Bullet Points:
** In Space, nobody can hear you scream. But what does the place smell like? (more here)
** Tick-Tock Cuba: Since the U.S. shut down Venezuelan oil exports, Cuba has been sliding towards a severe energy crisis. Cuba is also being cut off from its alternative energy suppliers. Washington has pressured Mexico not to sell them any. China and Russia are too far or don’t have the capacity. So, Cuba has already run out of aviation fuel, and a prolonged energy shortage is likely. With energy collapse in motion, it could be the end for the Cuban government. The leadership has been offered a golden parachute. Will they take the money and run for Russia, or ride that ship under the waves?
** Are you looking for a new career? Have you thought about working in hospitality? What about gaming? Probability and outcome? Games and theory?
** Where have 2000 years taken us?
** A corporate shakeup sent shockwaves through Illinois. Caterpillar’left the state, and who can blame them? Supporters call it a strategic business move, while opponents say it reflects deeper economic challenges. What incentives did Texas offer — and could more companies follow? The ripple effects will follow as other companies make the same financial decision. Most of Illinois is rural and conservative, but the cancer in Chicago is destroying the place, or has destroyed it, depending on how you look at it.
Ramadan in the Magic Kingdom Report
I was asked to report on Ramadan in Riyadh. A ride around the city on the first few days of Ramadan found that while most eateries have closed, a small number are staying open during the daylight fasting hours. That’s a step change from previous years, when Ramadan fasting was strictly enforced, but still far from the practice in Dubai, where there are no restrictions on serving food or alcohol during the holy month. Riyadh has been slowly transforming under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the authorities seek to improve the city’s quality of life and attract an international workforce to diversify the economy. Over the past few years, the religious police have been stripped of powers, women have been allowed to drive, gender mixing has been permitted, and there is now a liquor store for diplomats and well-paid expats.
Diego
The loveable and exceptionally woke politicians in the UK are working to keep the US from using the air force base on Diego Garcia for strikes against Iran. Let’s delve.
514 years ago, Pedro Mascarenhas, a Portuguese explorer seeking a better route to India and China, encountered a long, narrow, uninhabited island in the Indian Ocean. He named it Dom Garcia in honor of the man who financed the exploration. That was in 1512. The island was rediscovered in 1544 by another Portuguese explorer, Diego García de Moguer. He named it Diego Garcia because, why not? Two centuries later, the French brought slaves from Madagascar and Mozambique, along with Indian laborers, to establish coconut plantations. The Brits received the island as part of a peace treaty to end the Napoleonic Wars.
The Brits continued it as a quiet plantation island, placing it and the Chagos Archipelago under the control of the British colony of Mauritius. Diego Garcia also served as a coaling station for steamships in the late 19th century. We’re talking 12 square miles of land that is 1,300 miles away from Mauritius. In 1965, the British detached the archipelago from Mauritius just ahead of the latter’s independence in 1968.
The USA agreed in 1966 to turn the island into a military base, which meant the removal of the descendants of the people the French and the Brits had brought in generations earlier.
Today, it houses B-2s and other military hardware the Department of War needs to position to reach Africa, Iran, the Middle East, and India. It is a stationary aircraft carrier.
Britain’s treacherous Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants to give the island to Mauritius, which really has no claim on the land. There were no indigenous people on the island when the Portuguese discovered it.
The anti-Western United Nations stuck its nose into the deal and demanded that England hand the archipelago to Mauritius. A few years later, Starmer agreed. Not only will he give it away, but under his plan, England would pay Mauritius £10 billion in 99 annual rent payments to keep it under the UK’s control. The reason the UN and Starmer want Britain to give it away is to kneecap the American military. Britain has a long-term agreement with the United States. This giveaway is a passive-aggressive move against the USA. Mauritius is a close partner with Red China, which makes the deal even more appealing to Starmer.
Pres. Trump should just buy the island for a few billion and be done with the Brits. Why would we allow a mouse that cannot defend itself to call the shots?
Parliament is balking at the idea of stabbing Uncle Sam in the back. A bill moving the deal forward has been delayed in Parliament, according to reports, though a senior Cabinet member said Prime Minister Keir Starmer remains “determined” to see the agreement through. Starmer will “pause for thought” on plans to bring legislation underpinning the deal back to the House of Lords, a senior U.K. government official told Politico, echoing a BBC report.
Britain, France, and Germany (bulwarks of NATO) can be sidelined. U.S. forces have turned Sofia International Airport in Bulgaria into a major staging ground for aerial refueling tankers to support future strikes on Iran.
Remember that war between Armenia and Azerbaijan that Trump recently mediated? JD Vance visited both nations two weeks ago. Airspace over Armenia and Azerbaijan would be useful in a conflict with Iran. Both countries border Iran, and Bulgaria is separated from Armenia by the Black Sea.
There is a backup plan for Diego Garcia. The U.S. and Mauritius are holding talks on “effective implementation of security arrangements” next week in the capital of Mauritius, Port Louis. The remarks explicitly connect a key allied base to a potential Iran operation at a moment when Washington is trying to keep diplomacy alive while simultaneously emphasizing that military options remain on the table. “They want to make a deal. I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,” Pres. Trump said.
Identify the Ship
1
2
Do you need a hint? Think Guadalcaal.
3
Keeping with the Guadalcanal theme…
Parting Shot
End
1 is USS Mugford, a Bagley-class destroyer.
Diego backup plan – use Hank Johnson’s special technique to tip it over?
😒
Identify the Ship:
1. USS Mugford
2. HMAS Canberra
3. IJN Kirishima
Outstanding
Brain washed and Billions in Fraud; Patel is still cleaning house with DODGE protocols, like a prospector panning up a stream, finding the ANTIFA sources of funding. The question is, will the golden calf be ground powder and the cupable’s be made to drink the justice due. UN ship $inking. What could have been a good thing, can now go the way of a Chicago library fire.
–
Steroids or true super powers? Trump team sent out 60 T.S. posts in 3hrs. Don’t ever believe that his thumbs type that fast. I only made it to 25 WPM my freshman year. So many girls in that class, the one next to me being the biggest distraction to my A.D.’s How many MPH does it take to wake up the brainwashed? One Meme P.H. with the click bait of the changos to get a body to see a few seconds of facts on election fraud. The Don just can’t let it go can he? Me either. Not advocated for the bull to break any more China. If Twenty TPH … if viral in a good way could turn one Hypno Philo into a common sense voter, then i.m.h.o. it may be worth it.
With software that can convert speech into text, Trump probably has no problem posting anything on his mind and in a short period of time.
Hopefully he’s learned from the past and has someone review them before they go live…
Scientists have discovered that you can actually NOT say every thing that comes to mind.
“And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.”
Probably the last thing I’d ever expect to see on those Facebook posts is the sheriff of my county I live in doing videos like those two. The recruiting video was the better of the two.
~
Sheriff Ivey did a talk at the gun club I belonged to at the time, and was absolutely positive about carrying at all times where it’s permitted.
I like your sheriff.
👍
I like the idea of buying Diego. It leaves me wondering if this might be a good solution in other places. It could be an option to pull out of Briton and other hostile moochers. Buy out the entire local population as well as the country. China is building islands. I don’t understand the distances, but could island basing be an alternative to aircraft carriers that are more at risk in some cases? Islands don’t sink. Tom
Islands don’t sink but they are hard to hide.
We can spoof them electronically and redirect incoming to Tehran.
But a torpedo below the waterline is not as destructive….
No, more of a demonstration?
2000 years. “How dare you assume anything about me!” Well darlin’, my hand is already resting on my sidearm, soooo….
—
Does this also qualify me as old?
yes
Why bother to buy Diego Garcia?
We should just say we’re keeping it, and if Britain or Mauritius want it, they can try and take it back.
Adverse possession.
– Kle.
If we did that we’d end up with still another Muslim nation out to get us and Britain has nukes.
Sadly, the truth.
Britain has nukes, in theory. Like they have a navy, in theory.
I don’t think it matters, because there is zero evidence Britain has balls, any more.
*
As for “another muslim nation out to get us” (a) Mauritius is less of a nation than Canada,
and (b) they have nothing. Bring it.
– Kle.
There seems to be an uptick in chaos in Mexico after the death of El Mencho. Glad I wasn’t planning a winter beach vacation south of the border.
X2. There’s video of the CJNG thugs laying hundreds of caltrops on main streets and boulevards in Guadalajara.
Won’t every go there…too volatile…let my passport lapse, which was a big mistake as it now takes an act of God to get to renewed…to leave the country then return, as a citizen. Stupid. Brother used to go to Cabo and dive, stayed on the resort property though.
Vallerta is a war zone too.
Vallerta is a new latitude…
I misplaced my passport last year and had to personally appear before the post office bureaucracy to confess to the special crime of being a dumbass. Even so it wasn’t all that degrading, perhaps because I have considerable past experience with such confessions and have gotten quite good at it over time. Anyway, I was shocked at how quickly they Dept. of State issued a replacement, so maybe just an act of the small household gods rather than the real deal Big Guy himself.
“Never quit”. Words to live by…saw this:
“The watch has ended, and history grows quieter. At 102, Jessie Alton Mahaffey, the last living survivor of the USS Oklahoma, has crossed the final horizon, leaving behind the final human voice of that shattered morning at Pearl Harbor. Fate was relentless. Months later, the ocean tested him again with the sinking of the USS Northampton. Twice claimed by war. Twice returned. A survivor marked not by luck, but by an unbreakable will and a lifelong burden of remembrance. For more than eight decades, Jessie stood as a living memorial, bearing witness so the fallen would never fade into silence. Now, his long duty is complete.”
THE example.
***
2000 years: Same could be said of the wolf and certain domesticated dog breeds, which is sort of analogous to Alpha Males and others born with XY chromosomes. Look at this latest Mar-A-Lago invader, one brother goes into the Army, another turns Lefty loon, emboldened by DemonRat leadership…now he’s dead. Or worse, Johnny Weir, NBC Sports (??) in his prom gown at the Olympic closing ceremony. Not a ‘wolf’.
***
Getting Old: No kidding. When you start repeating those same things you chided your parents and grandparents for saying…yet…a better indicator for me – lately – is…drop something like a good piece of hardware, look down, notice the distance required to pick it up, contemplate how badly you need it. Walk off. Heh. (Swear, that guy who invented the grabber stick thingy had to be a 60+ former football player.)
Illinois
Note they plan to do away with paper titles come July and go all “secure” digital. The state has such a stellar record of governance no one should be concerned, should they?
“A corporate shakeup sent shockwaves through Illinois.”
More so than Cat will be Da Bears …
Oh well.
Diego Garcia is important for a LOT of reasons… Been there many times over the years. Starmer is STUPID, and he’s about to get it broken off in his ass if he keeps playing games… Grrrr…
Parting Shot: Wrong! The BLM/CNN/Bolshevik person is entirely too normal looking (for values of Studio Ghibli normal) to be one of Them.
—
Can anyone articulate in a single short paragraph, how it benefits the government and people of the US (SPQA) to attack Iran? But who does benefit if we start a war with Iran? Who who who? If only we could figure that one out. It’s a mystery and a headscratcher, that’s for sure.
—
Starmer is an ass, functionally a traitor, and in a just world, would have been strung up long ago. But Starmer is a distraction. So is the Andrew Mountbatten circus. (Sure, Andrew is a creep and an asshole, and [redacted] short stake [redacted] anus [redacted] no lube, just to make the point (pun unintended) [redacted] fire ants [redacted], but ultimately a distraction.) I want to know about Lord (for now, let’s see if that goes away) Peter Mandelson. Will we ever learn the details about Mandelson?
—
In the same vein, the net is all excited about Les Wexner’s counsel Michael Levy saying on hot mike: “I’ll fucking kill you if you answer another question with more than five words, OK?” Is there any serious adult with an IQ above 85 who actually thinks that was a “reveal”? I appreciate kayfabe and theater as much as the next guy, but seriously? How naive does a person have to be to think that was an accidental “pulling back of the curtain”? Hopping Heimdallr on a wubber cwutch. See! Wexner is NOT an apex schemer. He’s being controlled, he’s an innocent pawn! Why, that poor old man must have been deceived by that terrible terrible man Epstein. And the shadowy masters who ran Epstein. Poor Les Wexner, a good man forced to turn a blind eye to horrible things. Poor poor Les. The real victim in all of this Epstein sordidness.
Define Attack.
We attacked with Midnight Hammer.
A decapitation strike (if they do not leave after the threat of two fleets off their shores) would stabilize the region, defang the Houthis, Hezbollah and interrupt China Oil.
I could be wrong.
This is a great post, most especially the opening infographic.