Grüezi mittenand.
Your linkings are presented this morning by me. These are precise links. Read, comment, snark.
Alles in ordnung.
Uf wiederluege mitenand.
There, now that I have those out of the way, I think we can get on with the links. So, when you pun or screw up or shitpost, etc… just look up. Got it? Right.
So – a quick update on my two hobbyhorses – Catalonia and Afghanistan. Starting in Europe….
Warning shot or massive hypocrisy? Spain stepped on its own weenie here. But no weenie, or beanie for some of the jailed Catalan leaders… hunger strike! And the exiles meet in … Brussels, to discuss what to do next. Things will probably get all demonstraty and grumbly in Barcelona, soon. I am reserving judgment at this point, though I would be trying to arm as hard and fast as I could. Unless Madrid makes a massive about face, there will be no independence for Catalonia, short of using armed force.
So its trials and (forced) tapas on the horizon, perhaps.
And…to Central Asia next. The usual mix of war news, and some…really odd stuff (scroll down to the 13:54 25 Nov update). I hope this story is true. However, even if it is, Pakistan will probably do one of two things – make noises of agreement, and actually do little to nothing…or beat their chest defiantly and say no. Considering the lucre we still ship them, I would bet on the first one. I still stand by my assertion that if the Talib and Haqqani’s foreign backers turn off the spigot, Afghanistan would simply become another poor, semi-violent ‘stan. Oh, and it would be one in which there would be no reason for any foreign military presence. I do not know what is going on behind the scenes – but I sure hope someone is trying to snuff this #$%& out at the source.
So we have a war that neither side can finish, and some little glimmers of…something there. Looks like more of the same for the immediate future.
Updates in future, as events warrant.
It started so….simply. The CDC said to stay away from Romaine lettuce, until they figured out why it was giving the bloody flux, dropsy, the grippe or whatnot. I shrugged and headed off to work… just a couple of hours, and then I would have a nice 4 day weekend for Thanksgiving.
On the way home, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a couple of last items for Thanksgiving. “Huh, looks like all the romaine is gone.”
Then I noticed it. The mood was…ugly. The shoppers were already blasting adrenaline, and in a surly disposition. This didn’t help. In fact, it pushed them over the edge…
I was surprised at the lack of response at the store. Bust a shoplifter, and usually there were three squad cars roaring in for the kill (hoping it was a hot 17 or 18 year old perp). Now…nothing. I fled the store, and that is when I found out how bad it was. The cops didn’t come, because this scene was playing out everywhere. And not just the grocery stores. Riots at various and sundry sandwich places….rioting vegetarians and vegans at salad bars. I even saw a burning Sweet Tomatoes restaurant as I tried to make my way home.
Never got there… had to go by too many Panera Bread locations. The primal fury of the quasi-hipster mobs was something to see. How those skinny jeaned, bearded, Planet Fitness members managed to flip over the fire truck, and tear the crew apart…. no, I don’t want to know. I cannot erase the images from my already shaky mind.
The few of us that managed to make it to the farm (corn and soybeans, thank God it wasn’t a lettuce farm) tried to piece it all together. The cops were overwhelmed right away, and the states were collapsing before they could even think about calling out the National Guard. And what were they going to do, with their mess sections already in mutiny. Communications went next…everyone frantically checking their devices for the store that would let them get crazy Aunt Sophie’s @#$%ing salad mix. The net and the cell towers never stood a chance. Transport was impossible, as the roads became a single, extended road-rage episode. Hell, even domestic rabbits and chinchillas went straight at their owner’s throats.
In the quieter moments, when we are not trying to scratch in the soil – hoping for one last head of butter lettuce – I marvel at how fragile our society was. A wanderer did come by and mention that he had heard a few hydroponics outfits in rural Canada may have survived. Come Spring, we may send a scout up that way….but I hold out little hope.
Not sure why I am penning this, in the last pages of a scavenged spiral bound notebook. Vanity, I suppose. Maybe I just hope it will serve as a warning, should the survivors rebuild a civilization someday.
Don’t shit where you grow lettuce.
Sloopy is getting a bit frazzled, so I am stepping in to do the Linkings this Morgen. If you hear reports of a naked, woad painted man running up and down the streets of Houston, crying out “Freedom!” – I can neither confirm nor deny that is sloopy. So, on to the Substitute Linkings…
Sports – I shan’t say a word about it. Nope. Can’t make me. I don’t care how well the NFL turned out yesterday… *shakes fist toward the East*
History and Birthdays – Many events occurred today, many people of note were born on this day. For a moment, stop and reflect on them.
OK, go to it, in the comments.
Oh, one more thing…I know several of you speak jive, but does anyone speak Brit Tabloid? WTF kind of headline is this?
GRRRRR!!!! I have stormed in and pushed aside beloved Morning Linkster, sloopy, to bring you these #$%&ing Links. I have been experiencing a bit of what beloved Afternoon Linkster, Brett, puts up with in his job. I admire him for not chainsaw murdering everyone in reach. I am about ready to break out the pike, armor and helmet and go take out a whole UAT group. In an effort to NOT go berserk just yet, I am going to give you links instead.
Sportings – I have a rooting interest in Chicago teams (NOT the Cubs, however). Needless to say, they all lost last night. Sloopy is probably more than a wee bit distraught, after the Astros were knocked out (insufferable Bostonian hate shall be tolerated in these links). Other than that, I guess the AZ Cardinals remained a punching bag for NFL teams. The rest…feh, who cares?!
Birthdays and History – People were born and events occurred on this day.
OK, maybe I will just give you some links, then go poison everyone’s coffee…whichever.
*stomps out of room in a huff*
Last time I chimed in on what was going on in Afghanistan, things were shuffling around a bit. Has it made a difference? Not as of yet…
The Pakistanis are still meddling, but the Afghans are getting a bit harsher on those abetting it. The Hazaras are still really unhappy with …everyone else (this is not a new thing). The upcoming election has seen the usual spate o’ bombings and such. I do have to give credit to the Afghans…they still get out there and try. (Oh, how depressing a job must the “Executive Director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan” be?)
So how about the war? We still have some NATO members dragged into it. See here for the official line. Oh, and we are still shootin’ away. Some of the “strikes” sound like the British cops when they beat their chests about confiscating a screwdriver or a sharpened toothbrush handle…
• In Helmand Province, one strike destroyed one motorcycle.
• In Laghman Province, five strikes denied terrain.
..wha? TRANSLATION – “hey, we hit something!” and “we missed”
Blood seems to be down, treasure is not. Right now, the Afghans are doing most of the fighting – which is supposed to be the goal. But, I want to see after the October 20th election, if they have any movement toward talking with the Talib. Both sides are really tired, but have to maintain a strong looking posture, for domestic (or foreign backer) consumption. This has been 40+ years of fighting, one way or the other, for many Afghans.
To be continued (and continued, and continued…)
When last we left Don Swissxote, he was musing on Spain’s pursuit of Catalan Independence leaders and the narrow election of separatist or separatist sympathizing parties in the Catalan legislature. So what has change these past few months?
Not a lot.
Spain’s government seems to have realized they had waved a meat cleaver at the Golden Goose that is business in Barcelona (though tourism there seems to be just fine). Some futile gestures, demonstrations and the like have taken place…and both sides have realized they are screwed (here is Teh Conventional Wisdom view).
The populace of Catalonia seems to be split between those that just want to go back to the way things were and those that want to passively resist Madrid. The Spanish government is going ahead toward some rebellion trials of Catalan separatist leaders, but has lowered its efforts at outright squashing of Catalonia by force.
So Spain looks like a pack of shitheels if they come in swinging clubs and dragging people off for trial for “rebellion” when the populace seems committed to a sort of passive course of ….something. Political gridlock has set in, when you look at the Catalan parliament. Federally, the Catalan pro-independence bloc might be able to cause the current PM’s government to stumble…but what might replace it? If the rest of Spain sees the Catalans jerking them around, they could vote in people promising to kick Barcelonian butt a lot harder than the current Socialist government.
So we have a populace that will not use force to free themselves, and is not making too many waves right now, versus a central government that won’t crack heads and is leaning on the economy and votes of …the place that wants to leave. Of course, some silly things will still be happening, around the edges (what, no appeal to mediation by the Dalai Lama, the Commercial Court of the Canton of Zurich and the military junta of Burma?).
It is almost as if two semi-bored chess players see a stalemate coming, and are in hurry to push any more pieces. I sure didn’t see this coming…but it is so very…modern European, isn’t it?
By the time you read these Links, UberKillDeathMurderStorm Michael will have removed Florida from the Continental United States. Hopefully any of you that lived in that area fled, long ago. Brett is probably out taking stock of his new island home state, so I will cover the links today. I sure hope the pythons didn’t swim over to what is left of CONUS…
Kind off off kilter links for me, right? I think it was reading that SugarFree piece…I don’t feel…quite normal right now.
