Here is a small detail from “Our Flag Was Still There,” the Battle of Fort McHenry, September 13-14, 1814. The defense of the Fort against a 25-hour bombardment by the Royal Navy saved the City of Baltimore during the War of 1812. It was raining during this part of the battle. https://artofdontroiani.com/
Meme of the Day
Bullet Points:
** Right – Sitting in a cubicle at 8 a.m., working for the man, knowing all I had to do was open a Somali daycare/autism center combo. — Why are we using taxpayer funds to provide child care for illegal aliens from Somalia? I realize it was one big scam.
** $1,000,000.00 per drug zombie (Musk)
** What are you going to do for income and entertainment now, HogsbreathSS? (Daily Caller) African dictatorships retaliate against Trump by banning Americans from their active war zones. There go the Summer plans.
** Children/Grandchildren have arrived at the White Wolf Mine. There is a disappointing lack of snowfall, though we have had rain. Global warming? I guess. Though if we had 3 feet of snow, we’d complain about global cooling – but the grandkids would be building snowmen.
** “I am myself as usual pressed with business; and thank God my Christmas times are over, and I am most miserably cool and sober — so you can tell all my friends. Instead of Eggnog, I eat roasted eggs in my office. There was no “fuss” here yesterday [New Year’s Day], and I trust you had none in San Felipe, for if so, our country, Texas, will be ruined — the world is looking now on us, and by our fruits, we shall be judged. Union and harmony will make us everything that we could wish to be. Dissension will destroy Texas. I know well YOUR feelings and your wishes—they are, as ever, a Patriot will feel. God speed to you!!!” —- Sam Houston, in a letter to Don Carlos Barrett,
Tucson’s Decline
Tucson, Arizona, is an interesting place. During the 60s, 70s, and into the 80s, it became the place where the USGOV parked many of its protected witnesses. A lot of mafia members relocated to Tucson and changed their names to Smith and Jones. Enough foreign assets were located there by the CIA, and they kept their heads down while the KGB (and affiliates) searched for them elsewhere. That was my introduction to the place.
More recently, corrupt democrats managed to place a woke hand on the place while they worked diligently to loot the place three ways from Sunday. Now (surprisingly) Tucson faces a species of collapse that is familiar to many who have seen similar trends in other American cities. The democrats told the population that law enforcement was cruel, standards of decency and morality were outmoded, and political correctness was a higher calling and a more correct course. Permissiveness is not mercy. A government that refuses to enforce fundamental laws while violence rises, theft spreads, homelessness explodes, and housing becomes unattainable is not compassionate – it’s negligent. Should the city continue down this path until locals leave and Tucson becomes a smaller skid row – hollowed out, priced out, and managed into decline? Welcome to the democrat death spiral.
In Too Big a Hurry (Bighorn and Yellowstone Expedition)
In May 1876, BGEN Alfred Terry and LTC George Custer left Fort Lincoln (near Bismarck, ND) with three .50-caliber and two 1-inch Gatling guns. The 1-inch guns, as in the photo, were likely left at Powder River Supply Depot near Terry, MT. After Terry and COL John Gibbon rendezvoused, Custer left the .50 caliber guns behind to avoid slowing the 7th Cavalry. 2LT William Low and the 20th Infantry Gatling guns traveled with COL Gibbon.
LTC Custer died on June 25, 1876, with many in his command. Would the presence of Gatling Guns and pack howitzers (firing case) have made a difference at the Battle of Greasy Grass on the Little Bighorn? I’ll let you be the judge and jury on that one.
General Crook’s column coming up from the South was stopped and repelled at the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, 1876, a fact likely unknown to Custer (and Terry) at the time of LTC Custer’s death. Crook’s command at the Rosebud (known as the Bighorn and Yellowstone Expedition) had a total strength of over 1,300 men. The composition of his column was as follows:
- Cavalry* (approx. 990 men):
- Ten companies of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry.
- Five companies of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry.
- Infantry* (approx. 320 men): The infantry were mounted on mules for the expedition.
- Two companies of the 4th U.S. Infantry.
- Three companies of the 9th U.S. Infantry.
- Scouts:
- Approximately 240-276 Crow and Shoshone allied Native American scouts.
- Around 44 white civilian scouts and packers.
* Doctrine called for the cavalry and mounted infantry to fight as dragoons – dismount, form a skirmish line, horses/mules to the rear.
His Crow and Shoshone scouts were crucial in blunting the initial attack and saving many lives. Still, the army suffered significant casualties and retreated to resupply, unable to arrive in time to help Custer. General Crook’s command did not include artillery. He traveled over rough terrain, and it would have been impractical. Given the nature of Crazy Horse’s guerrilla tactics, it would never be a set-piece battle. Custer’s thrust was to catch the entire confederation in the open (women and children included), which makes a set-piece battle more possible.
Crazy Horse’s command at the Battle of the Rosebud consisted of at least 800 men, possibly more than that. In general, the forces were evenly matched. However, the Sioux Confederation played to its tactical strengths, fighting from ambush, using terrain and circumstances of its choosing, while Crook’s column was spread out in march order. Many warriors possessed superior repeating firearms such as the Henry rifle and Winchester Models 1866 and 1873. These provided a much higher rate of fire than the Army’s standard issue Springfield Model 1873 “Trapdoor” carbines.
Crook’s men at the Battle of the Rosebud were armed with standard US Army issue single-shot Springfield Trapdoor rifles and revolvers. Their native scouts carried higher-quality lever-action Winchester rifles, giving them a firepower advantage, even though the Springfields had greater range.
Meanwhile, a week later at the Little Bighorn, approximately 210 men from five companies (C, E, F, I, L) were wiped out with LTC Custer. At the same time, the commands of MAJ Reno and CAPT Benteen, which operated separately from LTC Custer, ended up fighting from a fortified position and suffered fewer losses. Had LTC Custer with five companies of cavalry taken a somewhat defensive position, dismounted, ammunition mules brought up, and forced the Confederation to come to him, he might have survived. If he’d anchored his flanks with the Gatling guns and pack howitzers he left behind, he could have exacted a wicked butcher’s bill. LTC Custer had his eye on a national election and the presidency of the United States. He felt he needed to be bold, even reckless, to capture a nation’s imagination, which is what he did.
Photo: F. Jay Haynes captured the view at Ft Lincoln in probably June 1877. The mix of uniform styles included coats made for the Civil War. Caissons for ammunition were in view. Haynes’ stereoscopic camera used glass-plate negatives that required chemical baths immediately before and after shooting.
Identify the Ship
1
2
Identify the APC
3
Identify the Aircraft
4
One prototype built – designed to combine fighter, dive bomber, and torpedo bomber roles into a single aircraft.
Parting Shot
End
1 is AL-DIRIYAH Royal Saudi Navy corvette
2 is TCG Kınalıada is an Ada-class ASW corvette of the Turkish Navy.
Yes!
1 – Saudi Navy Al Diriyah Al Jubail-class corvette
2 – Turkish Navy Kınalıada Ada-class anti-submarine warfare corvette
3 – USA LAV-25
4 – Boeing XF8B-1 Five In One Fighter
On point!
Identify the Ship:
1. Saudi corvette Al Diriyah
2. TCG Kınalıada
Identify the APC:
3. LAV-25
Identify the Aircraft:
4. Boeing XF8B
Very good!
Maduro and sadistic wife captured by U.S. and indicted in the Southern district of New York.
-STA LETHAL
Bold move while the The Dems were sleeping. The man does not bluff or waiver in his righteousness; start with Cartel boats being made into holes in the water, now grab the dictator pair. Waiting for the Left to go full Scanners, shilling for a despot who ruined a country. (Didn’t we used to call Liberals ‘bleeding hearts’…guess they REALLY don’t care ‘about the little people’ like they profess.)
Once Maduro announced he would start ‘arresting’ American citizens in Venezuela you knew POTUS was going the pull the trigger.
Now we’ll see how the US can work with the clean Venezuelans to make Venezuela great again. Ejecting the Cubanos, the Chinese, the Russians and Iranians would be a great first step.
X2
X3
Next? Cuba maybe? 60 years of oppression, turning a once beautiful place into a poverty-stricken country. Only one President in our time has the guts to make a bold move, as shown by last night.
The legal justification for taking Maduro wouldn’t necessarily extend to Cuba (see VM Blog tomorrow). It’s a different situation. Either China and or Russia extend their love to the Cuban client state or it will fold on its own weight with Venezuelan financial support off the table.
Tucson’s demise: Knew some folks who spend over half the year there…they love it….now I know why. (I’ll leave it at that, suffice it to say when people move to a specific area it’s usually due to a larger hidden reason, not the one espoused – ”We love the desert” isn’t the primary one).
***
Zombie Money: ALWAYS follow the money. When the Dems (or as Reagan said, ‘the government’) tell you they are here to solve a problem (that they created)…RUUUN!…they are setting up a gambit (Somali Learing Centers anyone?). How much has been spent on ‘the homeless’? Billions? Trillions? Or the ‘War on Drugs for that matter. Nd the problems only get worse…never solved or stopped…or heck, slowed. Worse now than ever, and we have confirmation as to why. Pure theft of WTP’s money. Prison is too good for these grifters and cheats. “Hey Walz and Omar, you two are next for orange jumpsuit fitting.” (One can hope anyway.)
Just wait until every large grocery chain exits Seattle and NYC…that’ll be fun. (Not. But…sorry…consequences.)
***
Enjoy the kiddos and family…it’s what’s truly important, not all the noise out there ‘by others’. Not much snow here either…must be this particular Winter pattern, snowy elsewhere, just not here so much…yet (could change this afternoon, confounding the weather soothsayers). Not complaining, kinda don’t mind not plowing the white stuff for a little longer.
“Prison is too good for these grifters and cheats.”
I am not of your mindset or background; I fail to see where providing “three hots n’ a cot” (plus free TV and an exercise room) will provide much of a societal advantage for those individuals the greater majority of us would deem incorrigible; there are, however, numerous alternatives, e.g.: compacting the snow at Phoenix Airfield (QAX).
Send them back to Somalia in the hold of an old cargo ship. Airplanes are too expensive.
Captured shadow tankers?
X2 et al…works for me.
Paraphrasing EdB’s definitions: A drug boat is a hole in the water into which Trump pours ordinance. Get some!
.
As to the demise of Tucson and the nationwide growth of the Homeless Industrial Complex. The Donks keep on doing what they’ve been doing, so they keep on getting what they’ve got. That’s either the classic definition of insanity…….or a plan. One might even consider it a species of organized crime or – perish the thought – treason or maybe even (clutches pearls) terrorism. If it walks like a rabid pig, grunts like a rabid pig and defecates where government feeds it like a rabid pig, maybe, I don’t know, just throwing this out there, maybe just shoot it.
X2. It’s a plan…and ‘follow the money’. Take cash incentives, insider trading that WTP get jailed, etc…out of Congress and this stuff stops…maybe…certainly reduces.
About grandkids and snow, if you ever get the snow needed: one guy made a bunch of snow blob-monsters, then put two glow sticks in each head to serve as eyes. Looked cool when it started getting dark. Grandkids may enjoy this.
Maduro just got a free vacation trip, or something.
The Homeless Industrial Complex was invented by the Democrats the only question is – was it intentional or by accident?
It was definitely intentional.
As are all other forms of ‘accidental’ grift and mission creep.
–
Amazing how quickly the DNC went broke when the USAID pipeline was shut off. Now we need to shut down all the other pipelines.
Shut them down and seal them.
>>Re-Flagging<< The oil tanker Hyperion has reflagged to the Russian registry in what analysts say is a calculated move to shield the vessel from potential U.S. seizure, marking the second known case of a shadow fleet tanker adopting the Russian flag after a similar switch by the Bella 1, later renamed Marinera. The maneuver underscores a new front in the long-running cat-and-mouse game between Western sanctions enforcement and a sprawling shadow fleet that moves sanctioned crude and oil products across the globe. Hyperion’s reflagging follows the earlier case of Bella 1, which switched to the Russian flag and was renamed Marinera, setting a precedent that shipowners and traders are now watching closely. If left unchallenged, the tactic could offer a roadmap for hundreds of vessels seeking to avoid interdiction.
I’m confused.
I thought the purpose of the shadow fleet was to distance from Russia for sanction reasons?
The mask (pretend mask) is off and the game is afoot.
Now Trump says he will sell Venezuelan oil to China and Russia.
Art of the Deal. He lives in chaos.
I just know I’m going to be sorry I said this:
shred the former Bella 1 into linguine.
I wondered about that. My guess is that somebody was hungry when the directive to re-name the ship came down.
Thoughts seen elsewhere about Maduro: global resource war heating up, voter fraud being seriously hampered, Cuba getting more isolated. There have been several others, but it’s getting to be nap attack time and I can’t remember them at the moment.
How many bird hit with one stone this time?
A flock!
I’ll be interested to see how we intermediately run Venezuela.
When we captured Maduro, we decapitated their military, so the generals are all dead (Israel vs Iran playbook). Who wants to be the next general and fight los Yanquis? The jobs are open. They fired off all of their Russian and Chicom missiles at US aircraft and none of them hit anything (Israel vs Iran playbook). An opposition exists in Venezuela and once the Maduro thugs are de-nutted they can govern themselves. The Russians, Cubans, Iranians, and Chinese will go home. FARC will try to cause problems but we can deal with that. I don’t think that the US will need to use a heavy hand. Just allow the Venezuelans to operate on a level playing field free of communists. They’ll figure it out.
We’ll run Venezuela in a way that manages to harm both the citizens of the United States and the people of Venezuela while enriching a tiny minority of less than 0.5% of the US population, and that minority will most assuredly NOT be representative of US demographics as a whole. That’s what is going to happen.
—
We’ll probably start by appointing a Viceroy or Proconsul who is either a leftist, Harvard (or Yale) educated, Acela-riding high-IQ fool, or alternatively, a fire (and mouth) breathing moron who will be determined to “make those godless commies come to Jeee-zus” because he is of the firm misbelief that “Catholics aren’t real Christians”. Not that either of these figureheads will have actual power. We’ll probably not be content with decapitating the armed forces. Instead of sensibly installing new top leadership but keeping the structure of, say O3 on down and enlisted (at least temporarily for stability), we’ll quickly disband the whole shebang, thus creating a large group of unemployed, unpaid, literally military-aged men who have nothing to do, only now with legitimate resentment of the US as a whole, and the Viceroy or Proconsul in particular. This would be stupid no matter what, but especially stupid when no trivial proportion of those men had no particular loyalty to the Maduro regime, other than “it was a job”. But we WILL teach them ALL to hate us.
—
We may sell cheap oil to China and Russia, but Americans will not benefit because Venezuelan crude is notoriously high-sulfur. And even though we apparently have the facilities to process such, someone will find “environmental” reasons to forbid its entry into the US.
—
But be of good cheer. BlackRock will somehow benefit. Big Finance will benefit. And the US FedGov will assume the debt of Venezuela, then sell it at 10 cents on the dollar to some civilizational vampire such as Paul Singer (the man who sodomized the entire nation of Peru in a similar scheme). The Paul Singer-type will then hound the people and puppet government of Venezuela for the entire original amount. This will reduce the average Venezuelan into even worse penury, and cause them to hate the US (instead of seeing us as their deliverers from Maduro). Now of course they, and we, should be hating the Singers and the Finks and their ilk, but since the average American doesn’t know who those fiends are, and certainly not what they do, why on earth would a Venezuelan know?
—
THAT’s the most likely outcome of this adventure. I would LOVE to be utterly wrong on this. But the Deep State (The Cabal, The Rosicrucians, The Global [redacted] Conspiracy, etc etc etc) has been prepared for, slavering for, exactly such an eventuality, and their top men are no doubt in a state of frenzied arousal that exceeds even their passion for sodomizing small children.
Oh, I forgot one major thing. “Emergency Compassionate” visas for tens (at least) of thousands of Venezuelans due to the unrest in the home country. Of course we will not be getting people like my Venezuelan friend Carolina (fluent in English, MS in engineering, smart, ethical, extremely hard working). Somehow we will manage to admit people like the criminals, lunatics, and outright refuse that Castro foisted on us decades earlier.
Though I prefer to be a glass-half-full sort of guy, Mike_C is likely to be close to the mark. USGOV has a dismal record of getting things right and a propensity to allow unscrupulous assholes to put their grimy fingers on the scales. Maybe it will be different this time, and Smedly Darlington Butler will be wrong, and war won’t be a racket.
Is there such a thing as too much good news? It’s a dizzying feeling. Fabulous raid in Venezuela. (LSP wonders who might be next – Starmer?)
Then email brings me a link to this: prageru.com/videos/uk-comedian-katie-hopkins-arrested-banned-attacked-tells-all
I thank LL for introducing me/us to her. I thought of her as a comedian. I was never aware of her serious background. What a fighter. This video is almost a year old. It’s worth watching the entire thing.
As the fights against the leftists and invaders go on, remember that we have supporters all around the world. They admire the US and they’re cheering MAGA and our President.
Katie Hopkins in “batshit bonkers Britain” (as she calls it) has been calling balls and strikes and doing that means she’ll be imprisoned. She’s courageous but the UK is finished. LSP and I argue the situation but I don’t think that it can be fixed.
No one I know that works in Tucson, lives within the city limits.
All live on the fringes in various communities in Pima County.
When I escaped across the Colorado River 20+ years ago I was introduced to the “ward system” of Tucson. Every time a city council member is up for re-election, the entire city gets to vote for that individual not just the ward he represents. Several times a council member has lost in his ward but was miraculously dragged across the finish line by voters in other wards… The Socialists have a strangle hold on the city politic.
When gas prices skyrocket in Yuma, Maricopa county and other parts north and west due to refineries closing in California, Tucson will still have $2.70 a gallon because it’s oil is piped from New Mejico and Texas…
X2
Sad to hear about Tucson; I wasn’t aware. I have a grandson there along with a daughter in law and her family.
———-
Watching the news conference this morning while Gen, Kane was speaking, I noticed a tall man next to Rubio whose body language said he didn’t want to be there. Does anyone know who he is?
John Ratcliffe? He’s the current Director of the CIA….
There’s great food in Tucson. If your grandkids are in either the Marana, Oro Valley, or Vail school districts they’ll be fine.
I’m not arguing that the food in Tucson is MUCH better than in Northern Arizona. That’s definitely the case. But the place has some significant problems that are the result of typical democrat policies.
We moved to Tucson in 2001 from Rancho Cucamonga. I had worked for Orbital Sciences in Pomona and Boeing in Anaheim. Rancho was actually pretty nice and the Etiwanda schools were decent at that time. The commutes were awful and the toll that takes on vehicles was horrendous. In 1999, my sister and parents had relocated to Tucson from elsewhere and it was nice to be near family. We lived about 10 minutes from my office and time was much easier to manage. After we retired in 2018 we moved to northern AZ and the living is so much easier. Our kids and grandkids mostly down in Tucson and we still own a condo down there. Visiting Tucson is better than visiting Phoenix’s sprawl, but it’s still a shock to the system.
The Snowbirds in Tucson were kind of a weird local phenomenon. You get used to traffic impacts between mid-October and mid-April. All the visitors go to their appointments and do errands between 9:30 AM and 3:30 PM so they can get to their early suppers. Seeing a giant Caddy or Lincoln being piloted by a cloud of purple-rinsed hair is not just a stereotype.
Purple rinse these days? It used to be blue….
It’s interesting to visit the Custer Battlefield, the Rosebud Battlefield and the, nearby but unconnected, Fetterman Battlefield and see how the terrain influenced the day’s events. A side trip to the Wagon Box fight location is also instructive. Most people seem to see the Little Bighorn backwards. They start at the visitor’s center and conclude at Reno Hill. Better is to move as the cavalry moved following the action and terrain to the culmination at last stand hill. Things are less clear at the Rosebud. The sight lines are more constricted and Crook’s movements were not as central to the day. His was more reaction instead of action. The Fetterman fight was the most constricted of the lot, with only 81 military combatants. You can almost hear the echoes of the trap snapping shut as you walk the field. The incongruity of the first and last battles is that you can also watch traffic traveling the interstate as you visit.
Always follow the money…
I like the painting. Too often people don’t realize how miserable the bombardment was and how horrid the conditions were. Being fired upon by the mightiest nation in the world, a little fort full of ‘amateurs acting as professionals’ (a quote from one of my favorite history teachers) stood and returned fire all during the bombardment. It just wasn’t The Flag still flying. It was a bunch of plucky warriors in crappy weather standing up to what other, more seasoned and professional, soldiers and warriors couldn’t. It was the power of a young nation, a David, holding out against the Goliath.
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And fighting in the rain sucks at any time not in high summer, especially when wearing woolen clothing (which, though it will retain warmth even when soaked, will weigh more and more as it gets more sodden.) Okay, fighting in the rain sucks unless you’re doing it voluntarily and you have a warm room and hot showers and food awaiting you.
Woodsterman arrives.
😂😂
Meme of the Day; Four of the magnanimous 7 are seated and their hostess, the Ho asks what they’d like to drink. Hee Haw a.k.a AOC brings out their order. Each glass set on a red rectangle, the cover of Marx manifesto, coaster. Who’s the 7th?