It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it - somebody from TTP had to spend a week in Vegas figuring out among the myriad of choices the best hotel deal for the May Rendezvous.

And only SuperMiko could resist being plied with all sort of exotic libations and amenities to come up with what's truly #1 for TTPers.  So he did it.  The Vegas Rendezvous, Friday May 6 to Sunday May 8, will be at The Platinum at the Strip.

Just a block away from the Strip itself right behind Bally's & Paris, and a half-block from the monorail that takes you along the entire Strip, The Platinum is a no-smoking, all-suite, casino-less boutique hotel that has gone all out to welcome TTP.

The room rate for TTPers is $119 a night.  This is for a suite with a king size bed and pillow top mattress, living room and sofa, full gourmet kitchen, 42-inch plasma tv, double-size whirlpool tub and walkout balcony.

Of course, The Platinum has a great bar where TTPers can gather, and we have our own dining and meeting rooms.  The food is great too - Miko can attest to that.

All of you who attended a Rendezvous before well know what an extraordinary experience they are.  If you've never been - now's your chance.  TTPers are a community of rational pro-Americans and we love each other's company.  You simply have to be there! 

On a Boy Scout camping trip in June, 1955, I sat in my tent which was pegged into the sands of Carpenteria Beach, California.  As a lowly Second Class Scout, the biggest goal in my life at the time was to become a First Class Scout.  How long would that take? I wondered, as I paged through the Boy Scout Handbook looking at the requirements.

Then I made the mistake of looking at what it took to be a Star, then a Life Scout, and started imagining.  Dazed with fantasies, I crawled out of the tent with the handbook.  When some of the other Scouts saw me with this puzzled look, they asked, "What's with you, Wheeler?"

Still in a daze, I put my mouth in gear before engaging my brain, and mumbled, "Do you know that if I made First Class by August, I could make Star by November and Life by February?"

I wasn't ready for the torrent of derision.  "You idiot, Wheeler!"  "What a joke, Second Class!"  "In your dreams, Bozo!"  They walked away with sneers and laughs.

I stood there in the sand in shock.  Why had what I said made them so angry - really angry?   I didn't know why they were so mad, but I didn't care - for now I was mad, so mad I made a decision right there to turn this fantasy into reality.

The Jade Steps
Chapter Thirty: The Glory of Otumba

They set off as dawn broke to stumble into Tlacopan where the chiefs of the city met them with fear in their eyes.

"Malinche!" they addressed him.  "We warned you to stay here where you would be safe, and not to go to Tenochtitlan.  Now you have been destroyed, and we with you, for the Aztecs will soon follow to kill you and us."

Cortez stood arrow-straight and calmly spoke to Malinali.  "Doña Marina, inform these gentlemen that we greatly value their friendship and shall see they not suffer for it."

The chiefs remained worried.  "You must not stay here, Malinche, for the Aztecs are sure to attack.  Not far from here is the temple of Otoncalpulco with a large courtyard surrounded by a wooden wall.  There you will be safer.  I will order our people to carry your wounded on litters and help in which ways we may."

Cortez thanked them profusely and the chiefs issued their orders.  One of them turned to Malinali.  "Malinche must know that we are Tepanecs, not Aztecs.  Our kingdom was the first to be enslaved by them. It was our hope that Malinche was the answer to our prayers to be free of their rule."  He looked pleadingly into Malinali's eyes.  "Is there any hope left?"

Malinali returned his gaze.  "As long as Malinche is alive, there shall always be hope."

Despite a generation in which radical anti-crime policies such as enforcing the law and locking up criminals slashed murder rates, there's still plenty of debate over whether anti-crime policies work.

But no one can argue over whether pro-crime policies work.

108 people were shot in New York, Baltimore and Chicago over this past weekend. Many of the casualties were thus saved from that terrible "school-to-prison pipeline" that bedevils promising young crack dealers and instead went straight to the morgue.

Baltimore has just racked up its deadliest month since 1999. The fascist pigs no longer go down to the ghetto to hassle misunderstood youth who are just protesting police brutality by shooting each other.

When they do, they're confronted by angry mobs brandishing ObamaPhones set to record outrageous police misconduct such as arresting career criminals and drug dealers like Freddie Gray.

The Baltimore cops got Obama's message loud and clear. So did the gangs.

Stockholm, Sweden. Last week, there were reports in the Swedish and Finnish press about what was presumed to be a Russia submarine probing the harbors in both Stockholm and Helsinki.

This was not viewed as a serious Russian threat but merely an extension of the general and low-level harassment the Russians have displayed against their European Union neighbors, particularly the Baltic nations.

The European Union is not the first free-trade and defense bloc to arise in Europe. Six hundred years ago, the Hanseatic League held both economic and military sway in an area that at its farthest extent went from Novgorod in northern Russia to trade zones near London.

The league was centered in the German city of Lubeck on the Baltic. Members of the league included towns and cities in modern-day Germany, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium. The Hanseatic League established free trade among its members, who agreed to a basic charter.

It also established its own navy and defense force to protect its cargos, and it succeeded in largely eliminating pirates from the Baltic.  The EU had better morph NATO into a modern version of the League to protect itself from Putin's Pirates today.