Caption: Lady and her Bot.
Mother of all Wars, unleash hell, yada-yada-yada, the chief beard in Iran needs to come up with something more original than that. Consider if you will that six months ago, the Iranians had their asses KICKED by Israel, which suffered very minor damage in return. Am I the only one who thinks, “Put up or shut up, Khameni.” They declared war on the USA again yesterday, maybe for the 300th time. They’ll kick our butt to Pizza Hut; we’ve heard it before, bacon breath. (More from NY Post)
As in Venezuela and Cuba, there are many people in Iran who owe their livelihoods to the government, and they will not give up their rice bowls easily. At the very least, they will face retributive violence, vengeance, and retribution from the people they oppressed once their status is removed. Patronage is the currency of these governments, and it runs deep through the society. Mere occupation by a foreign power won’t break that bond. It’s a significant problem to be overcome.
Bullet Points:
** Physics.
** Cremation will be my last opportunity to have a smoking hot body.
** Mali and Burkina Faso have banned US Citizens from entry. Cry me a river.
** From the pen of Larry Correia -…But GENERALLY SPEAKING, just like if you try to drive through some cops trying to arrest you, that makes it likely you’re gonna get shot, if you are at the bottom of the proverbial pig pile and you keep fighting, A. You ain’t gonna win. And B. If one of them thinks you’re going for a gun during your futile gesture, you’re gonna get shot. This isn’t a shocking revelation to anyone other than white liberals. The rest of us have spent our lives fully aware that if we do dumb, provocative shit while dealing with cops/feds, we might get shot. Every other political and ethnic group knows this. But not white liberals, apparently, where reality is whatever they want it to be, and the concept that actions have consequences is basically a war crime.
I have not spent a lot of time around the liberal elite types, but what little I did, they seem to have seen too many movies and think that the police or serious people are all as feckless as they are. They think that people are fooling around because that is what they do. As an aside/war story, I wrote a script for a movie, and the producer/director (who paid me for the script) and one of his buddies were speaking to me about locations to film. I mentioned that I knew people in the Saudi royal family who own a horse ranch in Del Mar, with a five-acre lake and a mansion on the property that is seldom used. The day came, and I met them there on the private estate. They must have thought I was kidding because when they started walking around with me, trailed by the ex-SAVAK (Shah-Iran Era) people who worked for them, they became nervous and ultimately fled. After Action: “Why did you split?” – They thought they were about to be killed. “Didn’t you believe me?” No, they thought I was lying about everything because that’s what THEY do.
** Canada decides to go vegan. It’s OK with me. Alberta grows beef; it can separate from Canada and spike prices for its neighbors if it wants to.
** $500 million in a Qatari Bank.
** Time is on Pres. Trump’s side in Minneapolis. Saul Alinsky said that a tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. The US Justice Department will fully mobilize against the corrupt Somali cabal in Minnesota, and grand juries will be convened. Likely changes of venue will take place to other states to ensure fair trials. ICE, active there now, will eventually move on to another cold spot (get the pun?), and the process of deportation will continue.
** VDH on WW2 – Why did Japan bomb Pearl Harbor?
** What offends you?
** MikeW reports that following surgery, he’s home, doing well, still a little stiff, but all in all, he’s pert as a rutting buck.
** Lunar Factoids.
** Are Trekkies offended by this? It is a toe tapper…
Is the USA Europe’s Baby Daddy?
The U.S. Pentagon is moving to reduce American military involvement with several NATO structures and forces in Europe, part of a broader shift in defense strategy that emphasizes homeland security and increased responsibility for allied nations. Washington plans cuts to approximately 200 personnel from NATO command centers and advisory groups, and is not backfilling positions as assignments end, a phased change officials say reflects evolving priorities rather than an immediate withdrawal.
This adjustment coincides with ongoing reductions in U.S. troop rotations on NATO’s eastern flank and directives from the Pentagon encouraging European partners to take the lead in conventional defence roles. U.S. defence officials have also set internal goals for European allies to assume greater responsibility for their own military capabilities, including a reported deadline for Europe to develop key NATO defence capacities by 2027.
The changes unfold against the backdrop of a new U.S. National Defence Strategy that prioritises defending the homeland and the Western Hemisphere while providing “more limited” support to European and other partners. European leaders, while affirming continued alliance cohesion, have expressed concern about the implications of reduced U.S. involvement, as NATO members simultaneously work to boost defence spending and readiness in response to Russia’s aggression and broader strategic competition.
Meme of the Day
Stage 1: “It’s unsinkable.”
Stage 2: “Ukraine doesn’t have the means to sink it.”
Stage 3: “It’s sinking.”
Stage 4: “It sank, but it was a storm.”
Stage 5: “Ukraine should pay us for sinking it.”
That was Interesting
I received a call a few days ago asking what I had going with Booze Allen. I said, “Nothing. I think they’re dirtbags.” They said, “That’s good,” and hung up.
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent announced the cancellation of all contracts with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. The Treasury Department currently has 31 separate contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton totaling $4.8 million in annual spending and $21 million in total obligations.
“President Trump has entrusted his cabinet to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans’ trust in government,” said Secretary Bessent. “Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.”
Most notably, between 2018 and 2020, Charles Edward Littlejohn — an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton — stole and leaked the confidential tax returns and return information of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers. To date, the IRS determined that the data breach affected approximately 406,000 taxpayers. Littlejohn has pleaded guilty to felony charges for disclosing confidential tax information without authorization.
Newsom
(Breitbart) The street art appears to hit many of the bombshell themes in Schweizer’s book, now the #1 book on Amazon, from the “Manchurian Generation” of more than one million Chinese with U.S. citizenship who grew up in communist China and could be eligible to vote in the 2030 American elections to the thousands of Chinese pilots sent to the U.S. and taught to fly. The art appears to be the work of infamously edgy conservative street artist Sabo, who has routinely embarrassed bureaucrats, corporations, A-list celebrities, and government agencies by highlighting their scandals in prominent locations throughout Los Angeles.
The street art depicts Chinese fighter jets flying through the sky, an apparent reference to the facts uncovered in Schweizer’s book about the thousands of Chinese pilots being sent to the U.S. for training with “virtually no oversight” before returning and serving in China’s military.
There are also Chinese babies parachuting down from the sky, a likely reference to what Schweizer calls the “Manchurian Generation,” the estimated one million Chinese babies being born U.S. citizens every year, growing up in Communist China, while soon being eligible to vote in American elections.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is clad in a communist uniform. The Los Angeles streets below him are consumed by rioters, reminiscent of last year’s anti-ICE riots that saw radicals shut down traffic on the 101 freeway, before they set police cars on fire, while agitators waved Mexican flags. Indeed, Schweizer’s book exposes how Mexico’s 50-plus consulates across the U.S. are running a shadow campaign, including staging massive pro-immigration protests, to bend American elections in favor of Mexican interests. Schweizer’s book also details how Mexico uses its consulates to flood American schools with Marxist, anti-American textbooks.
And if that wasn’t enough, the artist sets the world-famous Hollywood Hills on fire as an apparent reference to the deadly Pacific Palisades and Los Angeles County fires of 2025.
The artist also targeted the California state Capitol in Sacramento, including the Capitol building, as well as other downtown areas.
(VM Comment – the woke will still vote for him because he looks like the cartoon character BUTHEAD and it reminds them of themselves.)
Identify the Aircraft
1
Two graphics to aid your identification.
2
3
Parting Shot
End
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Boeing Skyfox
2. Ilyushin Il-30
3. Antonov An-2
Outstanding
Cremation – don’t feel bad, LL; it’ll be my first!
*
Good to hear MikeW is doing well.
– Kle.
MikeW is holding court in his hospital room as would-be visitors clog the hallways outside, patiently screened before they’re allowed into the inner sanctum. He plays it down like he’s a humble patient, but they all know that he’s royalty.
Metal detector and armed personnel at the door maybe?
I presume armed personnel in the bed!
– Kle.
As a Southern Trekkie I only have this to say: “Live long and say ‘hey’ to your momma”
I’m more of a Trekkie purist. The current batch of DEI trek is offensive.
Unreal they would totally mess that up, could have been a great series…but nooo, had to fiddle with a working formula.
They’ve clowned Star Trek to the point that the only thing missing is steam calliope music announcing the opening – ample lesbians wearing comfortable shoes going where one of 67 genders have never gone before.
Star Trek and Star Wars as franchises have been demolished with no residual value.
Was that the intent?
Why?
Pure sales and marketing that panders to an audience that is apparently demanding the ‘all-inclusive woke baloney and are willing to pay good money to partake. No fixing that.
Agreed. I’m TOS Trek; they can keep the DEI garbage.
Thanks for the good news update about MikeW.
Robot – must be the one she sends out to the yard to hide Easter eggs?
I don’t know that it will fly, but it looks good. You never know, it might start tearing things up. When that happens, it’s good to know the safe phrase – “Klaatu barada nikto.”
H/T Now I’m curious to look into the The day the earth stood still, Tron – 82′ and Army of Darkness-92′, Yesterday on a YouTube inventor video a commenter referenced the “Landmaster” used in Damnation Alley. Not a practical drive train, true? What will the safe phrase(s) be for sentient Bots?
Damnation Alley was cool.
The Landmaster was an actual working vehicle. As in, it had armor plate, could float, was articulated, all wheel drive and that weird fidget-spinner wheel bogie system actually worked. Steering sucked, as you actually turned the front half at the articulation point.
–
But it worked. Worked well, very well.
Booze Allen: The proverbial ‘if you build it they will come’, with a twist.
Who manages Reserve.gov, for campsites, public use lands, etc….that WTP’ks tax dollars were used to purchase, get built, and manage lands and places WTP then have ‘the privilege’ to pay to use?
*Them*
Who knew? Dig deep enough and the pointer always lands on the same ‘groups’.
In typical Swamp fashion, FedGov creates from their own self-created authority OUR parks etc. that the all-benevolent FedGov gives us permission while charging us to use said properties. Then to facilitate the whole mess, some “firm” – lobby’s from their lavish K-Street offices – magically and magnanimously gains “contracts” to manage said WTP properties and campgrounds – with the oft stated ‘best interest in mind’. Yeah, sure..gag! spit!.
Root it out, eliminate the graft nebula that lines their pockets with our hard-earned then thieved tax dollars. Clean the slate with bleach then salt the ground those cheats occupied. Start from scratch. No special interests.
This is the problem – You start a company and become addicted to government cheese, and somebody comes along from a committee in Congress and tells you that they control a hard earmark or something like that. They’ll give it to you if you kick back a portion to the politico and the Democratic Party. What’s the catch? There is no catch. There’s enough space in the earmark for you to kick back 25% and keep another 25% for yourself on top of overhead. So you do it (Kipling: “epileptic fits don’t matter in government employ” – The Post that Fitted) and you find that nobody knows about or cares what you said you’d do – circumcize negroes in Mozambique or whatever. You claim to have cut 10,000 but you only did 100. You pocket 50%. You’re living large, your company thrives and because you’re a reliable kickback guy, you find that the State Dept, USAID, and the United Negro College Fund are lining up to give you money. Then they say, PaulM, have you ever thought of getting into green energy? No, you say. We’ll give you $30M, you kick back $10M to the Party, $3M to the politico and keep the rest. Lease a building, rent furniture, run the scheme for a year, BK the company and there is a “fire in the lab” that burns up all of your financial records and the computer backup. USGOV won’t investigate you with Senator so and so, and Barack and Big Mike running top cover for you.
.
Times $500 Billion.
.
That is why they want Pres. Trump dead.
Exactamundo. Now we have ‘Learing Centers’ in Somalia, MN. Same deal only slightly further away from DC. WTP are getting royally screwed by this gambit, then Rand Paul comes out advocating for ‘retirement’ to start at 70 years old. Uh huh. Bum.
The British extended reserve military service to age 65. They might as well shoot for 70 too or even 75. Their numbers have dropped so precipitously that they need to put something on paper that indicates they have a reserve force. Are they going to arm them with spears? The Danes won’t let their army train with live ammunition because of the cost.
.
Social Security retirement is at BEST a supplement. I know that people live on it, but it’s nowhere enough to live on comfortably.
.
The military retirement system changed and is now a Blended Retirement System depending on when you joined, with BRS (post-2018) offering a blend of pension and Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) contributions. The numbers dropped. It’s no longer as attractive.
.
Most of the people out there who want you to pay them to set you up are crooks. There should be a special corner of Hell for them. They used to be called ‘sharpers’ and today they’re investment counsellors. I caution my children about arranging for retirement. 2 of 4 will be ok. The other two – I worry about.
recreation.gov ?
Correction noted. Had it listed in my password cheat-sheet under ‘reserve.gov’ for some reason…not that we partake in ‘those’ campgrounds with all that entails; screaming kids, generators going, loud parties, outside flatscreens, etc…”campers’ moving into a slot with all manner of accoutrements, plus the outside kitchen sink.
Private companies performing government services; I’m slowly trying to connect dots that you and L.L. have addressed. In 2020 when anyone and everyone should have been able to use the great outdoors of D.P.R.O Oregon they all but shut it down. Asked a park ranger at one of the campsites we stayed about it. He said, 75% laid off, of their staff. A great percentage of parks services labor had already gone to contractors over the years anyway. I always looked at it as saving on benefits, better proficiency. But after reading today and seeing the names Booz and Little John making out like Robin Hood except keeping themselves fat in the middle, I’m beginning to wonder. Another wonder is how the rest area restrooms would be shut down, but the hand wash stations and chem pots were “safe” to use and for the cleaners. At what price or cost for the big guys?
Government at all levels is a the only self-perpetuating machine in existence.
My perspective of camping with ‘the great unwashed’ is, I don’t if it can be helped. The Park Service is welfare of a different animal; they have become ‘needed’ (like that one thing in the office everyone expects to stay “because it’s always been done that way”…until someone (usually an engineer type) says otherwise. So when government shuts things down (as the Dems will try to do unless ICE – which is funded through 2028 – is defunded…good luck with that), those who made the rules WTP are forced to play by when out and about in the forest, have become brain-washed dependent on an ever-expanding system that for the most part could be run with 1/10 the budget and personnel. I don’t need a park ranger when I’m in the woods, but they’ll say I do, and most believe they are necessary. They are not, for the most part, except the system has become so bloated any talk of cutting it back to essentials generates apoplectic dismay in the employee base.
McMurdo Dry Valleys: Using Larry Correia’s spot on comments as a springboard, start advertising the Dry Valleys as the next place ICE will start ‘activities’, show a bunch of freebies offered with nice campsites (managed by Reserve.gov of course), maybe the lunatics will leave Minneapolis to head there for the next ‘peaceful protest’. Sort of an Anti-ICE burning man, only less hospitable.
Actors could flee to the ICE-free zone in huge numbers. Install a Starbucks and a whorehouse, and they’d feel very much at home there. Antarctica could be the next Epstein Island.
Could be the new Alone series, except without the fail safe call button.
I’m seeing a redub of Lost. Would you like that served with or without DARPA? Charbucks and Mustang Ranches? What about pizza gate franchises?
Lost was very cool…the last episodes got a little over the top, but the mysterious aspect was excellent. (Were they all dead and sitting in purgatory? Abrams was not telling.)
“beholden, paid off or flat-out lying” – Methinks he forgot one: fkn stupid.
>Patronage is the currency of these governments, and it runs deep through the society. Mere occupation by a foreign power won’t break that bond. It’s a significant problem to be overcome.
—
Fair enough. But patronage (from diverted and outright stolen taxpayer funds, yet) has been revealed to be the source of a large proportion of the Leftist apparat, including many quasi-governmental institutions, in the USA. As for occupation, it’s not as if the US is not ideologically and politically occupied as well. More’s the pity. Speaking of occupation, I denounce your antisinotism [1] in Noticing what the Chinese are up to. Why do you hate China? The Chinese have suffered, damn it! (Claimed victimhood is the foundation of modern moral currency, just like our monetary currency is based on, er, um…. Come to think of it, both are shared delusions from the same source. Only the shared financial delusion can be useful if properly reined in, whereas the moral delusion is nothing but rot.)
[1] “anti-Sinotism” is an aggression. It’s been decreed that the correct term is “antisinotism”.
—
> I have not spent a lot of time around the liberal elite types
Whereas I have, my entire life. The ordinary ones are generally people of good will, higher-end IQ, and minimal common sense. For smart people with lots of credentials, they believe in remarkably stupid things and are shockingly ahistorical. (I’d pay good money to watch, say Beans debate them about the Crusades, for example. But I digress.) The ones at the very top, those I do NOT know personally, as a rule [2], but I suspect actual malice, and lots of it. On a rational basis, I think much of it is psycho-cultural — a history of resentment and the need to play the eternal underdog/victim despite objectively being both wealthy and politically powerful in the current US, but emotionally I’m really starting to believe in supernatural malevolent forces, Satanic, if you will. Because the agenda of the most powerful among the liberal elite will end up wrecking their own powerbase and wealth as well. The resentment/psychic brokenness explains it adequately without invoking supernatural malice, but gosh the demonic angle makes more and more sense.
[2] Unlike you, LL, I’m not always having breakfast with Arafat, nor dinner with Edward Teller, etc. I did have a hurried hallway conversation with Jeffrey Sachs in Georgetown once, however. It was about diagnostic medical imaging in sub-Saharan Africa. (hahaha, SO nerdly!!)
—
All that said, a number of my “elite” friends are peeling away layers of the prog-left propaganda. I hear it in remarks about homosexuals, about “immigrant” invaders, and so forth. They may be deluded/brainwashed by elite leftist propaganda, but things have gotten so bad that it’s adversely affecting not only “those blue collar, cousin humping hicks” but the elites themselves in Scarsdale, and in Newton/Brookline, MA, and Madison, and Ann Arbor, and Boulder, and so forth. A friend, who literally gave thousands at a Clinton campaign dinner to shake Hillary’s claw, asked me about something, to which I replied, “You already know where I stand on that. Do you really want to hear what I think?” To which she muttered, rather darkly, “We’re not nearly as far apart as you might think…”
—
Oh, since this what you were referring to so far as liberal/elite beliefs go: As to that fool Pretti who got himself shot, no loss. I don’t care if he was an ICU nurse — other than of course the concern that people like that should not be trusted to take care of patients. The handwringers on the “right” need to harden the hell up. They would cheerfully shoot us in the head, then laugh about it. As to “but this weaponizes FedGov against us!!!11elevnty!!” Duh, you morons. It’s already BEEN weaponized against us. That horse is well out of the barn. At this point I’m simply happy to see radical leftists get theirs too. And no, I’m not claiming to be morally better at this point. Screw “the high road” because where has that got us? At this point it’s tribal warfare, and those bastards are not my tribe. Now, for the record, I am against going out in the streets and shooting people, but if some idiot decides to pull a piece on a bunch of amped up (with reason) police doing a dangerous and necessary job, and gets himself shot? Screw that guy. I just feel bad for the ICE guys who got caught up in Pretti’s drama.
For some self-inflicted pain and sufferingI wanted to listen how the paid agitprop Tarlov would couch Pretti getting himself shot and killed by bringing a loaded firearm into a so-called peaceful protest then brandishing it when confronting armed officers. Tarlov did not disappoint (albeit galactically twisted logic), making the incident about 2A and ICE murdering Pretti and not the FAFO consequences reality aspect.
There is no middle ground to be had with these people…ever. (Too bad Gutfeld wasn’t on the panel, woulda been epic to hear him go off on her lunacy.)
I lose all Christian Composure when listening to Tarlov.
I can’t Ed. I simply can’t abide her whining elitist stupidity.
It’s my civic duty to take one for the VM team, even if I echo Ed’s sentiment. Really generates loathing of another in my heart…and luckily we don’t have neighbors who might get worried I’m possessed with Tourettes.
My brother….
Caption art; worth a couple hundred thousand words of sequel novels. The organic rust colored abdomen area; is it nuerolinked to the fraulein’s left shoulder- lower neck? The cable over the right foot. Reproductive, or a stinger – weapon? If she’s a moiselle, “that thing will never fly.”
>is it nuerolinked to the fraulein’s left shoulder- lower neck?
Hah! So the guys (and gals) on Friday Night Tights (weekly podcast) were talking about the world of Avatar. Specifically how the Navi (or Na’vii or whatever) use their hair-neurolink things to control the native animals. Like Jake Sully did with that big red pterodactylish thing in the first movie. Anyway, the FNT crew were noticing that the Navi basically “use their hair-penis things to take over the animals and make them do stuff”. This led to the argument that “the more I learn about the Navi, the more I am in sympathy with the invading humans. Quarrich has it right. Kill all those animal-raping blue bastards! The poor animals will cry in relief on being delivered from their tormentors. ‘You had no idea of the hell we lived, being mind-raped by those horrible Navi monsters!'” Bwahahaha. I never thought of it that way, but … yeah!
Yes, I’ve always been uneasy with the Space Marines in blue skinsuits banging the local wildlife.
TNX 4 bringing it up; here I was wondering if it were a tat, birthmark, or a Hirudo medicinalis
I don’t believe there are extraterrestrial aliens from another dimension with red skin and horns who are messing with humans; instead I believe human firmware has an autoimmune problem. After external enemies are conquered, the automatic gain control on the cultural immune system keeps being turned up until the self is mislabeled an enemy and attacked. See the book _Western Self-Contempt: Oikophobia in the Decline of Civilizations_ by Benedict Beckeld. Further discussed in this podcast: tomwoods.com/ep-2232-when-civilizations-hate-themselves
Yes, there seems to be a genetic malfunction, because it’s always rinse-repeat.
Except the red skin and horns is metaphorical.
I can more easily believe the demonic influence since it is also documented.
Khamenei Kackles; Mentioning here again the idea of Musk benevolence to provide Starlink minis in mass via air drops vs prosthesis. ( Not a clue what or if aircraft could manage it practically.) May I suggest adding real bacon bits to be included in the instruction packets? Of course labeled not for human consumption.
We should trade Canada Minnesota for Alberta. That would work for both countries, as Walz et al are ‘sympathetic’ to the CCP, and Alberta certainly is not!
Seeing the AN-2 reminds me of Lima Site 85, and the Huey crewman that shot down an AN-2 with an M-16 during the battle for the site.
X2 – I have the artwork of the Lima 85 kill.
We had an AN-2 parked a couple miles from here til recently.
Red star and all.
The Chino “Planes of Fame” air museum has one in flying condition.
The synchronicity of the Lunar spin and orbit is a bit too precise for natural phenomena, I would think.
I believe that to be the case. Then again, I’m unapologetic about thinking that the Earth was teraformed.
Well, the Bible makes that claim.
It’s not a coincidence, it’s en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking which is a natural phenomena that drives it to that condition.
Newsflash: When the Dems don’t like something being done under Federal law (mainly because it affects their illegal voter base and rigged elections and ill-gotten cheese) they start spouting off about impeaching the person in charge. Latest target over the past 24 hours is Homeland Sec. Noem. The usual suspects are demanding she be fired or they’ll impeach her. Dems (save for Sen. Fetterman) are some seriously nasty people…who have nothing to offer except anarchy and chaos.
This is getting more stupid than even I could have expected. Worse part is there are enough people who support this idiocy.
I’m not sure about Noem’s gravitas when she knee jerk calls a guy a domestic terrorist, even though he was not engaged in a form of terror as we know it.
But I wish they’d focus on impeaching Bondi, instead, which might be helpful.
Stephen Miller is somewhat responsible for that. That was his call and he’s deputy chief of staff. They all live in a bubble without somebody to give them a reality check.
I’ve liked him, he’s smart, but maybe he’s full of himself?
I just figure all of them have more detailed info than anyone else on the planet, and PDJT won’t stand for shenanigans in this, his last term. Noem is a tough gal, Bondi is doing other things that take a long time to unravel the prior messes, Miller is brilliant, and PDJT is no nonsense. Who should be our focus are the Rs, they have completely screwed the pooch with the unbelievable opportunities handed to them, basically have done NOTHING in a year.
Delayed reaction to all their COVID jabs?
Sounds like a grant proposal.