(0213) Greetings and welcome again to another middle-of-the-nighter. Next might be 0730 to 0800, sometime then. (0336)

 

6. The Logan Act

5. Just to close off this Pammy thing for now

… now it’s a case of just 🍿🍿🍿:

The thing with Pam is she’s fiercely loyal at DJT’s side, he inspires that … Alina Habba is another … but that’s a far cry from placing her in a department, as its head, far, far away … it’s not MAGA that fires her up, it’s the Donald, personally.

4. Woodstein

Many would be aware of All The President’s Men, of Woodward, Bernstein, the Pulitzer, Deep Throat Mark Felt etc. etc. Also the campaign to blacken Nixon.

3. Russia

I was living in a half Russian, half Mongolian Khanate town, placed halfway between Russia’s two major concerns … Vostok or the east … plus S-Sh-A or the USA to the west, working at one point in Trade. They did not fear China would actually cross into Siberia, partly due to the Mongols, partly due to certain agreements with Kitai. They certainly feared NATO’s incursion into the fascistic Ukraine (Azov brigade etc.), plus CIA, plus the EU were already inside, offering big money through various clubs and banks.

The Brits, though pesky nuisances (Crimean War etc., silly official attitude overall), were not seen as the sort of enemy as depicted in Callan and Cold War dramas, though the Russkies did respect the Empire upon which the sun never set. Peter I, way back when, had always wanted to be seen as part of Europe … see Peterhof for example.

2. Nazi gold

Fine … now once again in a book I wrote, Island, the ragtag end up at the Atlantic entry point, after which they cross to the western side and the Germanic settlements … worth exploring, the latter, looking for your Nazi gold. This map is of one of the main entry points:

1. The Druze

Interesting that this map should appear:

Clearly a Jewish source above … my interest is that I wrote a section of my long book, before the end part, set in a Druze settlement on the side of Mt Carmel and I had a sort of HQ for them under Har Megiddo … historicity for the geographical description below fine but the rest of the action invented, though based on research into customs, culture, Druze beliefs as accurately as I could. Here’s where the gallant ragtag arrived:

Raising his pod the remaining metre to the surface and opening the hatch, Sam climbed out, Hugh popped his head out of his, was satisfied and now climbed on top of the hull. Sophie now popped her head out.

‘Does it look to you the same as it looks to me?’ Sam called across.

‘Ha Qerayot, הקריות,’ Hugh called back.

‘How do you know?’

‘The urban conglomeration to the south by the mountain.’

‘Could be anything.’

‘Could also be Haifa but I think it might be Qiryat Yam in front of us.  You want to know about it?’

‘Give me the abridged version.’

‘Urban conglomeration of five towns – Qiryat Motzkin, Qiryat Bialik, Qiryat Atta and Qiryat Haim are the others.’

‘I’ve heard of Qiryat Bialik. Large migrant population, no?’

‘Yep but I still think this one might be Quiryat Yam.’

They got down to the cleaning, the first blast of relatively fresh air reviving everyone’s spirits, then went up top.

‘So what else do you know about the place?’ asked Sophie.

‘We’re off the coast of the Haifa mehozot, I think. That’s Har Karmel over there.’

‘Har Karmel?’

‘Mount Carmel. We’d best be careful about stepping into this water because it’s fed by the Kishon River, the most chemically polluted in Israel. Put a match to it and it would leap into flame.’

And so on. Interesting people, as the Yazidis are.