Saturday, August 6, 2022

Sad Beyond Comprehension

Image result for nc Patcon

My GGG Grandfather built Dixieland, a Georgian style in 1790 and a Federal style in 1810.  We lost it after the War in 1866 and I was fortunate to be able to return it to the family in 1992. Today it was lost again.

The worst decision I've ever made, bar none 


I was listening to a Confederate podcast and the speaker
said he had a generational home in the Shenandoah Valley,
near the river, that if he lost that home it would be like
losing a family member. So your pain and suffering is
realistic. Dixieland is you and you are Dixieland.
We don't live in the past, the past lives in us. Basically,
you are haunted and hopefully the suffering will degrade
in time. Who would have ever thought.

Zillow

“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late ;
And how can men die better
Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his gods.”

Hi, Brock. Just wanted to check-in on how you are doing.
Are you still monitoring the depressing news? There is lots
I would like to ask but will settle with you are Okay.
Your website is sadly missed as being one of the best on the web.
Take care and keep the faith as you will not be undone.


Brock, I never comment but I must say this. It is not merely good to forgive yourself, it is an absolute obligation. You didn't abandon Dixieland, rather the Lord G-d simply transferred it from your loving care into the care of another. It wasn't your failure, rather it was His Will. Therefore, you MUST forgive yourself, not only for your sake, but for His sake. Bless you my dear Brother.

May peace be upon you friend and brother. My best to you and your family and my deepest sympathies, but in this war that we call life, we cannot win every battle.Hold your head high for the fight that you have fought. Truly my best regards, Jay

Hey Brock, It's Good to see that you are still commenting at least. I too am on a Long March back to Normalcy, of a New Sort. Long Pneumonia, good days and bad days blend in my memory. I pray for your speedy recovery, Sir. You are an Iconic Figure, and a Voice heard around the World. Keep the Faith and Stay Strong My Friend.

~~G.W. Long

Our dear Townsend, God bless you, good sir. You have been a blessing to many, even myself.

*****************

One less tear today

Mr Townsend, I just want to assure you that we love this house and we will take good care of it. We’re so grateful that you took such good care of the home so that our family can enjoy it, especially our 2 year old. I hope you enjoy your new home.

You are also welcome to visit anytime. 

***********

Dixieland

Innumerable Posts Above

Bitter Sweet

Hot Link 

Tears, Idle Tears by Alfred Lord Tennyson 

Crossing the Bar

Sunset and evening star,
      And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
      When I put out to sea,

   But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
      Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
      Turns again home.

   Twilight and evening bell,
      And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
      When I embark;

   For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
      The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
      When I have crost the bar. 

********************

I am doing good for my age, turning 87 tomorrow, hopefully.  

I am so sorry to learn of you having another operation, this one for on your intestines.  I certainly pray for a full recovery and return to the health you had prior to going to Mexico.   I saw on your site that you recently sold Dixieland.  I know that must have been tough for you to depart the family treasure.  Hopefully, the new owners will take care of the home and preserve it, the way you did.  I have fond memories of several Sundays at Dixieland for our reunions and luncheons.  Thank you for opening up your home for those occasions.

Take care, Colby

Bitter Sweet

 

Friday, July 15, 2022

I Lived Again......

Mykah

                I Lived ******

*After the Guadalajara fiasco, I basically beat all my problems only to return to Emerald Isle and the emergency room in Morehead City. As the surgeon and I walked to the operating room she said you need to make a decision which concerned the small intestines as they appeared to be interlocked with the large ones.  She could let me go gently or brought back for two or three days to say goodby as you cannot live without small intestines except in rare instances and mentioned that she was brutally honest in all cases. I said I would tell her before put to sleep and picked the former. When I awoke I was told she had found only that the small ones had moved around the large ones and both were in good shape with good blood circulation and said that she hadn't seen this before and we might have to go back in. Additionally, I wouldn't be out of the woods but the next three days would be critical which I assumed the small ones might return from whence they came after she replaced them.  Haven't fully recovered from this one but on the way I pray.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

FINAL PATCON/FAMILY REUNION @ DIXIELAND TBA

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZcs2uz9oT5NLIXOhr5pjvGicax4xvdyqqk78ishUuuYxTKxKK81Foy0GH4tA6elf2DwGumvoW_SZgAJc0YOkuGRt2hyaeaR8JFHa51pcFuiwfBT_uA7zSUqpjWPL1sqx1OP18hrlN2MeC/s1600/IMG_0189.JPG

 

Please reply if attending and anyone who has something to say or do, please respond. Format as before HERE

Friday, June 24, 2022

RIP My Friend, NAGO Plus Drew Dix, CMOH Winner

                                                                          NAGO far left.

Pictures enlarge at link.

My Friend, NAGO And Drew Dix, CMOH Winner

NAGO

****** 


https://i.postimg.cc/1tfV0SXj/DSCF0188.jpg

Duong Nhat Ngo

June 23, 1939 - June 24, 2022


Service: Parlor at Johnson Funeral Home
Sunday, July 3, 2022, 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
 

Thursday, June 9, 2022

Remembering Gods and Generals

 

Lest we forget, it has been nineteen years since the film “Gods and Generals” was released to screens across the United States—to be exact, on February 21, 2003—almost ten years after the release of the blockbuster film, “Gettysburg.”

“Gods and Generals” was based on the historical novel by Jeff Shaara, while “Gettysburg” was based on a work by his father, Michael Shaara. An intended third installment, “The Last Full Measure,” which would have carried events of the War Between the States to its conclusion, was shelved after critics savaged “Gods and Generals,” citing what Wikipedia termed its “length, pacing, screenplay, and endorsement of the controversial neo-Confederate ‘Lost Cause’ myth.”

Undoubtedly, “Gods and Generals” is more episodic than its prequel, which indeed centers its action around one pivotal event in the war, the epochal Battle of Gettysburg. And, yes, it is long—the director’s cut is four hours and forty minutes in duration. Yet, “Gettysburg” in its original version is only slightly shorter. But given its thematic unity it succeeds, perhaps, as more theatrical and digestible by a public attuned to simpler plots and more compact storylines. Whereas in “Gettysburg” the viewer watches as events unfold steadily toward an eventual climax that we all know is coming and at the same time manages to engage those who experience it as if—somehow—it is happening now for the first time, “Gods and Generals” is somewhat reminiscent of a mini-series with episodic segments attempting to offer viewers an impression of how the war actually began and how, in its first two years, it was fought.

More @ The Abbeville Institute

THE CRUX OF THE MATTER

In the following article I try to step back from the heat of the Robert E. Lee controversy swirling on today's Washington and Lee campus; and to look again at who Lee was, what he did, and why, in order possibly to renew our perspective on the justice of the fundamental charge brought against him:  namely, that he led a Confederate army, thus acting in defense of the Confederate cause, putting him "on the wrong side of history," as they say; and leading his accusers to the conclusion that it is now, and always has been, wrong to venerate him at Washington and Lee.  I think this is an over-simplistic view of Lee and a far too narrowly focused judgement of him, arising partly from ignorance and partly from kowtowing to the crusading woke activism of the day.  In any case, I likely say nothing in the article that you do not already know, and hope only perhaps to refresh spirits and renew confidence in the rightness of our views, faced, as we are, with the unyielding intransigence of our opposition.

To this end, please donate to The Generals Redoubt to pay for professional research related to defending Lee Chapel as a National Historical Landmark, and for future funding to educate students about the rich history and legacy of Robert E. Lee.  We need your help if we are to save Lee Chapel as a campus and national treasure.  Thank you for any contribution you can give us. 

More HERE

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

The Last Americans to Believe in the Voluntary Union of the States

 

“If there is to be a separation [i.e., secession of New England], then God bless them [the two countries] both, & keep them in the union if it be for their good, but separate them if it be better.”

  • Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John C. Breckenridge, Aug. 12, 1803, regarding the New England secession movement

“No state . .  can lawfully get out of the union . . . acts against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary . . .”

  • Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address

“Extermination, not of soldiers alone, that is the least of the trouble, but the people [of the South].”

  • Letter from General Sherman to his wife, July 31, 1862, explaining his purpose in the war

More @ The Abbeville Institute

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Recommended Books about the South and Its History

 

A friend recently asked me for a list of good books about the South and “the Late Unpleasantness” which he could share with his two sons, one of whom will be entering college this fall, and the other who will be a high school senior. I began naming some volumes, at random. But my friend stopped me in mid-sentence and asked if I could compile and write down a list of about ten books which would essentially touch the main points of Southern history and culture: that is, offering a non-politically correct view of the War Between the States, placing the institution of slavery in its proper context (as not the determining factor for the War), and taking a sympathetic view of the richness of our Southern heritage…and, perhaps most importantly, suggesting some works that a bright college freshman and high school senior could understand and refer to as they navigated the corrupted hallways of our American educational system. 

More @ The Abbeville Institute

Lest We Forget


Hello My Southern Gentleman Friend
"The sleep of the Civil War dead is even more disturbed these days. If the woke brigades get their way, every last Confederate soldier will be dug up from his final resting place and — What? Burned? Thrown in the swamp? Shipped to Devil’s Island?"

This is a good read and worth the time if you can.
Be well my Friend and Mentor
Your northern Copperhead Friend
   ~~Greg

 As most of you know, I joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) a while back. Given the current cultural climate here in the Nation Formerly Known as the United States of America, it’s about the most politically incorrect organization I could belong to. I suppose the Klan would be worse, but to the progressive mainstream it’s undoubtedly “Klan, Sons of Confederate Veterans — same thing.”

Many years ago I wrote a poem entitled “Mason Dixon” that began with these lines:

    The central obsession of our federal estate
    is the bloody conflict that divided it.
    Thirteen decades later its veterans’ reunions
    and widows’ pensions are no more,
    but the dead still rest uneasy
    in their ordered rows.Mp

More @ Gates of Vienna

Monday, May 30, 2022

The 2020 Census and the Transformation of the South: The Democrat Party’s Immigration Road to Dominance



In 2004, the Republican Presidential candidate George W. Bush carried every Southern and Border State except Maryland. He carried Texas with 61 percent, Georgia with 58 percent, North Carolina with 56 percent, Virginia with 54 percent, and Florida with 52 percent.

In 1972, Richard Nixon had carried Texas with 66 percent, Georgia with 76 percent, North Carolina with almost 70 percent, Virginia with 68 percent, and Florida with 72 percent. The South had been a bastion for conservative Republican support.

 More @ US MEDIA

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Friday, April 29, 2022

EXCLUSIVE: David Lara Explains The “Playbook” of Ballot Traffickers In Arizona After Discovering Ballot Mules In San Luis, AZ

 

The Gateway Pundit recently spoke to David Lara, an Arizona citizen who discovered a ballot trafficking “cartel” in his local community of San Luis.

We previously reported that the Arizona Attorney General received this evidence before the 2020 General Election, but he did nothing about it. RINO Mark Brnovich waited until now to investigate the stolen 2020 Election.

More @ The Gateway Pundit

Biden’s Disinformation Chief Nina Jankowicz: Online Mockery of Kamala Harris a Threat to Democracy and National Security

 Via Billy

Nina Jankowicz, executive director of the Disinformation Governance Board (U.S. Department of Homeland Security)

 Good little commie.

President Joe Biden’s new disinformation chief Nina Jankowicz argued online mockery of Vice President Kamala Harris and other women in public life was a threat to national security.

“Platforms and governments aren’t doing enough,” she wrote on social media. “It’s time to act. Our national security and democracy are at stake.”

The Department of Homeland Security announced the creation of the new Disinformation Governance Board led by Jankowicz on Wednesday.

More @ Breitbart

Texas Police Seize Guns from Lawful Owners, Still Have Them After 4 Years

 

An investigation by KABB News in San Antonio reveals that police in China Grove, Texas seized guns from lawful citizens four years ago and still have not returned them.

In August of 2018, Brandy Napier and her husband Franklin were visiting family and shooting at a gun range in the city when her husband was pulled over for a minor traffic violation on the way back to their home in Seguin.

The responding officer noticed three guns in the back seat of the vehicle and proceeded to confiscate them despite the fact that no arrests were made.

More @ Guns America

Musk tweets diagram, calls out new disinformation czar: ‘Dem Party has been hijacked by extremists’

Via John

Billionaire Elon Musk sounded off Thursday via Twitter, commenting on President Joe Biden’s Orwellian “Disinformation Governance Board,” calling it “discomforting” while pointing out that the left has become too radical and the “Democratic Party has been hijacked by extremists.”

Musk voted for former President Barack Obama and identified as a liberal. But as things have progressed here in the United States over the last few years, he has found him. 

More @ BPR

Confederate flag at Hamilton-area home prompts calls for changes to hate-symbol laws

Via Cousin Dale

        https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ee/81/a6/ee81a6f8680b9cc3f5cf1d9afb94bb77.png

Police say they can't take the flag down, homeowner says they don't care 'what people think'

Whenever Amie Archibald-Varley sees a Confederate flag waving in the wind at a rural Hamilton home in her neighbourhood, she said she feels fear and confusion.

"I have small children ... they're racialized as well ... it's concerning because it's like 'Are my kids going to face this type of hate? Are my kids going to be called the n-word or have to experience this type of fear?'" Archibald-Varley, who is Jamaican Canadian, told CBC Hamilton.

Archibald-Varley said she and her family live minutes away from the home. 

                                                                             More @  CBC


One-Armed Boom Stick – The Robinson Armament XCR-L Pistol

I’m old enough to remember when there were pistols, and there were rifles, and you could tell the difference at a glance. But I’ll admit, I’m also old enough to remember rotary dial telephones and rabbit-ear antennas. But even most of the youngsters among us can remember the advent of the AR pistol form factor. Initially designed, I’m convinced, as a way to thumb one’s nose at the inherent lunacy of legal and regulatory restrictions and classifications – it took off as a legitimate and fairly lucrative operating space in the firearms market.

I’ll confess that I have personally struggled to fall in love with the “AR Pistol” form factor because I have found it generally difficult to wield as a pistol. All that weight out at the end of your arm can be hard to manage for more than a few seconds at a time, and most arm brace designs force the gun into a configuration where it is nearly impossible to see open sights properly. However, that struggle is over – and I have fallen in love with the pistol configuration available from Robinson Armament Co.

More @ Guns America

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Biden’s Economy is the Definition of Stagflation

 US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Delaware Air National Guard base in New Castle, Delaware, on April 25, 2022. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds / AFP) (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

The definition of stagflation is growth below its long-term trend and inflation above trend.

That’s what we got in the first quarter of 2022.

The economy did not just grow slowly. It contracted on an annualized basis. Imports, which are subtractions from GDP, expanded massively and and exports fell. Consumer spending was weaker than expected, suggesting that households balked at high prices. Inventories fell, subtracting from GDP.

More @ Breitbart

How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery Part 11

 SLAVE-Pict-GROUP-Chap-Six-p133 47K

At the end of this article beneath the notes I have cited is "Actual Citation from Book," Complicity's notes from Chapter Six. The picture come from page 133.

TYPICAL OF THE UTTER BRUTALITY of the New England and New York slave trade carried on under the same American flag Yankees carried in the War Between the States, was "a flotilla of illegal slave ships" from the North to Rio de Janeiro around 1843.

One ship:

[A] New York brig named the Kentucky, arrived in Brazil drenched in blood from one of the most gruesome revolts ever recorded.1

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

What We Need

Our Spanish Civil War?

 

Deep and brutal strife in 1930s Spain was a prelude to the barbarity of World War II. Now with the war in Ukraine, we’re reminded that the veneer of civilization is very thin.

From 1936 to 1939, the civil war in Spain became a European laboratory of new tactics, strategies, logistics, wartime morality, and weapons. Right-wing nationalists under General Francisco Franco finally defeated loyal supporters of an evolutionary socialist republic—but only after much of the Western world had variously weighed in.

The cost to the Spanish people of such brutal and vicious strife was horrific. Over 500,000 Spaniards would die in a little over two-and-a-half years. The country was left in shambles.

More @ The Independent Institute

There Is No Balm in Gilead


Meanwhile, as the prophet said, “is there no balm in Gilead?” Not this time, but there is a great deal of money. As Brian Robertson recently explained, “following the money has been the key to uncovering the corruption surrounding COVID-19; now it may be the key to providing a solution to it.”

I am glad for Gilead as well.”

That was Dr. Clifford Lane, a deputy to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) boss Dr. Anthony Fauci, in an April 29, 2020 response to Tomas Cihlar, a senior vice president at the pharmaceutical company Gilead, developer of the drug remdesivir.

As the Epoch Times reports, recently revealed emails show Fauci and NIAID officials “scrambled in April 2020 to answer questions about altering the endpoint” in a trial of remdesivir. Once the drug was declared the new standard of care for COVID-19, as Forbes reported, Gilead’s stock surged more than 16 percent in overnight trading.

More @ The Independent Institute

Elon Musk Weighs In On Big Tech Suppression Of Hunter ‘Laptop’ Bombshell

 (L) Hunter Biden at Lincoln Center in New York City on May 28, 2014. (R) Elon Musk attends the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide, Germany, on March 22, 2022. (Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Town & Country; Patrick Pleul/Pool via Reuters)

Twitter’s new owner isn’t happy about the widescale suppression of arguably one of the biggest news stories from 2020, the Hunter Biden “Laptop From Hell” bombshell, which was systematically censored by Big Tech operatives seeking to give Joe Biden an advantage during the presidential race against Donald Trump.

More @ The Continental Daily

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

If You Liked the Lockdowns, You're Gonna Love the Future


If you liked the lockdowns, with all of its crazy inconsistencies, the punishment of the right; the accommodation of the leftists; the illegal, immoral and big, red, middle-finger to the constitution and your rights, that was just the scenes of coming attractions. As I’ve stated before, it was a test; we failed, now we deal with the messages it sent.

A great piece by the Baron at Gates of Vienna, spells it out. Do you really think that failing gun control, the communists were just going to shrug and go away? What extent they achieved to limit gun ownership got obliterated after the Summer of Love put on by Antifa and BLM in Portland and Seattle. It scared the suburban moms and dads and that pretty well crushed gun control as a leftist tactic, because a lot of those people suddenly realized the value of violent self-defense.

More @ TL Davis

Judge Orders FBI To Turn Over Evidence Regarding Search For Civil War Gold

 Via Billy

 

A father and son team of treasure hunters may soon discover the details behind a potential hunt for gold dating back to the Civil War era from the records of an FBI dig in 2018.

A federal judge has required the FBI to promptly release its records regarding the lost treasure to a team operating under the name Finders Keepers led by Dennis and Kem Parada. The father and son have accused the FBI of intentionally delaying its request for information.

More @ The Daily Wire

REUNITED AFTER 15 YEARS FAMILY WAS SPLIT BY VIETNAM WAR (Repost)

 https://i.postimg.cc/1tfV0SXj/DSCF0188.jpg

My Friend, NAGO And Drew Dix, CMOH Winner

 

NAGO far left 
 

.......their leader, Medal of Honor winner Drew Dix, years later confided to friends that the operation was a reality. Duong, called ``Nago' by his friends, and other South Vietnamese who fought with Dix were flown by the Army to an island off the coast of Vietnam to save them from execution by the Viet Cong. They were taken to Guam after the collapse of their country.

More @ FNC

So VMI Isn't Structurally Racist After All


The Washington Post’s Ian Shapira and his social justice allies in Richmond and Lexington, Virginia, must be worried, big-time. For nearly two years running, their Axis-Against-VMI has enjoyed remarkable success: forcing an honorable VMI superintendent to resign; removing Lt. Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson’s statue, and his name from Jackson Arch; renaming buildings and recontextualizing the past; inserting divisive ideology into courses; and establishing a diversity office at the school. To explain all of this, and the sheeplike climate that has permeated a once-willing-to-stand-apart-from-cultural-faddishness military school of high reputation, one must return to the previous, disgraced governor of Virginia. Ralph Northam came within the proverbial gnat’s eyelash of being forced from office in 2018 when his own racial insensitivities as a younger man came to light. But the VMI 1981 alumnus and former President of the VMI Honor Court – he included this on his official stationery – apparently experienced a change of heart. He embraced the demands of neo-Marxist-based, Critical Race Theory (CRT) devotees within the ranks of Richmond’s political powerbrokers, and he kept his job. In September 2019, he hired Virginia’s “first cabinet-level Chief Diversity Officer. . . . also the first [position] of its kind in the nation.”[1] In the aftermath of Northam’s insensitive behavior years earlier, one year after it had come to light he established a powerful new office – one previously unknown to the cabinet-level apparatus of any state in the country. This was astounding.

More @ The Abbeville Institute

In Major Reversal After Warning Of Nuclear War, Germany Approves Tanks For Ukraine (Doing our best to start a war)

 Via Greg via NC Renegade

 

In a major reversal following Chancellor Olaf Scholz only days ago voicing strong resistance, it appears Berlin has bowed to the mounting pressure among allies and approved new tank deliveries to Ukraine from Germany's own stock, which Scholz had previously said was depleted.

The German Ministry of Defense announced Tuesday that delivery of Gepard anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine has been approved. As part of Scholz's earlier rejection of sending heavy weapons systems, he had cited the potential for the West and Russia sliding into a WW3 and nuclear war scenario.

More @ Zero Hedge

Lewis Society’s President David Theroux, R.I.P. Inbox

 David J. Theroux Founder and President, The Independent Institute; Founder  and President, C.S. Lewis Society of California. - ppt download

Hi Brock,

I am writing with great sorrow to let you know that David Theroux, the Founder and President of the C.S. Lewis Society of California, has died after a brief illness. He passed away peacefully in Oakland, California on Saturday, April 23, with his wife Mary and sons Paul and Drake at his side.

As you may know, David founded the C.S. Lewis Society of California in 2006, in order to advance a deeper understanding of Lewis’s life, work and ideas. 

David found in Lewis’s writings an articulation of key concepts which anchored David’s own thinking, such as the natural law—the objective moral law knowable by all mankind—and the biblical concept of the imago dei—the image of God in man. In these ancient concepts David recognized both the historical source of, and the cultural guarantors of, the principle of human liberty—which both he and Lewis regarded as inviolable.  David elaborated on these themes in his popular YouTube presentation a few years ago, “C.S. Lewis on Mere Liberty and the Evils of Statism.”

Although he never insisted that others join him in his faith, David believed unwaveringly—like C.S. Lewis—in “God the Father almighty and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord” (using the words of the Apostles’ Creed). Again like Lewis, he was persuaded of “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” Although we are all struggling from David’s untimely departure, we have hope because of this same faith.

David was an amazingly creative man. Before the Lewis Society, he had previously founded the Independent Institute, as an academic, non-profit, public policy, research and educational organization, in 1986. He authored dozens of scholarly and commentary articles, and as publisher directed the publication of more than 140 scholarly books. He also created and was publisher of the influential quarterly journal, The Independent Review.

The members of the C.S. Lewis Society Board of Directors are united in their determination to further build the work of the Society and extend its influence—both to honor David’s legacy and to fulfill the sense of joy and calling that led David and others to launch the Society sixteen years ago.  So you’ll continue to hear from us, and are encouraged to participate in all we do together.

I invite you to read the extended biography of David that we have posted to the Independent Institute web site here.

Sincerely,

Graham

--
Graham Walker, Ph.D.
C. S. Lewis Society of California

100 Swan Way
Oakland, CA 94621-1428
510-635-6892 Phone
510-568-6040 Fax
info@lewissociety.org
https://www.lewissociety.org

signature_1033080574
 

Monday, April 25, 2022

Will Overman - Heart Pine (My Nephew)

Did the Confederacy Oppose the Rule of Law?

 State V The Slave Will 1834, My G, G Grandfather Wins

Today is Confederate Memorial Day in Alabama. Most Americans believe the War and Southern history are synonymous, so much so that to many, the War has come to define the South. If you are reading this post and have followed the Abbeville Institute for any length of time, you know that our mission to “explore what is true and valuable in the Southern tradition” captures the four-hundred plus years of Southern history and the Southern tradition, a rich mosaic of people, place, and culture.

The War occupies an important part of that tradition, and for those who despise the traditional South, it offers an opportunity for “academics” to link “racism” and “injustice” to those that respect and even admire Confederate heroes and ancestors. You see, to these people, the Southern tradition is racism and white supremacy. In the process, these “scholars” create a false dichotomy of “righteous” and anti-racist Northerners with “evil” and racist Southerners.

More @ The Abbeville Institute

Analysis: Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout offer

elon musk

Musk will pay $54.20 a share for Twitter. That represents a 38 percent premium to the stock's closing price the day before Musk disclosed he had purchased a nine percent stake in the company. Perhaps even more importantly, it is a 53 percent premium to where the shares were trading at the end of February, before Musk started building his stake.

When the transaction is closed, probably sometime later this year, Twitter will become a privately held company, wholly owned by Musk. Musk walks away with full control of the social media company, and shareholders walk away with $54.20 per share.

The Twitter board's decision to accept Musk's $54.20 offer came as a surprise to many. Initially, the board rebuffed Musk, adopting a poison pill that would have made a hostile takeover impossible. Some Wall Street analysts said the offer was too low despite the hefty premium, in part because shares had traded as high as $73 back in August.

There were also lots of doubts about whether Musk could finance his offer. He is purportedly the world's wealthiest man, with a net worth somewhere around $300 billion. Much of that, however, is not liquid. Most of his wealth consists of shares of Tesla and stakes in his other companies. Selling tens of billions of Tesla stock to buy Twitter might alienate or anger the auto company's investors.

This view very likely underestimated one of Musk's finest abilities: securing funding. Investors around the world are eager to invest in Musk's projects, and bankers are eager to arrange the deals. Just last week, Musk's Boring Company—which aims to eliminate traffic by digging high speed underground tunnels—raised $675 million at a $5.675 billion valuation. Crunchbase reports that the company has raised a total of $900 million. Musk's other company, Space X, raised $1.5 billion last year and is said to be the third most valuable private company, with a valuation of $100 billion, after two Chinese companies, Shanghai-based TikTok owner Byte Dance and Hangzhou-based Ant Group.

As we explained on April 14, “[I]t is apparent that Musk can raise the money to get this done. Tesla’s valuation alone gives him nearly unlimited buying power."

So it was not all that surprising that the banks lined up to fund his bid, led by Morgan Stanley. Most of the banks providing $25.5 billion in funding even went along with Musk's penchant for numerical pot jokes by signing commitment letters on April 20 or 4/20. Musk himself will supply $21 billion of his own money and back $12.5 billion of that loan with Tesla stock. The rest of the debt will be backed by the assets of Twitter itself. So banks are providing $25.5 billion, but only $13 billion is at risk on Twitter. That's a 20-percent loan to value ratio—meaning the banks are not taking a lot of debt and would not lose any more unless Musk loses around $33 billion.

As an aside, although no one else stepped forward to invest alongside Musk, now that he has the approval of Twitter's board for the transaction, he may be able to find other equity investors. This is no longer a hostile takeover situation. It's a signed and sealed deal that could put a private equity or sovereign wealth investor alongside Musk. If Musk can raise $900 million to bore tunnels, he can probably come up with a few investors to kick in a billion or two for Twitter.

The financing was the masterstroke that forced the board's hand. With the money in place, the board had an obligation to take the bid seriously. No other bidder had stepped forward in the past three weeks or so since it became clear that Twitter was in play. What's more, the rest of the market had become very volatile. Watching shares of Netflix plunge and drag down Disney may have shaken board members. Shares of Facebook's Meta are down 44 percent year to date. So are Pinterest shares. Snap shares are down 34 percent. It was no doubt hard for management to convince the board that it had a path to a higher share price than what Musk was offering, especially since Musk walking away would almost certainly send the shares back down to at least where they were before his involvement.

Think of it this way. That high Twitter valuation from last summer came at a time when the "stay at home" stocks were riding high. With Disney shares near $190, a $75 price for Twitter does not seem unreasonable. With Disney down at $120 a share, that kind of valuation for Twitter looks crazy.

We will find out on Thursday whether the company's latest quarterly results played a role. On Wall Street, many assume that the company will disclose not only a bad quarter but lower-than-expected guidance for the year to come. That would certainly have pushed the board to accept Musk's bid. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Twitter’s earnings “likely will not be rainbows and smiles thus putting further pressure on the company around this game of high stakes poker with the Musk bid looming.”

For Musk, on the other hand, it was rockets, stars, and hearts, as he tweeted out: "🚀💫♥️ Yesss!!! ♥️💫🚀"

~~Alex Marlow & John Carney
Breitbart News Network

Sunday, April 24, 2022

How America Became La La Land

Via Hal

How America Became La La Land

America these last 14 months resembles a dystopia. It is becoming partly the world of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and partly the poet Homer's land of the Lotus-Eaters.

Nothing seems to be working. And no one in control seems to care.

The once secure border of 2020 vanished. Two-million people have crossed the southern border illegally in the last 12 months. Millions more are on the way.

The Biden Administration unilaterally and simply destroyed existing immigration law.

More @ Townhall

1788. China to Make Electric Tumbrils

The Vineyard of the Saker

We—I, and my spousal unit, Violeta—pulled into DC after a conventionally miserable flight from Guadalajara in seats apparently designed for dwarves with our feet almost in our pockets and Delta trying to sell us beer at seven dollars a can. I didn’t get it. If you can sell watery brew at seven balloonishly inflating greenbacks a can, why do you need an airline?

The occasion was a visit to a woman with whom I immediately became involved, though with Violeta’s permission. She weighs seven and a half pounds and has a smile that would make a dead man weep. This may have little geopolitical importance, though.

Anyway, the proud father celebrated having produced, or coproduced, a baby who probably deserves a world run by psychiatrically less fascinating adults, by taking about a dozen of us to Fogo da Something, a Brazilian restaurant on Pennsylvania across from the Trump Hotel. This costs $64 a head for all the meat and salad bar you could eat, desserts and drinks extra, so with tip you can crawl out, stuffed and economically depleted, for about $90. Salad bar good, desserts swell, meat tasteless. You can do better for a sixth the price at La Carreta, down the lake from us in Mexico.

More @ The Saker

My visit to the mound today


Confederate Mound Oak Woods Cemeter

I took my visit to the mound today, in Oakwood Cemetery, Hallowed ground for 6k plus, gone but not forgotten men from long ago. This was my greeting at the gate.

When people are not allowed to pay homage to the dead, society, ceases to exist. 

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."~~ George S. Patton


Is this how it ends? Disrespect for our dead?


Your Northern Copperhead Friend
~~Greg

The Golden Years......

Via Huong-Can Saint Paulienne

 May be an image of text that says 'ក្ម្កល ብ S WEIRD BEING THE SAME AGE AS ASOLD OLD PEOPLE. GoodLivingGuide.com'

GROWING UP ON THE FARM IN THE 1900s By: Milton Schrader 90-year-old Korean war veteran

 

Farm life was different than it is now as we had no electricity or running water. When nature called, we had to go to an outside toilet which consisted of a small building 5 x 4 with two holes to sit on. 

 Imagine now going to an outside toilet with temperatures 20 below zero and snowing. We had a cookstove that used corn cobs, wood, or coal to cook our food. We had a heating stove manufactured by a company called "Warm Morning" which used coal to heat our rooms in the winter. Farming was done with horses during the early depression years of the dirty '30s which took considerable time and effort. Banks closed one after the other in 1929. Many lost most of their savings, which resulted in many families going hungry.

More @ Old Houses Farms and Country Photography

Friday, April 22, 2022

Daily Battles: We All Fight Them

https://fighterculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/fighting-quotes.png

It’s been a week of battle against the woke, a big corporation and the garden. As far as the garden goes, there’s one thing I never would have believed that my wife and I would find as a common interest in our lives and that’s a garden. But the world is different than it was in 1982 when we met. Now, the garden is as much a part of defending my family from catastrophe as the willingness and ability to engage a threat physically. They are, in many respects, identical. It takes physical force to plant, weed and defend the garden from hungry mammals, bugs and weeds; physical exertion to harvest, prepare and preserve.

More @ TL Davis

Judicial Tyranny vs. Our Rights

 Justice

We are now living in a tyranny of lawyers and the federal court system.  Liberal lawyers bring politically motivated suits and then defend SCOTUS decisions based on precedent rather than contractual words.  They have succeeded in eliminating many of the protections our founders guaranteed to us in the Constitution. 

There are several ways to implement total change in a country’s system of government.  Sudden change by revolution, while often effective, destroys the infrastructure, causes widespread suffering, and increases the risk of human fatalities.  Much more effective is a gradual change from within, that is, creating a domestic insurgency that is initially subtle and inconspicuous.  Successful insurgencies begin by providing necessities of life to a target population that serves as concealment when political and military operations are initiated.  The process of undermining a legitimate government usually requires years, but socialists are patient.  They understand how to brainwash vulnerable citizens into accepting the necessity for collectivist change.

More @ Dr.Dan's Freedom Forum

Army Selects SIG for Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) System

 

SIG SAUER is honored to be awarded the Next Generation Squad Weapons System (NGSW) Contract by the U.S. Army after a rigorous 27-month testing and evaluation process.“The U.S. Army is taking a bold step toward command of the 21st century battlefield and SIG SAUER is immensely proud to be the selected provider for this historic revolution in infantry weapons. The fielding of the SIG SAUER Next Generation Squad Weapons System will forever change the dynamic of military engagement for America’s warfighters with American innovation and manufacturing,” began Ron Cohen, President and CEO SIG SAUER, Inc

More @ Guns America