of the United States in the next 24 hours, we will all be sure to note that you were the first to surrender and that you did so before the battle was over.\

UPDATE: I took down the Madrid explosion post as it does not appear to have any connection to any international events. CNN has reported a bomb threat at the U.S. Supreme Court, but the all-clear was just given.

Nuclear anomalies

Another intriguing inauguration anomaly:

Donald Trump's decision to shun Joe Biden's inauguration has caused serious logistical problems for perhaps the most sensitive section of the presidential handover: the nuclear codes. During a normal inauguration ceremony, the nuclear football, which contains the equipment the president uses to authenticate his orders and launch a nuclear strike, is handed over from one presidential aide to another at the stroke of noon.

Trump will leave Washington DC at around 8am, however, and fly to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. As president, he will take the nuclear football with him.

Stephen Schwartz, a nonresident senior fellow at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, told CNN that the officials involved would have had to come up with an elaborate work-around. 'There are at least three to four identical 'footballs': one follows the president, one follows the vice president, and one traditionally is set aside for the designated survivor at events like inaugurations and State of the Union addresses,' he said. 'On 20 January, the extra footballs will be out of town somewhere with their designees, leaving just Mike Pence's briefcase unless the White House Military Office has prepared (or already has on hand) another backup for Mr Biden.'

The Constitution gives Trump control of nuclear attacks until the very second that Biden is sworn in.

Curiouser and curiouser.... 

The mysterious collapse of governments

• Germany's Angela Merkel has said she will step down as chancellor in 2021, following recent election setbacks. "I will not be seeking any political post after my term ends," she told a news conference in Berlin. She also said she would not seek re-election as leader of the centre-right CDU party in December. She has held the post since 2000.
• Dutch Rutte government resigns over child welfare fraud scandal.
• Italy's former premier Matteo Renzi said on Wednesday he was pulling his party's ministers from the cabinet, effectively leaving the ruling coalition without a majority in parliament. His decision, announced at a news conference, throws Italy into political chaos....
• Estonia’s president on Thursday tasked the leader of the main opposition party to form a new government, a day after Prime Minister Juri Ratas and his Cabinet stepped down in the wake of a corruption scandal in Ratas' ruling Center Party.
• Kuwait government to resign within 24 hours.

What an astonishing series of coincidences! Five governments collapsing in the same week? It can't possibly be an international prelude to the events of January 20, 2021, could it?

UPDATE: A Dutch reader emails to add that 42 of the 150 people in the Dutch parliament have announced that they will not run again in the next election.

On a possibly related note, here is another example of the intentional building of tension I demonstrated in last night's Darkstream. It was even more excruciating than is shown here, because the clip cuts short the breakdown, which in the Tokyo Dome concert extended for nearly a full three minutes before leading up to the crowd callback at 3.22. Notice in particular the way in which Su-metal, the lead singer, presides impassively over the breakdown doing nothing until the time comes to direct the crowd.

Enjoy the show.

President Trump in Texas

I have to admit, I have absolutely no idea what President Trump is attempting to accomplish here with this speech, rambling as he is about immigration and welfare and taxpayers and protecting American workers at this point in time. It's rather like Pompeo's speech yesterday, which completely and obviously ignored the herd of elephants in the room.

UPDATE: Michael Yon is reporting that it's all over but for the arrests.

INSURRECTION ACT has NOT been invoked. State of emergency invoked here in DC. Have been with Rudy Giuliani past two days. I would know if Insurrection Act invoked, and so would you.

Trump will leave office. Biden is in. This is a fact. I don’t make the facts but I do report them. I would not be surprised at all if Trump, Don Junior, and Rudy Giuliani are charged and arrested soon.

I am seeing many things that you are not seeing. All the above is true, and more.

Perhaps. Or, perhaps not. Remember what I've said about these not being ordinary times. Disinformation is the order of the day and here are no points or cash prizes for being the first to surrender or despair.

Escort or arrest?

An interesting report out of LAX...

I’m currently at Los Angeles international Airport (LAX) and Congressman Adam Schiff was just being escorted back out of a terminal with about 15 LAPD/Airport police!?

If true, that sounds a little heavy for a congressional security team. And I am reliably informed that they do have holding cells in airports....

UPDATE: I don't know how legitimate this link is, but the name and age appear to be correct:

ADAM BENNETT SCHIFF 60 BURBANK, CA, 91501

From Wikipedia: 

Adam Bennett Schiff (born June 22, 1960) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the U.S. Representative for California's 28th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Schiff is currently in his 10th term as a congressman, having served since 2001.

UPDATE: If true, could be significant.

Adam Schiff was taken from LAX international airport to the Los Angeles FBI building and has not exited since going in a little after 10:00 a.m. this morning, my FBI source is telling me! 

UPDATE: I'd say it is looking increasingly dubious at this point.

Team Trump has voting machine

BREAKING: Trump team now has a Dominion machine from Ware County, #Georgia with EVIDENCE of Trump votes being switched to Biden. Source: John Fredericks on Steve Bannon War Room

From the transcript:

He's got a Dominion machine that they were able to do a forensic study on in Ware County it's a small [Georgia] county. He's got evidence that this machine has flipped the votes. They flipped votes, they flipped 37 votes in Ware County - he's got the evidence - from Donald J. Trump to Joe Biden.

Now 37 doesn't seem like a lot of votes, but it's a very small county. It represents just over 0.25, actually 0.26 [percent] of the total votes cast.

#bidenlost

Rumors and more rumors

 As seen on Twitter and /pol/

DC INSIDER: Gina Haspel, CIA Director, Found Dead From 'Natural Causes'

Shock at Langley right now as this just has circulated around DC about an hour ago. Now its going viral in gov circles but there is currently a strict news blackout.

What an untimely and unfortunate coincidence that would be, assuming it were true. And just before the holidays too.

I'd seen the rumors floating around /pol/ that she'd been killed or wounded in the Frankfurt raid, but as there were no sources and it seemed rather unlikely that she would have been in Germany for Thanksgiving, I elected not to mention them. But this sounds a little more credible, especially given the way in which she'd been summoned to McConnell's office last week.

Question: is being Epsteined considered a "natural cause"?

Mailvox: big turnout in MO

 A Missouri reader emails about his voting experience:

I showed up at my local Catholic church to vote at 0620. It's now 0635, and I just found the end of the line. It wraps all the way around the parking lot, which has no parking available. The line is 10x longer than four years ago. 

That's not an exaggeration to encourage your readers, it's just fact. 

This bodes well for the President. Democrats are too scared of the WuFlu to show up in these numbers.

I tend to concur. Another potentially significant point of observation is what percentage of people in line are wearing masks. The mask-wearers will tend to be Biden voters. The non-wearers will tend to be Trump voters. 

Murders in Vienna

 A mass shooting by multiple gunmen in Vienna the night before lockdown:

At least seven people are thought to have been killed with several others injured in multiple gun and suspected suicide attacks near a synagogue in Vienna.

A huge manhunt is currently underway for several attackers armed with rifles with police confirming shootings at six different locations, starting near the synagogue at 8pm local time. 

One attacker is thought to have 'blown themselves up' during the rampage with another arrested and one shot dead by police. A police officer is also thought to have been shot and seriously injured.    

The rampage comes on the last evening before Austria goes into lockdown, with bars and restaurants in the country closed from midnight tonight.  

Europe really needs to reconsider its decision to permit Middle Easterners to wage their seemingly endless war on their territory.

And this is why you always move-move-move. Preferably in a perpindicular manner. Footage from the attack.

Actually, that's legit

 A Wisconsin airport explains why a Biden event is allowed while a Trump rally isn't:

The Trump campaign had initially planned to hold its Oct. 23 rally at Mitchell, but their request was denied. An airport spokesperson said the tenant was told that all special events that are "non-aeronautical in nature" are in violation of its lease with the airport. The event also would have impacted flight operations and been a violation of the city's ban on large public gatherings, according to officials.

Instead, the president's campaign moved to Stein Aircraft Services in Waukesha.

On Friday, when asked why a Biden event was allowed but a Trump event was not, a spokesperson said it does not allow political rallies on the airfield.

"The Airport does not allow political rallies on the airfield, regardless of which candidate requests it. Biden is hosting a small private meeting with about 12 people. This is the difference between a 12-person private meeting inside a building vs. a 20,000-person rally on the airfield, compromising the safety and security of airline operations," said Harold Mester, director of public affairs and marketing for the airport.

That actually makes sense. Since no one is coming to the Biden "rally", it really can't be considered a public event.

RIP James Bond

With all due respect to Roger Moore and Daniel Craig, there was only ever One True James Bond. RIP Sean Connery.

James Bond actor Sir Sean Connery has died aged 90. 

Sir Sean, whose acting career spans decades, is best known for his portrayal of British fictional spy James Bond who he played between 1962–1971. 

He also starred in The Hunt for Red October, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Rock. 

I always admired the way he never saw any need to hide his Scottish accent, no matter what role he was playing. In my personal opinion, his performance in The Rock was the best of his career.

"Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen."

Dying in your sleep at age 90 in the Bahamas while surrounded by your loved ones. That, I would suggest, is a proper winner's exit.

Rumors

This one is more credible than the norm simply because it comes from the same source that first reported Jeffrey Epstein's death. That does not mean it is true, of course.

Don't ask me how I know but Hunter Biden died of a crack overdose over 20 minutes ago. Joe is already on his way to the hospital.

- ID:UvMEjwZB

If true, it might serve to explain a rather less credible rumor.

Biden halted his campaign today (not rumor) and rumor has it he had a stroke that was followed by a larger stroke and death. I did not say that, call it BUNK, but that's the rumor going around right now. It is somewhat safe to say he at least had a minor stroke. If Biden is indeed dead, he'll be kept alive until after the election If he is alive, he actually did suspend his campaign

At approximately the exact same time Biden’s campaign got suspended, all the Biden drops stopped. So there are also rumors that a deal was made, but I would not bet on it. I am betting on two things, the first being they got locked out of their servers and the second being they are in custody, under arrest or dead. There is absolutely no proof of anything right now. No proof of a stroke. No proof of server lockouts, no proof of arrests, but one thing is definite: something is very fishy.

If Hunter Biden did die, by OD or by Epsteining, that would also suffice to explain Biden halting his campaign. Gateway Pundit has said that "something very big and shocking is breaking" this morning. So, we'll see... Regardless, it's not hard to figure out why the stroke rumors started.

Joe Biden last night seemed to forget who the president was, noting that he was fighting against 'four more years of George.' Addressing supporters online, during a virtual concert to drum up enthusiasm, the 77-year-old sat next to his wife Jill.

'Four more years of George, er, George, er, he - we're going to find ourselves in a position where, if Trump gets elected, we're going to be in a different world,' said Biden. Jill appeared to remind him, under her breath: 'Trump,' as Biden faltered over such an elementary fact that it is the classic question asked of confused patients: 'Who's the President?'

Many speculated that he was thinking of George W. Bush, president from 2001-09, but he may also have been thinking of Bush Snr. who was in office from 1989-93.

UPDATE: This had better not be the "very big and shocking" news that was to break this morning. Literally no one cares about this sort of inside baseball. We have known since Ruby Ridge and Waco that the FBI is corrupt.

Wray Had Hunter’s ‘Laptop From Hell’ Since December — Kept It a Secret from President Trump  

UPDATE: The news release neither particularly big nor shocking to anyone who has been paying attention, it's merely proof that Joe Biden knew... whatever it is that is alleged, but hasn't been conclusively proved yet, involving Hunter and Natalie Biden.

In a text message sent to Hunter Biden from his Uncle Jim Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden’s brother, Uncle Jim shares that both he and former VP Joe Biden are upset with accusations of impropriety but they don’t believe them.  Jim and Joe Biden want to discuss with Hunter so they can all get their stories straight.

In an email to colleague and fellow board member on Burisma, the now felon Devon Archer, Hunter explains how he is not allowed to be around a certain person without his father, Joe Biden, being there. And a fifth text message shows Hunter explaining to a certain person that her mom told former VP Joe Biden that she would call the police if Hunter tried to see that person: 

The blackmail videos surface

Neon Revolt puts out the news of the release of the Biden blackmail videos on Gab:

A Hunter Biden sex tape was just released by G News (the outlet that's been working with Giuliani).... The Chinese did a poor job of censoring it, so I went in and re-censored it.

This shows you the kind of blackmail China has on Biden - which is FAR WORSE than just this. But this should dispel any notion that this is mere "Russian Propaganda," but fully demonstrate that China has full control of the entire Biden Administration.

UPDATE: There is more Biden-related news on Twitter.

BIG BREAKING NEWS: "Sources close to and with deep knowledge of the investigation, have informed me that Chris Coons' DAUGHTER in addition to seven other underage girls are also featured on [Hunter Biden's] laptop." 

UPDATE: Now Biden's daughter's diary has been leaked, in which she discusses "inappropriate showers". Not with Hunter. With Joe. 

Mostly innocuous

The New York Post corroborates Steve Bannon's statement that there were 25,000 images on one of the Hunter Biden laptops.

Neither Hunter Biden’s lawyer nor Joe Biden’s campaign have disputed the validity of the trove of data that The Post obtained after being extracted from a MacBook Pro laptop. The owner of a Delaware computer repair shop said the device was dropped off in April 2019 but never retrieved.

A computer camera roll of nearly 25,000 images is loaded with sexually explicit selfies and porn (which The Post is not publishing), but also has snapshots from Biden’s childhood and vacations.

And while some of the more than 11,550 emails involve Biden’s former job on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and his dealings with the now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co., most of his messages are innocuous and personal in nature.

So that part of the scandal is real. We're still waiting to learn if the darker aspects will be documented. 

Ginsberg dead

President Trump will be appointing another Supreme Court Justice, as Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died at the age of 87