Senator Menendez is 'Justice-Involved' Again and Loving It

(Imagine this in Shirley Bassey's voice)

Old Swinger,

He's the man, the man with the "bribe me" touch,

a grifter's touch,

Such a U.S. Code 18 swinger,

Beckons you to forget his conflicts of 'in'trst,

and don't convict!

I'll say this for my least-favorite corrupt public official: his many money-grubbing schemes and close escapes from the law do make for colorful reading. 

The New York Post has the latest installment here, in a story that strings together a fortune in gold bars, a New Jersey IHOP, a proposal in front of the Taj Mahal, a deadlocked jury, an imprisoned Medicare swindler, the overturning of a consular officer's denial of visas for a political contributor's personal 36DD immigrant program, and a front company set up by a politician's wife who was facing foreclosure before becoming suddenly and inexplicably rich. 

I mean, it's all so ludicrous that you could almost be tempted to give the crook a pass in return for his giving us so much humor. But then, you remember he's a U.S. Senator and, really, it's not a laughing matter. 

State Owns an Italian Rifle Range? Yes, Soon to Be ConGen Milan

The current issue of State Magazine - in-house publication, but available here to all our valued taxpaying citizens - has a piece on one of State's new consulate design projects, and it's an intriguing one since that new diplomatic premise will be an adaptive reuse of Italy's former national firing range.

"Few cities match Milan’s style, sophistication, and financial clout. A world city on a par with Los Angeles or Mexico City, Greater Milan’s ten million people and its strengths in commerce, design, education, finance, and media make it a leading European Union hub. Milan was the seat of the Western Roman Empire and later ranked among the great cities of the Renaissance. Today, Milan is culture and taste, business and fashion, art and elegance."

Exactly so! Culture and taste, business and fashion, art and elegance, are just what come to my mind when I think of my good friends in the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations. 

Specifically, it is OBO's cultural heritage staff that are taking the lead on this one. Bene per loro!

"OBO’s Office of Cultural Heritage produced a short film about how the United States is building a consulate general in Milan that will integrate classical Italian architecture and American design in a grand act of cultural diplomacy. The film can be seen here."

Please watch the film, and be aware that an unusually intelligent thing is happening here. For once, instead of going straight to the option of building a big ol' forbidding Fortress Embassy, we are using an existing structure that is of importance to our host government and adapting it to our use. That's a win-win for ourself and our host.

Tragedy Tour of the "Non-Profit Industrial Complex"

Organizers from SF Anonymous Insider are charging $30 to take tourists from City Hall to SoMa to see the city’s “squalor.” https://t.co/EMP4I60Mcu

— The San Francisco Standard (@sfstandard) August 10, 2023

“The tour will start at City Hall, and continue through Mid-Market, the Tenderloin, and Union Square,” the webpage for the event says. “We will view the open-air drug markets, the abandoned tech offices, the outposts of the non-profit industrial complex, and the deserted department stores.”

The non-profit industrial complex? That's a new expression, to me anyway, but I love the concept. I assume it applies to the 'harm reduction' NGOs that have instituted euthanasia with box lunches for the city's thousands of drug addicts, making them comfortable until they take their final overdose.

 I hate what's become of San Francisco, but I love the blame-fixing of that expression.

Seriously, What is Wrong With Him?

FBI = Funding Backlash Immiserates (Virginia and Maryland Pols)

We're finally near the end of a decade-long process to build a new FBI HQ.

Now is not the time to play petty politics. Yet, Jim Jordan & MAGA Republicans are weaponizing the federal government to "Defund the FBI."

This kind of political interference is wrong and irresponsible. pic.twitter.com/FH3rNchyrR

— Rep. Jennifer Wexton (@RepWexton) July 13, 2023

So there will be no $$$ billions coming out of Congress this fiscal year to pay for a new FBI HQ, or so it seems today.

That causes me no grief at all, since it is perfectly clear - to me, anyway - that the current downtown DC location is exactly where the FBI should remain, albeit in a new building to be built on the site of the current disastrous Hoover Building. 

As for "petty politics" and "political interference," the esteemed Representatives who are wailing about that today are the first ones to use the power of government without a second thought when they are in the majority. Today it's the other side that has the whip hand, and they are using it.

If the FBI wants the Republican majority to fund their relocation, they might try not pissing that majority off, as their Director did yesterday, and see if that helps.

       

Have We Ever Asked for the Return of Howitzer Shells? Would We Know How?

I have read in the news media that the U.S. has already supplied Ukraine with over two million howitzer rounds, but they continue to need more at the rate of seven, or eight, or nine thousand rounds a day (numbers vary depending upon the particular source you read). 

Are they really firing that many? Are some being diverted elsewhere?  

The Ukraine howitzer business has put me in mind of a scene in a very good although overlooked movie about the early years of our involvement in Vietnam. See the whole thing here: Go Tell the Spartans. 

The particular scene starts at 1:12:22 and runs to 1:15:45. In it, an American Major played by Burt Lancaster makes a subtle offer to oversupply a Vietnamese Colonel with howitzer shells in return for his artillery support to an American outpost under siege. 

He pitches an immediate air supply of 500 rounds from an American depot, followed by 1,000 more to be delivered later by truck convoy. 

[Vietnamese official seeing an opportunity]

It would take four or five days for the truck convoy to bring the shells from the American depot. That could conceivably be too late for their use could it not, major?

[Burt Lancaster]

Could be.

[Official]

In such a case, the American depot would desire the return of the shells, would it not?

[Lancaster, astonished]

In the whole history of the United States they've never asked for the return of anything, be it guns, money, boats, or howitzer shells. They wouldn't know how to ask for the return of anything. If they did, it would screw up the bookkeeping and everybody in Washington would have a goddamn nervous breakdown.

You tell the colonel if he gets his hands on the ammo, it's his forever.

Has anything really changed other than the sheer numbers of rounds involved?

For Your Use and Enjoyment: Howitzers 101

Not for nothing is field artillery known as the King of Battle.