“…hundreds of planes will participate in a “Fourth of July Airshow,” the president said.”
“Those planning to view the fireworks show from the Washington Monument grounds should expect “TSA-style” security, with magnetometers screening guests, according to Tara McLeese, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Washington field office.”
DHS- the folks who can’t keep fentanyl trafficking cartels from moving product into various US communities are keeping the big event safe. Way To Go Team.
Cartels continue to move product into all 50 states.
Has any community anywhere in the US downsized or shut down any local drug task force, or narcotics enforcement team due to the success of Dept. of War strikes on narcoterrorist drug boats, ICE crackdowns and designating cartels as terrorist organizations?
Here at Oak Bay Starfish, our commentary rolls on, no matter who has been elected to office.
A giant agency created to prevent Soviet attacks, with almost unlimited resources to defend N. America in 2021, is unable to keep crank call from going out live during big public relations event.
Instead of waiting for school teachers to teach about individual rights and limited government authority, waiting on the press to ask questions, or courts to handle cases, these guys go out and update us with a quick reality check.
It is common in various states that open records laws allow the public records request to be submitted in person orally or in writing and that the public records request may be made anonymously.
Public records laws set up an open door policy for people to go and interact in person with government offices and agencies during normal business hours at public offices.
Tyrant Terminator Audits!!! is a favorite channel where he has explained all this over and again in public offices.
Maybe Popeye the Sailor Man (a WWII veteran) had one.
Maybe a member of a motorcycle club had one.
Maybe a gang member had one. Maybe an ex-con had one.
Women never seemed to have one.
Those tattoos meant something.
After while, it seemed that tattoos became so common that they didn’t mean much any more.
I don’t feel better than anyone else. It’s just a preference.
Saturday Night Live
Completely Unrelated
Survivor Band
Several years back, I started the Old Man Blog category. It involves thoughts on changes in American culture relating to those born roughly in the late 50s & early 60s.
The Department of Defense was established in 1949. What part of DOD history involved US troops sent to locations where the constitution was threatened?
“Today, however, the Congress has relinquished its delegated powers, giving the President license to do whatever he and his office determine that they can get away with. Consequentially, the presidential and legislative oaths to the Constitution have just turned into a great photo op on inauguration day.”
“It is a sad and hard realization for a grunt who loves the Marine Corps to admit that the organization is not used in the preservation of liberty, and has not been used toward that end for a very long time.”
The Dept. of Defense is the very best at militarized pageantry for pro sports events.
They are able to get the press to play the role of federal public affairs staff as authorities prepare for the Super Bowl.
TV newspeople perform like paid actors reading a script.
NORAD Santa Tracker
Here at Oak Bay Starfish, our commentary rolls on, no matter who has been elected to office.
A giant agency created to prevent Soviet attacks, with almost unlimited resources to defend N. America in 2021, is unable to keep crank call from going out live during big public relations event.
“…found at the homeless encampment known as “The Jungle” in Olympia…”
“The agency described the area as having high rates of violence and community safety concerns. Back in 2023, a woman was found dead at the homeless encampment.”
“A War Horse investigation points to systemic failures before and after the death of Cpl. Drew Mobley, whose suicide was the third in two years at the airfield at Marine Corps Base Quantico”
“About 700 pounds of fireworks were inside the home on Smugglers Cove Road, according to Kolton Kellison, a firefighter with Central Whidbey Island Fire and Rescue. A “large explosion” shortly after firefighters arrived, threw one “into a truck” and knocked another to the ground, he said.”
“Firework deliveries to her neighbor’s home have drawn Hernandez and her neighbors’ attention in the past. A truck dropped off pallets of fireworks there this time last year, Hernandez said, and she learned on Thursday that four pallets had been dropped off more recently. Another resident on that street, Carol Lewellen, saw a pallet delivered earlier on Wednesday.”
“The Greenbank fire was not the first fireworks-related house fire on Whidbey Island. On June 17, 2025, North Whidbey resident Mark Fakkema was killed in an explosion that destroyed his parents’ Strawberry Point Road home. According to the Island County Sheriff’s Office and a federal ATF investigation, Fakkema had been dismantling commercial-grade fireworks in his kitchen to make his own devices.”
Away From Whidbey
Celebrating freedoms:
The post 911 surveillance state (fusion centers, license scanners, Homeland Security grant money, monitoring of e-mails, text messages, & social media sites, no fly/terror watch lists, tracking of cell phones, best advances in REAL ID and AI technologies, etc.) appear to have played no role in preventing the crimes described above.
We visited a small town recently. Over city sidewalks were individual banners posted to honor several new high school graduates with name and photo.
A few generations back, people would drop out of high school and lie about their age to go into WWII or maybe they would work on a boat in some part of the maritime or fishing industry. They would go on to have productive lives. Today, just making it to high school graduation is worthy of individual public praise away from graduation ceremonies.
Today, showing up for the US Armed Forces can be “Protecting Our Freedom” and rates public recognition.
You can be recognized as a hero by enlisting. Never mind that the US Armed Forces recognize individuals with personal awards not a bulk form of group identity.
You don’t have to look too far to find comments that refer to the troops as “heroes.”
Some are.
No one who has done time in an average military unit would be comfortable with everyone present being called a hero. Some units would be the exception, but for most people who have done time over the years, calling everyone a hero would have no connection to reality.
Reality, and an honest understanding of why we send The Troops to far away places isn’t what we’re about though.
Reaching for an honest understanding of US foreign policy makes more sense than “Thanks for your service.”
Superstar performers, average workers and slackers. All paid the same. The government says so.
As a new hire, before you demonstrate that you are a reliable, trainable worker, you are already making more than $20.00 per hour. Experience doesn’t matter.
John Stossel
We recently went for a routine checkup at a local clinic. It was our first time there. Several text messages arrived to remind of the appointment. They continued to arrive even after I confirmed. A phone call also arrived to advise of the appointment. I finally entered STOP to be dropped from reminders.
We had first time patient agreement forms to fill out. The lady at the counter was very careful to point out the legal paragraphs required to explain the no show fee.
It is irritating to be reminded as if you have caused or are about to cause a problem for the people who run the office.
Not one, but several signs posted in the office waiting area advised that copay fees must be paid on the date of arrival.
We get the idea that basic adult responsibilities like showing up on time or canceling on time have been a problem in the past.
“Nearly a week after Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said the city will no longer tolerate open-air drug use and sales in the Little Saigon neighborhood, conditions at the notorious corner of 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street appeared largely unchanged.”
Why do TV newspeople refuse to ask why the US Armed Forces blowing up suspected drug boat crews in distant waters seems to create no shortage of cartel product in Seattle?
Is the Seattle drug situation any different in June of 2026 than it was under Biden. WTF?
Why It Matters
Americans were told that they faced a life and death situation after 911. If certain actions were not taken, terrorists could come to America to disrupt our way of life and attempt another 911.
If all this was a life and death situation that required sending the troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, wouldn’t it be important to ask a few public policy questions about what was going on?
Newspeople have a long history of not asking questions in this area.
Tax money- which some people intend to be used to help others via public assistance programs– also goes for bombing Somalia.
Helping others by donating to churches or private charities, food banks, etc. can help to avoid these conflicts.
Donors are free to opt out if a charity misbehaves.
Forced Charity
The government doesn’t specialize in anything other than feeding itself.
People could keep more of their own money to donate to causes of their choosing if the federal government was not taking it to pay for wasteful programs.
“So, what is a genuine capitalist system? It’s one that comes fairly close to what our American ancestors achieved in the first century of our nation’s existence. No income tax or IRS. No Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, subsidies, grants, or foreign aid. No national-security state—i.e., no Pentagon, military-industrial complex, military empire, CIA, NSA, or FBI. No foreign wars. No sanctions, embargoes, or blockades. No economic regulations, including minimum wage. No immigration restrictions — i.e., open borders.”
School children are taught about a free enterprise system. They grow up to find out that the federal government will tell them what kind of shower head they must install in the bathroom, and what type of gas can they must buy for their generator.
If a family’s household income level qualifies for free & reduced breakfast and lunch at school, wouldn’t they also qualify for various other publicly funded food assistance programs?
Do free and reduced breakfast and lunch meals consumed at school reduce what a family receives or qualifies for each month in publicly funded food assistance?
If school shuts down, does the family still qualify for publicly funded food assistance? If food assistance programs remain in place outside of school-why would children be at risk of going hungry?
If the programs aren’t working-let’s hear all about it.
The post 911 surveillance state (fusion centers, license scanners, Homeland Security grant money, monitoring of e-mails, text messages, & social media sites, no fly/terror watch lists, tracking of cell phones, best advances in REAL ID and AI technologies, etc.) and National Guard foot patrols appear to have played no role in preventing the crimes described above.
“…our foreign policy is run by the “uniparty.” When it comes to wars, there is no Republican Party nor is there a Democratic Party. There is only the “yes!” party.”
Instead of waiting for school teachers to teach about individual rights and limited government authority, waiting on the press to ask questions, or courts to handle cases, these guys go out and update us with a quick reality check.
It is common in various states that open records laws allow the public records request to be submitted in person orally or in writing and that the public records request may be made anonymously.
Public records laws set up an open door policy for people to go and interact in person with government offices and agencies during normal business hours at public offices.
Tyrant Terminator Audits!!! is a favorite channel where he has explained all this over and again in public offices.
Has anyone ever seen the Puget Sound area press ask questions about Whidbey water quality impacted by sewage treatment plant outfalls?
Has anyone ever seen any government agency, elected official or volunteer organization seeking answers related to one or more sewage treatment plants sending unsafe product into the waters near Whidbey Island?
Zero questions from small or large newspapers. Zero questions from TV newspeople.
Seattle News – Welcome Home Troops
KIRO 7 News – June 22, 2026
Lessons learned, years of experience and best advances in AI technologies fail to prevent the situation described above.
Instead of waiting for school teachers to teach about individual rights and limited government authority, waiting on the press to ask questions, or courts to handle cases, these guys go out and update us with a quick reality check.
It is common in various states that open records laws allow the public records request to be submitted in person orally or in writing and that the public records request may be made anonymously.
Public records laws set up an open door policy for people to go and interact in person with government offices and agencies during normal business hours at public offices.
Tyrant Terminator Audits!!! is a favorite channel where he has explained all this over and again in public offices.
“For years, community leaders and business owners have lamented the area as a hotspot for open-air drug activity, public disorder, shootings, and other criminal behavior.”
Americans were told that they faced a life and death situation after 911. If certain actions were not taken, terrorists could come to America to disrupt our way of life and attempt another 911.
If all this was a life and death situation that required sending the troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, wouldn’t it be important to ask a few public policy questions about what was going on?
Newspeople have a long history of not asking questions in this area.
Instead of waiting for school teachers to teach about individual rights and limited government authority, waiting on the press to ask questions, or courts to handle cases, these guys go out and update us with a quick reality check.
It is common in various states that open records laws allow the public records request to be submitted in person orally or in writing and that the public records request may be made anonymously.
Public records laws set up an open door policy for people to go and interact in person with government offices and agencies during normal business hours at public offices.
Tyrant Terminator Audits!!! is a favorite channel where he has explained all this over and again in public offices.
