The World’s Greatest Mysteries: Part 2

Mysteries 8 Minutes

From Mentalfloss.com:

6 What happened to Roald Amundsen?

Exploration is a dangerous business. All 129 men who comprised the polar exploration venture known as the Franklin Expedition died in the years after the mission’s 1845 launch. The case of Amelia Earhart, the pilot who vanished with her navigator Fred Noonan while attempting to circumnavigate the globe in 1937, continues to make front page news despite little progress being made. We still don’t know what happened to British explorer Percy Fawcett, who vanished in the Amazonian jungle in 1925 while searching for the legendary lost city of Z, or Henry Hudson, who was placed in a small boat and cast adrift in waters off northeastern Canada following a mutiny in 1611.

The disappearance of legendary Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen is a little different. Amundsen had certainly been at the forefront of polar exploration—he was the first to sail the Northwest Passage and, a few years later, he beat England’s Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole by several weeks. But Amundsen didn’t die while charting new territory; he vanished on a rescue mission while trying to come to the aid of Italian pilot and aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile, whose airship had crashed while exploring the Arctic in 1928. Amundsen’s own plane is thought to have gone down somewhere around Bear Island in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. Fishermen found something strange in the area in 1933, but the object fell back into the sea before it could be recovered; a high-tech 2009 search came up empty. Amundsen’s fate remains a mystery, but according to Norway’s Roald Amundsen’s House, three objects that were recovered soon after Amundsen’s disappearance might suggest a crash south of Bear Island.

7 Who was D.B. Cooper?

No survey of historical mysteries would be complete without the tale of the man known as D.B. Cooper, the only person to have hijacked a commercial plane in the United States and gotten away with it (or at least evaded capture). Plenty of notorious criminals have managed to remain unidentified for decades or longer—we still don’t know the identities of Jack the Ripper, the Axeman of New Orleans, or the Zodiac Killer, to name a few—but Cooper belongs to a very different category. Other than showing a flight attendant a device he claimed was a bomb, his crime was nonviolent, and it was stunning in its boldness.

The day before Thanksgiving in 1971, Cooper boarded a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle. A little after 3 p.m., he handed a flight attendant a note, flashed his supposed bomb, and made his demand: He was to be given $200,000 in cash and four parachutes, saying, “No funny stuff or I’ll do the job.” The plane landed in Seattle, traded its passengers and most of the flight attendants for Cooper’s ransom, and took off again.

As the plane flew over an area somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Cooper jumped into the cold, rainy night, buffeted by 200-mph winds, with nothing but the business suit (and possibly a trench coat) he was wearing, two parachutes, and $200,000 (a little more than $1.5 million in today’s currency). The ensuing manhunt, officially known as NORJAK, for “Northwest Hijacking,” lasted 45 years and yielded 800 suspects but no arrests. Cooper has become a folk hero to many, inspiring songs, movies, TV shows, podcasts, books, and even an annual gathering of enthusiasts known as “CooperCon.”

It’s likely Cooper didn’t survive the jump, which was so dangerous that an experienced parachutist would probably never have attempted it in the first place. In 1980, some of the ransom money was found near the Columbia River, leading some to suspect Cooper had perhaps parachuted into the water and died, but a 2020 study that examined diatom species on the recovered bills found they were exposed to water around May-June rather than November. Though the FBI officially dropped the case in 2016, amateur sleuths are still trying to crack the mystery. One theory even claims Cooper was a transgender woman named Barbara Dayton, who died in 2002 at the age of 76.

8 What happened to the lightkeepers of Flannan Isle?

There’s an entire category of historical mysteries devoted to vanishings—people who just seemed to disappear into thin air, leaving no physical clues about what might have happened to them. Jimmy Hoffa is probably the textbook example; nearly 50 years after he disappeared from the parking lot of a Detroit restaurant, his body still hasn’t been found. But 75 years before Hoffa met his fate, Scotland was investigating its own unexplained vanishing—three of them, in fact.

In December 1900, a steamship was passing by the Flannan Isles when its crew noticed the lighthouse had gone dark. Then, on December 26, a relief lighthouse keeper found the Flannan Isle structure abandoned. A search turned up no trace of the men, but there were signs that a violent storm had torn across the island: Supplies were strewn across the ground well above sea level, iron railings were twisted, and an enormous boulder had been dislodged. 

The subsequent investigation assumed the men had been caught in the storm and swept out to sea, but troubling details remained. For instance, if the men had ventured into the storm to secure equipment as had been assumed, why did one of them leave his raingear behind? A theory suggested by shepherds who grazed their sheep on the island connected the men’s deaths to a powerful marine spout that would sporadically shoot dangerous volumes of compressed seawater into the air. Perhaps one man stayed behind while the other two went out into a storm to secure equipment, saw from the lighthouse that conditions were right for the water to erupt, and rushed out to warn the others, only for all three to be swept out to sea in the storm. Others discount the compressed water explanation, but broadly agree that two of the men were outside doing something and for some reason the third man had to run outside in a hurry. A few years later, the poet Wilfrid Wilson Gibson invented stories of an overturned chair and partially eaten food, helping to create an enduring mystery.

9 Was King Arthur real?

The story of King Arthur is one of the most influential and widely studied literary cycles in Western culture, but there’s one big thing we don’t know about it: Did Arthur really exist?

There’s a vague reference to a legendary hero named Arthur in the Welsh poem Y Gododdin dated to around the 6th or 7th century, but it’s not that simple. The story survives in a couple different versions written centuries later, and only one of them mentions Arthur. Whether the Arthur reference is a 7th century original, a 13th century addition, or something in between is a contested area of scholarship.

The first explicit accounts date back to the 9th century Historia Brittonum, which documented 12 battles supposedly fought against the Saxons by a British military commander identified as Arthur. His feats were impressive, to say the least—in the 12th battle, he supposedly killed over 900 enemy soldiers all by himself.

Cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth built on Arthur’s legend in the 12th century with his History of the Kings of Britain, and subsequent Arthurian poems and romances added now-familiar elements such as the Round Table and the quest for the Holy Grail. It wasn’t until the 15th century that Thomas Malory came along and gave us what many now think of as the definitive story of King Arthur, Le Morte d’Arthur. 

When we ask whether Arthur really existed, it’s important to decide which version of him we’re asking about. If it’s the one that began with Geoffrey—a glorious king who once ruled most of Europe—the answer is probably no. If such a ruler had existed, odds are slim he would have been omitted from the historical record. But the Historia Brittonum’s earlier account of a great military leader called Arthur might have some basis in fact. The author probably got some of the details wrong—it would have been logistically impossible for one man to have fought in all 12 of the battles—but it’s not impossible that at some point in the dim and distant past there was a real military leader who rallied the fractured tribes of early medieval Britain against their Saxon invaders.

10 What happened to the Roanoke colony?

( Pat’s Note: I do a deeper dive into this particular mystery later in the month.)

England’s plan to colonize North America did not get off to a smooth start. By the time artist-turned-explorer John White and about 115 colonists arrived on Roanoke Island off the coast of modern-day North Carolina in 1587, the settlement already had a reputation. It had been abandoned once in 1586, and a garrison of 15 men who were later deposited there, tasked with holding the land on England’s behalf, also disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a single skeleton to greet the next batch of colonists, who weren’t even supposed to be staying there. (The plan had been to proceed up to the Chesapeake Bay after stopping at Roanoke Island, but the conventional story is that the captain refused to go further.) There’s no reason to have expected White’s colony—which settled in an area where their recent predecessors had had trouble securing food, encountered formidable weather, and were quickly burning through any good will the Native American populations had shown them—would have fared any better.

The colonists arrived too late in the year to grow their own food, and White returned to England for more supplies. The first Anglo-Spanish War delayed his return, and when he finally got back in 1590, everyone was gone. But White didn’t seem puzzled by their disappearance. Someone had carved the word CROATOAN, the name of both a nearby island and the friendly Native American group who inhabited it, into a palisade post (or maybe a tree). White had instructed that if the colonists found themselves in distress, they should carve a type of cross alongside the location, but there was no cross—so he interpreted as a “certaine token of their safe being at Croatoan.” But a storm stopped him from sailing there to look for them, and he was never able to raise the money to finance another expedition to the New World. 

Hard archeological evidence for White’s proclamation “of their safe being at Croatoan” is still lacking. Most researchers think the settlers were either killed by Native Americans who’d turned hostile to European colonizers or, more likely, were absorbed into friendlier Native populations.  

According to archeologist Charles Ewen, the idea that there’s anything particularly strange about the colony’s disappearance might be a relatively modern development. “It’s no big mystery until you start to get a historical type of writing in the 1800s,” he told The New York Times in 2020, pointing out that failed colonization attempts were hardly out of the ordinary (though Ewen himself is skeptical of the Croatoan explanation for a lack of actual evidence). Science writer Andrew Lawler, author of The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, told Salon that “the ‘Lost Colony’ is a product of the 19th century”—a time, he says, when “the idea of the colonists assimilating with the Native Americans was a taboo.”

SOURCE: MENTAL FLOSS

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Published by pat frederick

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133 thoughts on “The World’s Greatest Mysteries: Part 2”

    1. Morning, Pa! It’s not going to be a good morning for me for a while….until I get this damned phone figured out. I HATE SMART PHONES!!! A bit nipply this morning at 38; Wheezer was waiting for his tuna. Except for his chest rattle, he really is looking very healthy. His coat is getting really thick and I can feel, as I run my hands down his back and sides, that he’s got good meat on his bones.

      As for the Croatoan island, I watched an episode of Expedition Unknown with Josh Gates where they searched for it. They did indeed, find the island, and found the remains of types of buildings that wouldn’t have been built by the Indians.

      I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot more appointments like this going forward. And with a majority in both Houses, who’s going to stop him? Of course, there is always the filibuster, I guess, but at least they’ll have to work themselves into a frazzle in the meantime.

      Just The News: “A federal judge in Texas on Thursday struck down a Biden administration immigration program, ruling that it was illegal to streamline citizenship for the spouses of American citizens.

      U.S. District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker, who was appointed by President-elect Donald Trump in his first term, sided with Texas and other Republican states that the program violated federal immigration law, because the Biden administration did not have the legal authority to grant parole to undocumented immigrants, per CBS News.

      The ruling comes shortly after Trump won the presidential election, so although the Biden administration can appeal the ruling, the “Keeping Families Together” initiative would likely be dismantled in the second Trump administration.”

      The program would have offered work permits and deportation protections to the spouses of illegal immigrants who are married to Americans and have been in the United States for at least 10 years at the time of the program’s inception in June. The initiative would have also streamlined the full citizenship because the spouses would have been eligible for a green card. Once a migrant has a green card for three years, they can apply for full citizenship.”

      Liked by 1 person

  4. TheseTruths

    TheseTruths(@thesetruths)

    Offline

    Wolf

    November 8, 2024 01:45

    “Holden Culotta”:

    This is WILD.

    President-Elect Trump lays out a 10-point plan to unravel the Deep State.

    1. RESTORE President’s authority to remove rogue bureaucrats.

    2. FIRE corrupt actors in National Security and Intelligence apparatus.

    3. REFORM FISA courts, which are “so corrupt that the judges seemingly do not care when they are lied to in warrant applications.”

    4. ESTABLISH Truth and Reconciliation Commission to declassify and publish all documents on Deep State spying, censorship, and corruption.

    5. CRACKDOWN on government leakers who collude with the fake news to deliberately weave false narratives and to subvert our government and our democracy.

    6. MAKE every Inspector General’s Office independent and physically separated from the departments they oversee.

    7. ASK Congress to establish independent auditing system to monitor our intelligence agencies and ensure they are not spying on our citizens or running disinformation campaigns against the American people.

    8. MOVE parts of the sprawling federal bureaucracy to new locations outside Washington, “just as I moved the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado.”

    9. BAN federal bureaucrats from taking jobs at the companies they deal with and that they regulate, “like with Big Pharma.”

    10. PUSH for constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress.

    You can see Trump giving more details about these policies at the link.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. eilert (@guest_1362560)

    Offline

    November 8, 2024 03:17

    Kash Patel, Rumored Pick for CIA Chief, Announces Massive Declassification Will Occur Under Trump’s Administration from Epstein Files to ‘Diddy List’ and More | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hᴏft

    In a recent interview, former Trump administration official Kash Patel announced that under President Donald Trump’s second administration, Americans should brace for unprecedented government transparency.

    Patel, reportedly Trump’s likely choice for deputy director of the CIA, stated that “massive declassification” will be among their top priorities, aiming to release troves of information previously shielded from public view.

    According to NDTV, during Trump’s first term as U.S. President, he planned to appoint Kash Patel as the CIA’s deputy director in the final weeks of his administration.

    In a recent interview with Benny Johnson, Patel revealed that massive declassification will occur in Trump’s administration, including explosive revelations from the infamous Epstein files to the shadowy “Diddy list.”

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Attorney General Andrew Bailey

    @AGAndrewBailey

    BREAKING: The Court just granted our request to throw out the Biden-Harris Administration’s illegal parole-in-place program allowing illegal aliens to remain in our country after they have crossed the border. A HUGE win for the rule of law.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. parole in place program deemed illegal by judge.
    FTA
    In the words of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey:

    “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris created a crisis at the southern border, leaving the American people to pay the consequences. In the wake of the federal government’s refusal to act, states like Missouri had no choice but to step in and take action to secure our southern border,” said Attorney General Bailey. “We filed suit to ensure millions of unvetted individuals are not invading our communities.”

    The unlawful PIP program would have allowed aliens who have been unlawfully present in the United States for ten or more years to receive a grant of “parole”—without leaving the United States and attempting to come back and apply for admission at a port of entry—if the alien is the spouse or stepchild of a U.S. citizen.

    Biden’s DHS wrongfully asserted it has “unfettered discretion” into who can enter our nation without consulting Congress. Their new program would have allowed more than 1.3 million illegal immigrants already in the states to apply for permanent residency. In the complaint, the attorneys general reminded the defendants that Congress has not authorized said mass amnesty to illegal aliens.
    https://redstate.com/streiff/2024/11/07/federal-judge-slaps-down-biden-administration-over-illegal-last-minute-amnesty-program-n2181709

    Liked by 1 person

  19. this is BRILLIANT imo…response by Zach Levi (star of Chuck and Shazam)
    FTA
    In a lengthy X post on Wednesday, the 44-year-old actor hit back against the Hollywood entertainment outlet Showbiz 411 — run by Roger Friedman — after it said the “only consolation” in Trump’s victory is that Levi “will never be part of mainstream Hollywood after this. You can make movies with Mel Gibson and Dennis Quaid.”

    “Oh, it’s all gravy, Roger!” the actor replied. “My goal has always been to leave it at some point anyway, and build a better system that actually values and compensates the artists more than enriching far too many executives that, by and large, compromise the creative integrity of the art whilst taking the lion share of the proceeds, which they don’t deserve.”

    “In addition, I plan on creating a studio that protects and promotes certified organic, human-made content, while mainstream Hollywood continues to replace all of its workforce with AI, simply to maximize their dwindling profits,” he added. “Enjoy reporting on the sidelines of the Hollywood apocalypse!”

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-supporting-star-zachary-levi-torches-entertainment-outlet-after-it-blasts-him-post-election

    Liked by 1 person

  21. EXCERPT: “Employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are reportedly terrified that there will be a “bloodbath” of layoffs once President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. Which is odd, since our friends in the mainstream media have previously indicated the term “bloodbath” is a secret siren call for violence.

    Kerry Picket of the Washington Times spoke to several inside sources who claim top officials at the bureau are “stunned” and “shellshocked” at the overwhelming victory for Trump in Tuesday’s election.

    Trump didn’t just win — he received an overwhelming mandate from the American people, along with solid Republican control of the Senate and very likely retaining control of the House. There will be very little standing in the way of Trump’s policies and platforms being implemented.Who Will be First to Go at the FBI?

    With that knowledge, it seems employees at the FBI are fraught with concern for their livelihoods. That starts at the top, with Director Christopher Wray, according to the insiders. “It’s a countdown for Wray because [people here] don’t think he will stay to get fired after what Trump did to Comey,” the first source said. “Trump will say, Yeah, ‘fire his ass. Don’t let him take the plane home.'”

    Wray, who has overseen the malicious prosecution of Trump supporters involved in the mostly peaceful protest known as January 6th, even as his own bureau had laced the grounds with an unknown number of informants (former Capitol police chief Steven Sund has estimated the number – combined with DHS informants – to be in the dozens), should be the first to receive a pink slip.

    Trump has previously called on Wray to resign for covering up President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline in Congressional testimony. He needn’t be given the opportunity to resign. Fire him. Day one.

    It Isn’t Just Wray

    Beyond Wray, however, other senior management or executive-level officials at the FBI are equally concerned that their jobs may be in peril. “Others on the 7th floor of the FBI are so concerned about their own jobs that they are likely to flood the Washington, D.C., private security job market,” the report says.

    Their sources indicate nobody feels safe from being let go, fully expecting Trump to “smash the place to pieces when he gets in,” ushering in a spectacular “bloodbath.” From an HR standpoint, of course. From their lips to Trump’s ears.  

    They’re Terrified of Elon Musk Too

    Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this new report involves the FBI sources who admit that they’re worried about Elon Musk coming in and cleaning house as well. Trump made a campaign promise vowing to create a government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government. Musk would reportedly lead the effort.

    One source tells the Times that cutting waste at the FBI will naturally lead to a massive reduction in staff, because the waste is everywhere in this partisan cesspool.

    “When he tries to do efficiency at headquarters, the place is going to have five people … if he’s talking about a lot of dead weight,” they said, according to Picket. “Try to find a person that’s actually working,” they continued, suggesting the FBI is clearly “bloated.”

    Well, we know somebody is working there. Overtime. Because they’ve charged over 1,265 individuals in relation to the J6 cases. Speaking of which, the Times notes that some employees who didn’t appreciate being forced to work the J6 beat are amused “that Trump [likely] pardons everybody involved” in those cases.

    Other Federal Employees Worried…..”

    https://redstate.com/rusty-weiss/2024/11/07/fbi-employees-terrified-of-being-fired-when-trump-arrives-hes-going-to-smash-the-place-to-pieces-n2181711

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “A large portion of these federal workers seeking to jump ship were with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They wanted out of a department they felt would be target-rich for a Trump administration eager to eliminate waste and overspending.

      One couple complained that they were being forced to put off buying a new car and making home renovations because they were worried about their jobs.

      Oh, the humanity.”

      Liked by 1 person

  23. H/T M – Tweet from gracieback2:

    “President Trump shedding a tear as He saw millions of Americans supporting him.

    I love this picture. I have no words to adequately describe the respect and love I have for President Trump !

    He’s truly suffered for our entire country. I watched him with awe as he faced hatred and persecution! Thank you, President Trump – We love you !”

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Fucking Fox! Putting up possibilities for Cabinet positions – they are suggesting a former advisor to Dick Cheney (Mike Waltz) for SecDef! NO-ONE who worked for those warmongers should ever be considered – period!!!! GENERAL FLYNN is my suggestion – he MUST be brought in somewhere that the 2 of them think is appropriate.

    Liked by 1 person

  25. https://thefederalist.com/2024/11/07/after-trumps-victory-there-can-be-no-unity-without-a-reckoning/

    Back in July after the first Trump assassination attempt, I wrote that there can be no national unity, no burying the hatchet or cooling the rhetoric with people who have been encouraging political violence and pushing assassination prep for years. You can’t smack someone in the face with a hammer and then insist everyone calm down.

    Trump’s election victory doesn’t change that. Those in the news media who spent years calling Trump a fascist and comparing him to Hitler, claiming he represents a threat to democracy and that he’ll use his presidential powers to go after his enemies, should not be forgiven. Their lies and nonstop propaganda should not be forgotten. No one should ever take them seriously again. When they try to engage the public square, they should either be ignored entirely or met with a wall of mockery and derision. They are enemies of the American people, whom they openly despise, and there can be no real unity with them no matter what they might say in the future.

    Going forward, it should be a mark of shame to be associated with MSNBC, CBS News, and CNN. Same goes for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Politico. All the “prestige” media outlets that perpetrated lies, distortions, and unhinged rhetoric about Trump should lose so much credibility that their reader and viewer bases collapse, advertisers abandon them, and they get broken up and sold off for parts. If Laurene Powell Jobs wants to run a vanity magazine for her own entertainment, fine. But let’s not pretend it’s a serious place where serious journalists work. We all know what it is now. — The Federalist

    Our Take: A consistent contributing factor in America’s division is the ongoing lack of accountability. For the past four years, right-leaning Americans watched in horror as Democrats brazenly wielded power as a political weapon.

    In contrast, left-leaning Americans embraced unconstitutional home raids, special counsel witch hunts, weaponized courts, political prisoners and the systematic destruction of every standard and norm when it came to their ideological opponents.

    They called this righteousness. The former has been so traumatized these past few years that they’re unable to fully celebrate winning this election. We are all waiting for the other shoe, the rug, the hose.

    The latter is crying about fascism in fear of weaponized government — a 180 from their prior four year embrace of using systemic power to deliver political retribution. This article does an excellent job spotlighting these color revolutionaries — the anatomy of the swamp:

    “Legacy media outlets, the polling industry, the Democrat-funded nonprofits and the academics and activists who run them have all now been exposed as cogs in a giant propaganda machine.”

    “…the government officials and institutions who tried to bankrupt and jail Trump…” Jack Smith and “and everyone else at Biden’s DOJ who was involved in these lawfare cases…”

    The FBI and other agencies that engaged in “one of the most egregious abuses of power in American history.”

    While we need to heal within our communities, with our neighbors and families and friends, we cannot allow calls for “unity” and “harmony” to prevent us from attacking the metastasized cancer in our great American experiment.

    No deals.

    If that seems harsh, consider that they had to know they’d get caught. Criminal enterprise never lasts forever, and the writing about this one has been on the wall too long. They knew they’d get caught, but they decided to put the country through it all anyway — years of hell — for no reason other than their corrupt pursuit of power.

    You cannot restore public trust without truth and accountability. Both are required. — Ashe in America

    Liked by 1 person

  26. 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸
    @mrddmia
    Trump’s opponents attempted to bankrupt him for non-fraud.

    And imprison him for life for non-crimes.

    And take him off the ballot.

    And take off his head.

    Now they want “unity”?

    Fuck them.

    Let’s unify them in prison.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Troublemaker10

    November 8, 2024 10:22 am

    Eric Daugherty
    @EricLDaugh

    BREAKING: Scott Presler and Charlie Kirk have now endorsed Rick Scott for Senate GOP leader.

    10:13 AM · Nov 8, 2024

    BREAKING: Scott Presler and Charlie Kirk have now endorsed Rick Scott for Senate GOP leader.

    — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 8, 2024

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I like Ron Johnson more but he’s better utilized doing the actual day-to-day work, I think. Especially working with RFKJ (?) at FDA on the COVID issue.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. The Governor will appoint a replacement for the current term.

          EXCERPT: “Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance will become the next vice president, thus creating a vacancy in the U.S. Senate.

          Former President Donald Trump and his running mate Vance defeated Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in the presidential election that was called Wednesday morning by the Associated Press. Vance will have to resign from his Senate seat before being sworn in as vice president during Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

          It is now up to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to pick a Republican to fill Vance’s open Senate seat until a special election is held in 2026. Whoever DeWine appoints must run in the 2026 special election if they want to keep their seat.

          Vance is currently serving his first term in the U.S. Senate after being elected over Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in 2022. Whoever wins the 2026 special election will serve the remainder of Vance’s term, which expires in 2028.”

          https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/briefs/what-will-happen-to-j-d-vances-ohio-u-s-senate-seat/

          Liked by 1 person

  28. Whoa!!! Susie Wiles has been busier than we knew!!!

    https://badlandsmedia.tv/president-trump-names-susan-wiles-as-white-house-chief-of-staff/

    Our Take: Congratulations to Susie Wiles on being the first person officially appointed to the incoming Trump Administration.

    That, in and of itself, is a major achievement. Being the first female Chief of Staff in history is also very noteworthy, and something that we should absolutely take the opportunity to rub in Rachel Maddow’s smug face.

    But we must also take this opportunity to eviscerate identity politics from our society, and tribalism, in general. We must stop thinking of ourselves in terms of labels—which is a conditioning thrust upon us by the social engineers—and start thinking of ourselves as Americans.

    I was going to go lighthearted with this one, post a funny South Park clip and do a contrast with the opposition, who are busy launching a new Trump-inspired brand of feminism in South Korea where women swear off men and remain childless and sexless throughout their lives. (Pretty sure Rachel Maddow already beat you to market, and has the “crone” demographic firmly cornered.)

    Then I looked into Susie Wiles, and realized that she’s not only a badass, but that she has a very interesting history. After helping to get President Trump elected in 2016, The Donald “deputized” her in 2018 to help Congressman Ron DeSantis run for Governor of Florida. Wiles succeeded with the task, and joined the Desantis administration.

    Check out the language from this 2022 article:

    Wiles once served as a top adviser to DeSantis, but she was abruptly ousted from his inner circle in 2019 amid rising tensions between the duo and was then let go from Trump’s campaign operation at the governor’s behest. She was later reinstated.

    “I’ve never heard her bash on DeSantis in a ruthless way, but I think she is very aware that he was intimately involved in [her] getting bounced from the 2020 campaign,” said a current Trump adviser.

    At the very least, it was enough to create a lasting fissure in their relationship, which several well-placed sources said is virtually nonexistent nowadays. But some believe Wiles’ familiarity with DeSantis – especially his potential weaknesses as a candidate – could also be useful in the future.

    “I don’t think President Trump would have won Florida in 2016 without Susie Wiles, and she was instrumental in Ron DeSantis’ victory [as governor] in 2018. They would both benefit from having Susie involved in a 2024 campaign,” said David Bossie, a longtime Trump friend and adviser.

    “No doubt” she would be more loyal to Trump in a primary, said Caputo.

    Bro. Was Susie Wiles President Trump’s mole into the DeSantis op?

    Was she the one who mapped it all out, and maybe helped subvert Ron’s attempt to dethrone President Trump as the leader of the MAGA movement? As well as derail President Trump’s return to the White House?

    The fact that Susie Wiles developed a dislike of DeSantis way back in 2019, to the point where he had to fire her—and then worked to get her later removed from the Trump 2020 campaign—is perhaps one of the best credentials any future member of the new Trump administration will possess. It speaks to her discernment, integrity, and courage, but also her loyalty to President Trump and MAGA.

    And now she’s in charge of the hiring and staffing process for the entire new Trump administration? Susie, you are most welcomed here, among us.

    PS — Hey Rachel, suck on that. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry

    Liked by 1 person

  32. What are the Democrats? What’s that party for? When I was a kid they were the party of the working man, the little guy. That’s the Trumpian GOP now. When I was a young woman they were the antiwar party. That’s the Trumpian GOP. The party of generous spending? The Trumpian party says hold my beer. What belief do the Democrats hold that distinguishes them? LGBTQ, woke, gender theory, teachers unions, higher taxes? Why not throw in cholera and chlamydia? —Peggy Noonan, WSJ

    Liked by 1 person

  36. Orbán: We cannot expect the Americans to protect us alone, Europe must take responsibility for its own security”

    “A chapter has been closed with the American elections and the world will change faster than we thought”

    From left, Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and French President Emmanuel Macron after a group photo during the European Political Community (EPC) Summit at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

    EXCERPT: “Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama held a press conference at the summit of the European Political Community (EPC) summit yesterday.

    Calling the summit the biggest diplomatic event in the history of Hungary, Orbán noted it took place in a difficult, complicated and dangerous situation. “The war started by Russia against Ukraine has been going on for three years, the Middle East is in flames, migration pressure is increasing, and the world is also experiencing an unprecedented economic blockade,” he said.

    The Hungarian PM added: “There’s no time to waste. History has apparently sped up – a chapter has been closed with the American elections and the world will change faster than we thought.”

    According to the prime minister, there was a consensus “that Europe should assume greater responsibility for its own peace and security in the future; to put it even more bluntly, we cannot expect the Americans to protect us alone.”

    He added that several working groups have been formed, some of which will deal with the economy and others with migration. 

    Regarding migration, Orbán announced, “Everyone is unhappy with the current situation and everyone wants change,” adding that so-called “judicial activism” holds back effective action, and Europe must rebel against it….”

    https://rmx.news/article/orban-we-cannot-expect-the-americans-to-protect-us-alone-europe-must-take-responsibility-for-its-own-security/

    Liked by 1 person

  41. Comin’ back to bite you in the ass, jerkwad!!!

    EXCERPT: “In the wake of Donald Trump’s recent victory in the U.S. presidential election, Poland’s ruling coalition, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, is grappling with the potential fallout from strained relations.

    Trump’s campaign team reportedly received a dossier of the negative remarks made about him by Polish liberals, complicating the path toward future cooperation between the two countries.

    According to Dominik Tarczyński, an MEP from Poland’s conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, the newly elected U.S. president has been made aware of critical statements by various Polish leaders, including Tusk and the wife of Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, potentially intensifying the diplomatic challenge for Poland.

    “This is a problem,” said Tarczyński, who maintained close contact with Trump’s team during the election campaign, in an interview with Polish outlet wPolityce.pl. “This cooperation will be very difficult, considering what Donald Tusk and others said about Trump.”

    A history of discord between Tusk and Trump has been well-documented over the years, with the Polish prime minister regularly insulting the U.S. president-elect on numerous occasions during his time in Brussels and as leader of Poland’s opposition….”

    https://rmx.news/article/polish-pm-tusk-left-red-faced-after-dossier-of-his-partys-insults-about-trump-handed-to-president-elect/

    Liked by 1 person

  42. ‘We have become the Gaza of Europe!’ Wilders slams horrific night of violence against Jews in Amsterdam

    Dutch politician Geert Wilders has called for the mayor of Amsterdam to resign and for an investigation into the failings of the authorities to protect Jews violently beaten by Muslim mobs on the streets of the Dutch capital last night

    FILE – In this image taken from video, pro-Palestinian supporters march with Palestinian flags near the Ajax stadium in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo InterVision)

    “The leader of the Netherlands’ largest political party has described the country as “the Gaza of Europe” after a wave of violence broke out in Amsterdam in the early hours of Friday morning, targeting Jews.

    Harrowing video footage from the scene shows Jewish individuals being beaten, thrown into canals, and even run over by mobs of Muslim men. In one instance, an attacker can be heard shouting, “That’s for Palestine, motherfucker,” while repeatedly kicking a motionless man. Some Jewish visitors sought refuge in nearby buildings as crowds attempted to force their way inside, according to reports from The Jerusalem Post.

    https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1854730025171337422

    Those targeted were in the first instance appeared to have been Israeli football fans in town for the Europa League match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax, however, other footage from the night shows Muslim mobs walking around the Dutch capital interrogating passers-by, demanding they tell them were they are from.

    The attacks, which have drawn widespread condemnation, were described by Dutch politician Geert Wilders as an “Amsterdam Pogrom,” prompting calls for urgent government action….”

    https://rmx.news/article/we-have-become-the-gaza-of-europe-wilders-slams-horrific-night-of-violence-against-jews-in-amsterdam/

    Liked by 1 person

  44. Just The News: “House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Friday sent a warning to special counsel Jack Smith demanding that he preserve all records related to his prosecutions of President-elect Donald Trump.

    “With President Trump’s decisive victory this week, we are concerned that the Office of Special Counsel may attempt to purge relevant records, communications, and documents responsive to our numerous requests for information,” Jordan wrote. “The Office of Special Counsel is not immune from transparency or above accountability for its actions.”

    Jordan issued a formal records preservation request to Smith in the letter. The special counsel has brought to criminal cases against Trump, though both are expected to end with his ascent to the presidency.

    Republicans appear poised to retain the House and the subpoena power that comes majority control.”

    Liked by 1 person

      1. IKR? I’ve thrown a number of them away after they’ve fallen on the floor = cat hair is impossible!!!

        Like

  48. Just The News: “Special Prosecutor Jack Smith signaled Friday he may end his Jan. 6 election interference prosecution against Donald Trump, asking for a month delay in the case to consider options in the aftermath of the elections. Smith specifically mentioned Tuesday’s election that returned Trump to the White House in seeking the delay.

    The Justice Department “respectfully requests that the Court vacate the remaining deadlines in the pretrial schedule to afford the Government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance,” Smith’s team wrote.

    The delay, his team noted, would give prosecutors time to “determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.”

    You can read the full memo here. JackSmithJ6CasePauseRequestMotion.pdf

    The action was not surprising. DOJ has a long policy against prosecuting sitting presidents, and sources told multiple news outlets this week DOJ was looking for a way to wind down the prosecution,”

    Liked by 1 person

      2. At least that’s the impression I’ve gotten – I don’t know where it originated. According to Wiki: “Hawk tuah is an internet meme originating from a viral YouTube video posted in 2024. During a street interview, Haliey Welch used the catchphrase “hawk tuah,” an onomatopoeia for spitting or expectoration on a man’s penis during oral sex.”

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Websters: “Onomatopoeia indicates a word that sounds like what it refers to or describes. The letter sounds combined in the word mimic the natural sound of the object or action, such as hiccup. A word is considered onomatopoetic if its pronunciation is a vocal imitation of the sound associated with the word.”

        Liked by 1 person

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