90 Miles From Tyranny

Sunday, July 3, 2022

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #1768

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

Visage à trois #336

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #503

Turkish Muslim Takeover of Hagia Sophia is Vandalizing the Church

Whether it's in India, Israel or Turkey, Muslims take over the holy places of the people whom they conquered and colonized, and then proceed to build their own victory mosques, or transform existing holy sites into mosques, while doing as much damage as they can to the site.

The Islamist Erdogan regime, a brutal dictator who retains the backing of most western governments, and whom Obama praised as a role model, chose to undo a major secularist post-Ottoman reform by seizing the Hagia Sophia to turn the former church, which had been a museum, into a mosque.

Erdogan's Islamist hijacking of the Hagia Sophia was no different than the Taliban blowing up Buddhist statues or ISIS destroying archeological remains. And yet the world insists on pretending that Erdogan is somehow different because he claims the mantle of Islamist "democracy".

And meanwhile the Islamist vandalism continues apace.

A number of marble tiles on the floor of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which was turned back into a mosque in 2020 after serving as a historical museum for decades, have reportedly been cracked by heavy machinery used to clean the building last week. According to the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, a tour guide on the site said, “This historic building has faced tremendous damage. When Hagia Sophia was a museum, people visited it with great respect. It’s like a fairground now.”

Or more specifically a victory mosque and the purpose of a victory mosque is to proclaim, "Allahu Akbar", the supremacy of Islam through force by humiliating the "infidels".

According to Arie Amaya-Akkermans, a classicist and fervent cultural commentator based in Istanbul, the reconversion of the building into a mosque is a symbol of contemporary Turkey, “where heritage of the ‘other’ is destroyed and plundered in broad daylight to make way for uncontrolled development or simply for the pleasure of vandalism.”

That's Islam.

What's Going On With Google Maps?

Driving across the country, we sometimes used Google Maps to navigate. When you are in unfamiliar towns, it’s handy. I also find that the navigation built into my cars has been subpar compared to my phone.

I noticed that something might be up with Google Maps when we dropped off a car at the airport in Minneapolis. Instead of using interstate to get us to the airport, it took us through a very sketchy neighborhood. It would have been far more accessible, and safer to use the interstate. Plus I would have had a smoother road.

I have also noticed that Google will direct you on the best route for “global warming”. Personally, I just want to get to where I am going in the speediest and safest way possible. I don’t really care about global warming and I don’t want to be made to care.

Are they doing this to direct people into minority-owned businesses and travel to minority neighborhoods on purpose? I have nothing against it, but I do know that I wouldn’t intentionally navigate to a place like Englewood in the city of Chicago just to save a few minutes driving.

It’s not an isolated incident. It’s happened a lot to us in our travels. During my weekend at the Kentucky Derby, I had to drive from Cincinnati to Louisville. I saw some rough neighborhoods in Louisville following the Google navigation.

I wonder if “my betters” at Google have re-engineered their algorithm? If they have, maybe...

Visage à trois #335

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #502

The J6 Show Trial Is Lying About Election ‘Fraud’

The January 6 show trial is partly about persecuting political opponents. But it’s also about covering up the truth of the 2020 election.

The purpose of the January 6 committee is to further the lie that there was nothing seriously wrong with the 2020 election and to criminalize any questioning of the election. The January 6 riot gives the committee a nice hook, but that’s not what they really care about.

They want to prevent you from admitting the election was irregular, faulty, or anything less than the most perfect election in the history of mankind, and from supporting people who fought against those irregularities. In service of this goal, the January 6 committee repeatedly lied about the actual claims Donald Trump supporters have made about the flaws in the election.

The January 6 Committee is conducting a show trial, not a criminal one. Show trials, common in authoritarian regimes, are held for propaganda purposes, to punish political opponents, and to cover up the truth of what the regime has done.

Democrats’ show trial is completely one-sided. The members on the committee were appointed exclusively by Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. There are zero Republican-appointed members. In fact, Pelosi refused to allow the top Republicans Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy picked for the committee — an unprecedented violation of House rules and norms.

No one represents the accused or advocates for their rights. No cross-examination or presentation of a defense has been allowed from the targets of the trial. The committee does not follow House rules on evidence or witness depositions. The so-called investigation has declared off-limits any good-faith inquiry into issues that contradict their persecution, whether a look at what led to the lack of security by Capitol police forces or a look at the legitimate concerns about the unique and novel way the 2020 election was conducted.

The show trial is deeply and profoundly un-American. This week’s “surprise” hearing has already imploded under the weight of the inaccurate testimony given by young staff assistant Cassandra Hutchinson. But last Thursday’s episode also deserves scrutiny for the lies it contained.

That hearing was focused on Jeffrey Clark, a Department of Justice (DOJ) official during the Trump administration who had proposed more aggressive investigative and legal efforts in the controversial aftermath of the 2020 election than many of his peers. Incidentally, among the growing concerns about a ream of false statements given is a report that...