#dave's spokesman

[rhynerd]

Long time no see? Time has come once again for Vex's Mechs and Memes, my personal project of taking every Lancer mech meme by @vexwerewolf and voicing them like LoadingReadyRun's character of Dave's Spokesman. Thanks to Vex posting a new meme just earlier this week I can make a new mainline episode! Which I have done, as you can see! I kinda missed making these. Anyways, the mech for this episode is the one defined best by not missing with ranged attacks, the Death's Head.

I also have a little bonus because my first good take on the Vulture DMR's paragraph sounded a bit like it came from the first instance of the spokesman, which I liked but found it stood out too much from the rest of the audio. Here's said take on its own:

I hope you enjoy! If not, I have many more of these to try instead.

[etraytin]

Isolation [Spokesman] || Crapshots Ep722

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[somewhere-south-of-neutral]

Man, that Greg guy looks a lot like Dave

[mrsonvsyoutube]

Reproduction [Spokesman] || Crapshots Ep741

[capybaracorn]

US airdrops food into Gaza in move criticised by aid groups

US plan has been criticised as inefficient while Israel continues blocking most aid trucks from entering Gaza by land.

(2 Mar 2024)

United States military cargo planes have air-dropped food into Gaza, in the first of series of aid drops as humanitarian groups criticise Israel for blocking access to the besieged and bombarded strip.

The US, together with Jordan’s air force, “conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop into Gaza … to provide essential relief to civilians affected by the ongoing conflict”, US Central Command said in a statement on Saturday.

The C-130 planes “dropped over 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza allowing for civilian access to the critical aid”, it added, as the enclave faces a humanitarian crisis after almost five months of war.

US President Joe Biden had announced a day earlier that the US would airdrop aid there after more than 100 Palestinians were killed on Thursday in northern Gaza while queuing for aid.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Friday that the US will carry out multiple airdrops in the next few weeks, which will be coordinated with Jordan.

Kirby said the airdrops have an advantage over trucks because planes can move aid to a particular area quickly. However, in terms of volume, the airdrops will be “a supplement to, not a replacement for moving things in by ground”, he added.

The Biden administration is also considering shipping aid by sea from Cyprus, according to a US official.

Since Israel’s war began on October 7 following Hamas’s attack, Israel has barred the entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies, except for a tiny trickle of aid entering the south from Egypt at the Rafah crossing and Israel’s Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing.

‘The US is weak’

The US’s move has been criticised as inefficient and simply a public relations move by members of international aid organisations.

“The airdrops are symbolic and designed in ways to appease the domestic base,” Dave Harden, former USAID director to the West Bank, told Al Jazeera. “Really what needs to happen is more crossings [opening] and more trucks going in every day.”

“I think the United States is weak and that’s really disappointing to me,” Harden added. “The US has the ability to compel Israel to open up more aid and by not doing that we’re putting our assets and our people at risks and potentially creating more chaos in Gaza.”

UK-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) echoed Harden’s statement, telling Al Jazeera in a statement that the US, the UK and others should instead work to “ensure that Israel immediately opens all crossings into Gaza for aid.”

Oxfam also blasted the Biden administration’s plans, labelling the effort an attempt to assuage the guilty consciences of US officials.

“While Palestinians in Gaza have been pushed to the absolute brink, dropping a paltry, symbolic amount of aid into Gaza with no plan for its safe distribution would not help and be deeply degrading to Palestinians,” Scott Paul, who leads Oxfam’s US government advocacy work, said in a statement on X.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also criticised the US for acting as a “weak, marginal state” unable to secure aid to Palestinians.

US Senator Bernie Sanders, however, welcomed the US’s move.

“I applaud President Biden for understanding that there is a dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Sanders said on X.

Mahjoob Zweiri, the director of the Gulf Study Centre in Doha, told Al Jazeera the international community is not putting enough pressure on Israel to allow the waiting aid trucks to enter Gaza by land.

“Why not send food in through Karem Abu Salem?” Zweiri said. “There are 2,000 trucks waiting to get into Gaza” at border crossings, he said, while food and medicines pile up for months past their expiry dates.

“Why isn’t the international community not putting enough effort into delivering aid in an organised manner?” he asked.

[See article for embedded videos and tweet]

[usafphantom2]

SR 71, #960, came close to crashing at least three times.

Taken at Andrews Air Force Base during an Air Show in May 1984, the first image in this post features SR-71 Blackbird #960 right afterburner blowing apart.

The following are some excerpts from an article that appeared in The Washington Post on May 14, 1984

The pilot of the SR-71 Blackbird shut down the burning right engine of the high-altitude reconnaissance jet and brought the airplane, which carries a crew of two, safely back to the runway, an Andrews spokesman said. The plane said to carry a wide variety of information-gathering sensors along with cameras, was taking off shortly after noon yesterday when, according to a witness, the engine on its right side “burst into flames.”’

Five years earlier, in 1979, Pilot David Peters, with Ed Bethart as the RSO, were flying the 960 near North Korea when both engines flamed out. It turned out it was a faulty fuel pump.

Dave Peters recalls, Unfortunately, about 15,000 ft in the decent setting up for a downwind, the other engine started surging and the compressor stalling. Ed commented, “Don’t tell me that’s the other engine. “ My answer, Ed, that’s the other engine. So he says what are you going to do.

I managed to restart the other engine, so call approach and tell them we are going visual and get the tower, and I’ll talk to them. So, I started a pretty steep dive to get enough speed for a restart, which I was able to get. The engine was still operating the same way, so it wasn’t doing anything but giving us hydraulics for flight controls. I left the other one running for the same purpose. Ed got the tower, and I told them we were running out of engines and were visual for a. Just when they were about ready to pull the D ring and eject. Dave started to tell Ed to get out (eject) Then Dave heard a voice …

“you’re OK keep going.” The voice was not in my head.

Ed said he never heard it. I heard it again and I felt calm and I did exactly that. I kept going.. David managed to get the engine started.

Both men receive the distinguished flying cross.

In 1968 Ben Bowles and my father, Butch Sheffield, were flying the 960; they were at 68,000 feet when the right engine flamed out. Ben asked my Dad if he wanted to get out. Dad said NO he had ejected just the year before in the (966) he tried to ride the crippled SR 71 down. This is what the pilot Ben Bowls wrote: We complete the “shutdown checklist”…unbuckle our harness and stuff, but no one comes to help us out of the airplane. We at least need a ladder! Butch says the crowd is over by the right wing. Finally, a couple of considerate Colonels came to our rescue and advised us, “You may want to see this”. We shuffled around to the right side. The outboard forward section of the nacelle had been blown out, taking with it a portion of the wing leading edge. Obvious severe fire damage. Not much of the engine was left in the nacelle…you could see daylight Again, both men receive the distinguished flying cross.

Kelly Johnson told my father that the 960 was the only deficient Blackbird that was ever produced. Remember each airplane was handmade. So if you go to Castle Air Force Base in California, take a long look at this airplane, it’s a miracle that all of the men survived and that the airplane is still in one piece.

Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

[georgiapeach30513]

I love the vibes of your blog!!! 😍

I adore Evans and have heard so many great things about the guy. I understand he’s Human and hate that there are those elsewhere who use their platforms to make up lies, use this current mess for clout and claim he’s a POS, I’ve never gotten that vibe from him and yes I understand I don’t know the guy but people do the most making up bs. If he was a POS why waste time online discussing him. Sorry just venting there. 😅

But again I’ve heard incredible things about him and I always recall him sewing dodgers lion up and just ugh this man!!!! 😍

He seems very charming and I hope this year is filled with new movies and new projects.

Also I guess David Baptista is also a jinx spokesman as well, I saw him in some promotional stuff related to Jinx. He seems cool and funny.

Looking forward to more fics, content updates and I wish you all a happy 2024!

I think people need to realize that we are not owed anything concerning his personal life. He shows us what he chooses to show us. He is part of the machine of Hollywood. His public moves are about his public persona. What he decides to show us is to curate our view of him.

I don't think he's a POS. He's a human man. He's flawed, and he makes mistakes. Don't all humans do that? Is any human always right? Does any human always make the right decisions? I think overall he's a good man that is human.

fictional men are superior because they're fake

Dave Bautista did have a reel posted on Jinx today. Maybe Dave is going to take more of a public approach with Jinx. Still waiting on this Jinx commercial. It's left me scratching my head.

Let's have us a fun, not too serious, thirsting, joking, full of content year! Let's hope that 2024 doesn't get too busy. I will be taking a trip the end of March 👀👀

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

First request:

Artisanal woods for building things like monuments to man's folly and SHEDS -Dave's Spokesman

idk if i can fit dave's spokesman in there but the rest is fine

Askbox is closed for new requests, I'm recording these old ones on the to-write document

[flatluigi]

dave's spokesman my beloved in one of those heart locket gifs except the locket keeps opening until it starts clipping into itself and then implodes into a pile of polygons

[rhynerd]

A Quick Masterpost (is that the right term?) for all of the Vex's Mechs and Memes episodes:

When @vexwerewolf mentioned that an intended voice for her mech memes was Dave's Spokesman, the LRR fandom had a brief time and I considered voicing all the memes in that style. With some encouragement, I did just that over the course of a few months (and I also voiced a couple by @saint-sacrilege-blog too). Now I'm figuring it might be a good idea to make one post with a link to all of them in hopes it'll make some ease of access! Just to note, I've decided to not go 100% by order of creation by breaking them into groups based on manufacturers:

Royal Karrakin Foundries:

Calendula Spooky Dave

Harrison Armory:

Iskander

Tokugawa

Saladin

Barbarossa

Genghis Mk II

Sherman

Sunzi

Napoleon

Enkidu

Horus:

Pegasus

Balor

Lich

Gorgon

Hydra

Goblin

Manticore

General Massive Systems:

Everest

Smith-Shimano Corporation:

Dusk Wing

Mourning Cloak

Swallowtail

Atlas

Monarch

Death's Head

IPS-Northstar:

Lancaster

Zheng

Tortuga

Vlad

Raleigh

Blackbeard

Caliban

Stortebeker

Kidd

Other:

In Golden Flame: Act 1 (final shitpost)

Operator NPC

If this is your gateway into the series, I hope you'll enjoy it! If you've been following it, I'd like to thank you for listening to all of these and giving your likes/reblogs/occasional bits of commentary either in tags or replies.

[softsoundingsea]

Okinawa, facing water shortage, asks US military to conserve

By DAVE ORNAUER AND MARI HIGA STARS AND STRIPES • February 9, 2024

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — With the rainy season three months away and Okinawa’s reservoirs already running low, the local government is urging the island’s U.S. military population to conserve water.

Okinawa’s 11 reservoirs are at half their capacity, on average, when they should be more than three-quarters full, according to a spokesman from Okinawa’s Prefectural Enterprise Bureau, which manages the island’s water supply.

Service members are asked to monitor water usage closely, to not leave water running and to refrain from watering lawns and washing cars.

Conservation now may spare stricter measures later, a spokeswoman for Marine Corps Installations Pacific, 2nd Lt. Kelsey Enlow, told Stars and Stripes by email Friday.

“We hope everyone is responsible with their water on the front end, so restrictions don’t have to go in place on the back end,” she said. According to the enterprise bureau spokesman, the reservoirs together were 26.8% lower than average for Feb. 9; for the past 10 years, they averaged 77.4% full. “We are doing everything we can to maintain the water level in the reservoirs, so we do not have to place restrictions on the water supply,” he said by phone Thursday.

The prefectural government contacted the Marines informally to discuss how the bases could reduce water usage, Enlow said.

“From those discussions, we are working to send out messages and infographics to our Marines” on ways they can reduce water usage, she said. “Currently, there are no restrictions to water usage” at U.S. bases on Okinawa.

Nine of the 11 dams that provide Okinawa with drinking water are overseen by the national government; the prefecture maintains the remining two. The island also has the Seawater Desalination Center in Chatan, near Camp Foster. Okinawa is composed primarily of coral and does not hold water as well as soil does. Its main water supply is its reservoirs, desalination plant, typhoons and the annual six-week rainy season, which typically lasts from mid-May to late-June.

As of Friday morning, the nine government-run dams were at 50.8% capacity, the prefectural Kurashiki dam at 48.1% and Yamashiro dam at 50.5%, according to the enterprise bureau. The 2023 rainy season provided far less rainfall than above-average seasons in 2021 and 2022.

[somewhere-south-of-neutral]

Does anyone else have a quote that you rotate around in your mind like a blorbo? Like, not just a quote you like or your blorbo's best quote, but a quote that is itself a blorbo?

For me, it's "monuments to man's folly and sheds" from LRR's video "The Lumber" (part of their Crapshots series featuring their recurring character Dave's Spokesman). Something about the juxtaposition just burrows into my brain and completely reshapes how I think of architecture.

[mrsonvsyoutube]

Crapshots Ep372 - The Boat [Spokesman]

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

Photographs from the ‘relocation camp’ for Japanese-Canadian internees in Schreiber, Ontario, with photos digitized and put up by Schreiber Public Library. I’ve posted about the Schreiber camp before, using extracts from a great article on the subject, but here’s a recap:  “Official removal of Japanese Canadians began in March of 1942....Two days later, about 100 “British subjects” were to board a train to go from Vancouver to Schreiber, Ontario. Of the roughly 100 men ordered to board the train, eighty-five refused. BCSC officials were unable to coax the men onto the train, and ended up incarcerating them in an “Immigration Shed.” These same officials told the imprisoned men that if they did not “divulge the names of the instigators” of the action they would be hauled before the courts, but no one was willing to inform on their compatriots. RCMP Commissioner S.T. Wood then asked for a blanket Order of Internment that would allow him to formally arrest and incarcerate the men. When a push failed, a shove would apparently do. These men would go on to become some of the first of what would eventually amount to over 800 Japanese Canadians who were interned for defying the forced labour and evacuation regime.

...

By April, Dave Watanabe had already “established himself as spokesman” [at the Schreiber camp. He is visible in the second photo, second from left, middle row, identified as ‘Butch’ Watanabe] At a meeting with Graham Pipher, a British Columbia Security Commission [BCSC] apparatchik, Watanabe demanded the workers’ “rights as Canadian citizens,” mainly regarding access to the nearby town of Schreiber. The evacuees stated that their “volunteering” to work in Ontario should have earned them these promised minor freedoms. Although not described as a job action, Pipher noted that sixty people attended this “meeting” to discuss grievances when they should have been working. Building on an earlier slowdown campaign, when the workers got word that the state was to restrict their movement, they brought their working pace to a crawl and threatened to strike.

Pipher commented that any restriction “on free movement etc.” would cause unrest to become “accentuated” and that he would lose control of the camp. The central administration pondered the imposition of stricter discipline, but the notion was junked well before implementation. From the start, the camps were not jail-cum-work-camps, and the incarcerated workers had much more latitude than the authorities had intended. As the camp was “small” and lacking in guards the Japanese enjoyed relatively free mobility. The “Japs at this camp [quickly] found favour with the majority of the citizens of Schreiber,” and before long they were patronizing “local’s stores and places of amusement,” without “any adverse criticism” from the townsfolk. It was of concern to T.S. Mills, the chief engineer on the project, that the men had access to the town and the telegraph office, and had the audacity to send uncensored messages directly to their families in British Columbia.

[CW Warning: Racial slurs] Mills related the story of a local railroad man’s daughter, who inquired of her father whether it was acceptable to dance with the Japanese. The railroader told his daughter that “as long as the Jap was sober and conducted himself properly, he would sooner she dance with a Jap than a Dago.” The railroader’s comment sheds some light on the process of racialization that was unfolding, solidifying, and mutating during the Second World War, and how the hierarchies of “race” were subject to significant gradation and shift.

Although following the war there would be an “elevation” of some “peoples” to “white” status, the war period was still riven by the hierarchies of preference and stratification within the racial-taxonomic realm. Mills “saw problems arising” and predicted there “will be cases of too much intimacy between those young, well-mannered and conducted Japs and local girls.”

Despite the reservations of Pipher and the BCSC (let alone the state) about free movement, Mills noted that “too stringent regulations at this time will cause an unfavorable condition,” and that “policies and regulations” need to be determined by need and on a local basis. Although there certainly was martial rule in the camps, and many of the people in the camps were officially interned and under much stricter control, the reality was that spaces were consistently mediated and negotiated via direct action.

The BCSC thought it impossible to restrict free movement at Schreiber camp. They believed they had a responsible partner in Watanabe as a leader, and as Watanabe had the camp’s “full support” they assumed that they could maintain rule by proxy. Nearby Jackfish Camp had a beer parlour, and the BCSC wondered if adding a pub could be enough to keep the Japanese from wandering to the local dance halls. In the end, the BCSC decided against imposing their plan of a blanket movement ban. Interestingly, the state also gave up on censoring the mail of these specific workers, unless they were sending it abroad, as the mail “could not contain information of much value to the enemy”—a freedom not extended to interned anti-fascist Canadians. Although Pipher wanted to move Wanatabe to another camp to “break” the impromptu organization, the BCSC thought better of it, noting that “should he be moved, he would cause trouble elsewhere.” Preferring to contain the trouble rather than turning local agitators into travelling organizers, Dave Wanatabe was left alone.”

- quotes from Mikhail Bjorge, “Destroying the Myth of Quietism: Strikes, Riots, Protest, and Resistance in Japanese Internment.” in Mochoruk, Jim; Hinther, Rhonda L., ed. Civilian internment in Canada: histories and legacies : an edited collection. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2020. Photos from top to bottom, with original captions from the SPL:

1) Gold Range Mine. Senator Hayes home and bunk houses 2 miles east of Schreiber. This became the main buildings for the Schreiber internment camp.  SPL 1996.1.11.

2) Men of the Schreiber camp, 1942.

Rear L - R: 1) ? 2) Fred Vogami 3) ? 4) ? 5) ? 6) ? 7) Jack Sadoio Shikitani 8) ? 9) ? 10) ? 11) Willie Kimitoshi Utsunomiya 12) Swede Sawada 13) George Suzuki;

Middle L - R: 1) ? 2) Butch Watanabe 3) Sam Hagino 4) Fred Akira Shititani 5) Koichi Nishikaze;

Front L - R: 1) Mickey Hogara 2) George Mochizuki 3) ? 4) John Kikuo Shikatani 5) ? 6) Art Tateishi 7) Sandy Ono

SPL 1996.1.20

3) Men working at the Japanese internment camp two miles east of Schreiber 1942-1944. George Keeno on left. SPL 1996.1.12.

4) Internees at Japanese Internment Camp two miles east of Schreiber. Men were sent to the camps to assist in road building in the area between Schreiber and Jackfish. SPL: 1996.1.19.

5) Left - Right: Minoru Nagasawa , Matahuru 'Mutt' Otsu.  Taking a break from chopping wood, 1942.

6) Some of the residents of a Japanese internment camp, during World War II. The camps were outside of Schreiber, about 2 miles east on Highway 17. 

Standing L - R: 1) Doug Arai 2) Punchy Ito 3) Don Otsu 4) Mitsuo Otsu 5) Len Takeshima 6) Maise Nishimura 7) Syd Nishimura. Seated L - R: 1) Larry Makino 2) Ernie Dikawa 3) George Nishimura. Some of the residents of a Japanese internment camp, during World War II. The camps were outside of Schreiber, about 2 miles east on Highway 17. 

SPL: 1996.1.18

All photos Schreiber Public Library.

[usafphantom2]

SR-71 #960 is the same SR 71 that my father, Butch Sheffield, declined to eject from when one of the engines was in flames. He received his second distinguished flying cross because of this incident. He wrote in his unpublished book “The Very First” that since he had previously bailed out of the SR-71 #966, he feared another bailout might cause him to break his damaged back. When Dad did pass away in 2018, he was a 100% disabled veteran in part due to a back injury. 🇺🇸🇺🇸

The following are some excerpts from an article that appeared in The Washington Post on May 14, 1984

‘A highly sophisticated Air Force spy plane that was on public display here Saturday caught fire yesterday as it took off from Andrews Air Force Base, authorities reported.

‘The pilot of the SR-71 Blackbird shut down the right burning engine of the high-altitude reconnaissance jet and brought the airplane, which carries a crew of two, safely back to the runway, an Andrews spokesman said. The plane has been here at least since Friday morning, according to an Andrews spokesman. Still, authorities said they did not know when it arrived from Beale Air Force Base near Marysville, Calif., attached to the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. Although its missions and activities are still shrouded to a great extent in secrecy, the black-painted SR-71 was one of some aircraft parked on the ramp at Andrews Saturday for inspection at the air show, attended by an estimated 370,000 persons. The plane said to carry a wide variety of information-gathering sensors along with cameras, was taking off shortly after noon yesterday when, according to a witness, the engine on its right side “burst into flames.”’

As told above, the Blackbird that suffered the accident was SR-71, #960. This is the same SR-71 Kelly Johnson told my father, Blackbird Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO) Butch Sheffield, that was structurally unsound.

This very same airframe came very close to crashing previous times.

Once in 1968, when my Dad, Butch Sheffield, and Ben Bowles were flying it, and then again in the 1980s, when Dave Peters and Ed Bethart were flying it.

Then, in 1984, it experienced another mishap yet again… I am happy to report, like the old expression a cat with nine lives, this SR-71 escaped demise three times that I know of.

Today, you can see the 960 at Castle Air Force Base, California. It is on display outside.

I wish that all of the SR 71s could be placed inside a shelter to be preserved for many more generations. So that they can understand what can be done when you put together people with talent, and they drive to get the job done, written by Linda Sheffield Miller.

Photo credit John Olp

@Habubrats71 via X

[georgiapeach30513]

Also I guess David Baptista is also a jinx spokesman as well, I saw him in some promotional stuff related to Jinx. He seems cool and funny./ David Baptista, is he the wife's another relative?

They mistyped. Dave Bautista. You might recognize him as Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy. He’s also a former wrestler.