Cutting for sign – right – “Seneca Scouts” Artist: Robert Griffing
Writing
The Duelist Series Continues: The Confederate Cipher, Hudson’s Scouts, The Crow Creek Expedition, and Vengeance and Retribution.
Bullet Points:
** Other than asking me how I’d like it, I’m irritated when the barber wants to engage in small talk. Finding a reliable barber in Arizona has been a challenge. Far more of a challenge than it should be.
** God is with us!
** Eric Swalwell, spy. Though he was beloved of the Biden Administration and the democrats in Congress, life is not all peaches and cream for the former congressman and spy. His storied and torrid love affair with the swallow, Fang-Fang is no longer lionized by democrats who seek to distance themselves from him. Remember that it was Rep. Swalwell (D-CA) who famously said that there were conservative bastions in America that could only be eradicated through the use of tactical nuclear weapons – and he was serious as a heart attack when he said it.
WASHINGTON — The FBI stumbled on disgraced ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell’s affair with Chinese spy Fang Fang when the bureau tried to recruit her to be a double-agent, bombshell documents reveal. Swalwell even joked that his paramour, whose English name is Christine Fang, worked for the Ministry of State Security (MSS), according to declassified documents released Monday by the White House Government Transparency Task Force.
Forget Fang Fang, the Red Chinese honeypot he bang-banged in between marriages. The FBI may be closing in on Eric Swalwell for allegations of rape.
** Speaking of rape, LSP reports on rape statistics in Old Blighty. Nobody is surprised.
** Cutting Iran off completely from the UAE could deal a serious blow to the Islamic Republic’s economy — but experts say disentangling the pair’s commercial ties could prove difficult. The UAE was Iran’s largest source of imports before the current war, ahead of China, with two-way trade worth roughly $28 billion in 2024, according to the World Trade Organization. Further disruption could weaken the rial, push inflation toward triple digits, and deepen an economic contraction currently estimated at 5%, a former Iranian central bank adviser told CNBC. Washington is convinced of the role the UAE can play in choking Iran’s economy: The US told Emirati officials that targeting IRGC-linked money flows would hit Tehran harder than the naval blockade of Iranian ports, according to The Wall Street Journal. US sanctions orders show that oil revenues, foreign-currency trades, and payments to Iranian entities have historically moved through shell companies and exchange houses in Dubai, often with no Iranian name on the transaction, the Journal reported.
** CDRSAL discusses weapons that wait – sea mines. Sea mines are important, and submarine drone delivery is the name of the game. He’s always interesting and comprehensive. The US is back in the mine development game. It’s easier to deploy them than it is to remove them. (left) LL going through my last mine clearance training evolution at San Clemente Island, CA – thirty-two years ago now. I received a plaque for this particular training cycle – for being old – not for being good. Or maybe being good because I lasted to old age – 32 years ago. (No country for old men)
** Boating with EdB.
** BRM Reports: The semiannual military exercise, called Combined Resolve, gave the US military a firsthand taste of how modern drone warfare has evolved on the battlefields of Ukraine. The Ukrainian drone operators participating in the exercise were easily able to spot and destroy US armored vehicles by mimicking the actions of dropping bombs from above or moving close enough to simulate a kamikaze strike, according to US officials and a participant who spoke with The Wall Street Journal.
** How do you market a restaurant?
** A big hiccup is moving through the global oil trade that’s likely to cause another surge in prices, especially in Asia, in the next few weeks. With oil tanker traffic out of the Gulf constricted over the past six months, higher exports from other countries, especially the US, have helped close the gap and keep prices lower. And there was an extra burst out of the Middle East during the short-lived ceasefire in June. Now the tankers that sprang out at that moment, including those from Iran, are reaching ports in Asia. A number of other factors have conspired to drive down the volume of crude “on water” — that is, in a tanker — faster over the past two weeks than at any point during the war, according to new data from the market intelligence firm Vortexa. So despite the US Navy’s efforts to push oil out along the Omani coast, “Hormuz is currently not really the problem.”
** Richard made a lot of enemies. Then again, things now are not so different than they were then. The same and not the same.
** The US military is reportedly shepherding 15 to 20 oil tankers in and out of the Gulf in scheduled convoys each night along a protected corridor that traces the southern edge of the Strait of Hormuz by Oman. Two US officials told Axios that close to 10 million barrels now exit the Gulf daily, though analysts cited by The New York Times put July flows on the protected routes closer to 5 million; prewar volumes were about 15 million. The US Navy has shepherded over 1,000 ships out of the strait since its efforts began in May, according to Central Command. As part of the operation, which followed a two-week military campaign aimed at degrading Iran’s maritime radar, ships typically switch off their transponders. It has not been safe, however: At least 15 ships on the route have been hit since June. “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps can be a nuisance, but they don’t control the strait. We do,” one US official told Axios.
** Men used to lie about their age to go to war. Now they lie about their gender to play in women’s sports.
** PUERTO LA CRUZ, Venezuela, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Venezuela’s dilapidated oil port terminals are imposing a de facto export cap on the country’s resurgent crude production, with tankers having to wait up to 30 days to load because of aging infrastructure, power outages and quality issues, according to shipping data, sources and documents.
Identify the Aircraft
1
Be careful with this one – seated side-by-side but not an Su-34
2
Identify the Ship
name and class if you’re able
3
4
End
3 is HMS Glasgow Town-class cruiser
Identify the Aircraft
1 – Sukhoi Su-27KUB
2 – Bréguet 521 Bizerte
Identify the Ship
3 – HMS Punjabi Tribal-class destroyer
4 – Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force JS Haruna
You ran the table. Outstanding.
“** PUERTO LA CRUZ”
Does there currently appear to be any one/country(CPR/U.S.)/company/conglomerate interested in updating Venezuela’s dilapidated oil port terminals? on the horizon?
Good question. Maybe this link will help…
https://globalenergymonitor.org/search?query=Venezuela#insights
-STA Lethal
TNX.
I’m usually trying to watch developments through Phinance Technologies as per for Hormuz transit:
https://phinancetechnologies.com/content/2026-7-8_Post-26%20-%20Inflation%20Oil%20shock%20-%20Hormuz%20closure%20part-4.pdf
Thank you, HogsbreathSS
NP
Dumb (first one anyhoo) question of the day:
re “Seneca Scouts” Artist: Robert Griffing
Why would any experienced rifleman dip the muzzle of his rifle into a wet environment?
The verb ‘cut’ in this instance was “first found in printed material in the June 1947 Esquire article “The Sign Cutters” by Charles B. Roth.” although it’s claimed to have been used at least a century earlier meaning “to check for signs of passage in/along a prepared drag path.”
They must be really good to catch sign in moving water.
If you’ve caught sign, perhaps you heard it as cut sign.
Not as often in the arid Southwest, but in East Coast forests and rainforests, you have moss that grows on mud in slowly moving water, and yes, you can track man or beast across that sort of surface. It’s impossible to cross without disturbing the moss and the mud underneath it. I’m not trying to be argumentative but I have taught classes (a number of years ago) in this in a military setting.
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Also see (first few chapters) Hunting in the Shadows by Mike Watson, where he discusses cutting for sign in his Australian Special Forces training.
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It is not a lost art because it’s valuable and it works, but the more cities encroach, the fewer people do it in their daily or professional lives. Advanced thermal equipment allows you to track man or beast across land they passed over some time (depending on ambient heat and other conditions) before. It’s why I caution preppers against relying on hiding from a modern adversary because tracking tech is very good with low light and thermal combined.
Good points.
I just learned the pronghorn is the fastest land mammal in North America, capable of reaching top speeds of up to 55–60 mph (88–96 km/h) and sustaining high speeds much longer than cheetahs.
They live near me and they are wicked fast. I’ve raced them in my truck and they’re COMFORTABLE at 55-60. I think that is close to their top end, but they can sustain it and look at you in your big truck with V8 engine roaring like you’re lame…I swear they do judge you.
They do judge, the smirk is evident.
They are as arrogant as elk – different but arrogant.
Warner Bros missed an opportunity.
Had an uncle who hunted them in western Nebraska. You needed good stealth skills and a good long range rifle.
You can also take some camo cover, hoist a stick with a white handkerchief on it, and wave it back and forth. They are curious beasts and will walk right up to you to investigate and you can pot them at close range. I have no desire to kill them, but that strategy works. It also works in the inner city if you bring a sista to twerk at an intersection (the same and not the same).
It’s not just cats that are killed by curiosity. Read about that white cloth on a stick back in the days of party lines.
Spot on…coming out of Sand Creek area SW of Laramie, watch the hunters hunched down this side of a grassy knoll ridge…drive a little ways, there’s the pronghorn one ridge over just put of sight, calm as can be. Hunters never caught up to them.
My subsistant hunter poacher kin use a different technique. Pronghorn seldom jump over fences and try to crawl under them. Using pickups, get them moving into a fenced corner. As they mill about trying to find somewhere to crawl under, pick them off at your leisure. Not sporting you say? My kin don’t care about anything but meat on the table. Nothing is shot just for sport as opposed to “hunters”.
A tasty way to cook pronghorn meat is to cut it into chunks and pressure cook it with some sour cream. Very tender and not dry.
re cutting sign anything that indicates the presence or passing of an animal. In water a footprint can often scrape algae off a rock or leave a depression in the sand. Abunch of cattle all standing still and looking at a particular clump of brush , or an animal running away from an area. I have seen Border Patrol pilots cut sign from a Super cub at 300 feet of groups of aliens that were going across the sand hills east of El Paso or a grass trail through otherwise undisturbed grass in a pasture. I have tracked aliens at a dead run at night in the gyp country east of Sierra Blanca. I have tracked groups of aliens( little bitty huarache tracks of Indians from interior of Mexico) and then they just disappeared. Muy coyote. It was a blast.
X2
Loved tracking as a young Boy Scout (old school Scout Handbook skills)…look at the shine through grass, the scraped rock, a snapped twig, various tracks and scat, etc….only takes a little time to re-hone the skill if not used in a while, then the natural world reveals itself…as I sit with my early morning coffee and watched two black bears locate chokecherrys for breakfast. (Best view of a bear is one from a distance going the other way, otherwise it’s high yellow alert when out and about.)
a couple of other things about sign cutting: once you have done it seriously and long enough as in the military or law enforcement, it becomes ingrained and you do it for the rest of your life and you are safer for it because you know more what is going on just from the tracks or marks in the dirt or at least that something happened there. Asan example you see a fresh snake track and you see which direction he was going, how big he was and was he in a hurry. If he is headed to your yard you might need to go look for him. Also you find more arrowheads and dropped coins.
😲
one last comment on “sign cutting”. If one of your friends comes up to you and says in a hushed voice “I cut sign on you last night at the XXX titty bar, you know it is going to be bad. The old timey way of saying FAFO.
Local county Search and Rescue teams get tracking training. They typically don’t have funds for fancy equipment and when the object of the search has assumed ambient temperature it’s back to old school methods.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Sukhoi Su-33UB
2. Bréguet 521 Bizerte
Identify the Ship:
3. Tribal-class destroyer. Pennant number C21 is HMS Glasgow though.
4. JS Haruna
3 – Yes, Tribal Class – HMS Glasgow. Well done!
I cut my own hair. I use a completion trimmer like they use on cows at the stock show ($175) with a long and short cut blades ($35 each). They are much much better than Walls. It is the only thing that will touch out triple coated Spinger Spaniel. I cut my hair blind then touch it up in the mirror.
Same here. But with a Wahl. #2.
Yep. #2 Guard also. The SECRET is to wash your hair, cut it. And then do it the next day to get all the stupid little hairs that avoided the cutting the first time.
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Not having to go into the office makes my hairstyle easy. Sadly the lack of heavy thatch on top means that even in the summer I have to wear a cap or cover of some sort inside as the friggin a/c vent blows right down on my head.
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You can also do a #2 on the sides and go with a #3 or 4 on top. Relatively easy to do if you have any sort of hand-eye coordination when looking in a mirror.
I’ve jumped pronghorn twice in Idaho, once in my work truck, the other on a side by side. Both times for about a mile and topped out at around 40 mph. Backed off so as not to place further stress on them. Beautiful animals. Also got caught up in a real cattle drive in one of the same areas. That was cool!
I don’t mind if the hair cutter has, sorry for this, a nice rack (and is female), but my overall grumpiness towards people makes it so much easier to just do it myself. See the note above.
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As to Richard the Lionheart, the man was a disaster to the English crown, basically bankrupting it, setting the stage for the breakup and loss of all continental properties and leaving the blame on John. Not saying John was a great king, good warrior, would have been better as a duke or king of only England, but Richard had the better publicity down the ages.
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Richard III, on the other hand, a much better king than Henry’s boy, but he got screwed by the French and the Tudors.