About a Mile out – Put on the Music

Caption: Make it a Romeo Foxtrot! Shall we dance?

Bullet Points:

** Some day this war’s gonna end…you either surf or fight, and if I say it’s safe to surf this beach, it’s safe to surf this beach!

** 60% of the time, it works every time.

** Naval undersea warfare is changing, my friends. A containerized heavyweight torpedo delivered via an UUV will make an effective area-denial weapon.

** Australia has its Ghost Shark – UUV deployments will populate the choke points. Then there will be anti-UUVs.

** Blackbeard is back at sea. Hypersonic this time. (h/t Claudio) Developed by California-based defense startup Castelion, Blackbeard is a compact, low-cost long-range hypersonic strike weapon designed specifically for high-rate mass production. Engineered from inception for industrial scalability rather than low-volume demo programs, Blackbeard features vertically integrated propulsion and guidance systems optimized to achieve speeds exceeding Mach 5 with an operational strike range of up to 500 nautical miles (approx. 800 km). Call the ship carrying them the Adventure Galley…

** Buying a firearm in Arizona (youtube). Cleaning out the local bar in Ft. Worth.

Prendre des vacances Afrique (Fr)

Blue: French-speaking Africa

An African vacation is the antidote for civilization. There was another outbreak of Ebola, a viral disease found mainly in African countries south of the Sahara Desert. In untreated cases, the mortality rate is about 90 percent. With treatment, the fatality rate is cut in half. The current outbreak began in February and spread slowly until May, when it was officially declared an Ebola outbreak. Confirmed cases have reached 4,400, with more than 2,000 dead. This outbreak has killed more people, more quickly than any other. This includes the 2014-16 outbreak in West Africa that generated 28,000 cases with nearly 12,000 deaths.

In neighboring Uganda, there was an Ebola outbreak in May, and it was quickly contained; there were two deaths and only 20 people were infected. In Congo, the death toll was expected to reach at least two thousand. With about as many Ebola patients surviving, this would be the third largest toll since records were first maintained over a century ago, and the 17^th Ebola outbreak in DR Congo. Since the 1970s, Ebola has killed over 50,000 people in Africa.

The Russians have their Africa Corps operating in West Africa. (youtube) That may comfort vacationers. Claudio said that he didn’t want to go to Africa on vacation. That sounds racist to me. Recently, Mali soldiers and the Russian Africa Corps have been accused of kidnapping or executing numerous Fulani tribesmen. Nearly 20 Fulani were killed and over 80 kidnapped. These operations were part of an effort to halt the movement of Muslim Fulani horsemen and their raids against Christian farmers in the north. The Russians are fighting the Fulani and Islamic terrorists to gain an edge in obtaining gold mining permits. Meanwhile, the government is demanding more money from foreign gold-mining companies. As a result, most mining operations have been shut down until a new tax arrangement is reached. Mali is the world’s third-largest gold producer.

In February, two mass graves were found containing the bodies of 172 people the M23 rebels had killed. Last year, the Congolese Army continued to confront M23 rebels in North Kivu province. The ceasefire negotiated in early 2023 with M23 broke down in late 2023. Fighting intensified in early 2024. By May 2024, fighting with M23 had displaced an estimated 1.7 million people. In June 2024, an M23 unit threatened to attack Goma. Most of the North Kivu combat between government forces and M23 occurs near or along the Congo-Rwanda border, where Goma is on the border. Congo claims the Rwandan government backs M23 and has threatened to attack Rwanda, which denies the charge. In June 2024, UN observers estimated up to 3,000 Rwandan Army soldiers were deployed in North Kivu. Tribal loyalties play a major role in this conflict. Rwandan Tutsis dominate Rwanda’s government. M23 is dominated by ethnic Tutsis from eastern Congo. Congolese Tutsis are often referred to as Banyamulenge Tutsis. The term originally referred to ethnic Tutsis from a specific area in South Kivu province but has come to mean any ethnic Tutsis who live in Congo.

Congo recently suffered yet another disaster when Rwanda-based M23 rebels captured Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu province. As of late 2025, M23 violated a peace treaty between Congo and Rwanda and renewed their offensive while continuing to hold Goma. M23 operations in the area led to over a million displaced civilians, causing a breakdown in local medical care and government in general.

Félix Tshisekedi, the President since 2019, easily won the presidential and National Assembly elections at the end of 2023. Tshisekedi won because he had made considerable efforts to implement economic improvements that raised the standard of living for many Congolese. He was less successful in dealing with the growing threat from the M23 militia in eastern Congo, where the mining operations are.

Tshisekedi, who had just defeated then-President Kabila in an election, was a remarkable feat because the former president had enriched himself with corrupt dealings. The worst corruption was in eastern Congo, including Ituri, North and South Kivu provinces, and the southern Katanga province. These provinces are where foreign firms mine and export valuable minerals. The Congo government should have prospered from royalties earned from these foreign operations. Unfortunately, many of these foreigners, especially the Chinese, found it easier and cheaper to bribe key local officials and then do as they pleased. These corruption payments also enriched many Kabila allies in parliament. Once in office, Tshisekedi took on Kabila and his powerful parliamentary coalition. Tshisekedi found allies in the UN and among donor countries and blocked Kabila’s efforts to hide his corrupt activities while president. By 2021, the mining contracts Kabila agreed to with China were being audited. The audits found evidence of extensive wrongdoing by Kabila and China, which led to the loss of those contracts. Kabila is very much on the defensive, as are his cronies in parliament and the courts.

In eastern Congo’s North Kivu province, thousands of people have been driven from their homes because of rebel and Islamic terrorist violence. Most of the violence has been caused by the Allied Democratic Forces/ADF rebels. This is a Ugandan organization with strong connections to Muslim tribes in northern Uganda. In fact, since 2014 it has been regarded as an Islamist group. Peacekeepers launched several operations in 2014 against ADF bases in Congo. The 2014 operations weakened the ADF but did not eliminate it. After the massive 2014 anti-ADF operation, the ADF was found to still have around 500 fighters in Congo. Its bases near the Ugandan border could have supported up to 2,000 fighters. Interrogators spoke with several captured ADF fighters who reported that the ADF had a very active recruitment network in East Africa. The ADF made money smuggling illegal timber in the form of logs. This is a major source of income because most of it was from rare and exotic trees. The ADF also enforced its own interpretation of Islamic or sharia law. ADF fighters enslaved Congolese women and children who were not Muslim. If someone was caught trying to escape from an ADF camp, they faced death by beheading or crucifixion. Such practices were popular among Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/ISIL groups in Syria, Iraq and Nigeria, but there is no evidence that ADF considers itself part of ISIL. ADF justifies its use of slavery and brutal forms of execution by claiming to be defending Islam from Christians. Over 90 percent of Congolese are Christian.

Are you as tired of hearing about Africa as everyone else is? (not a Facebook link)

I’m not saying YOU should leave– it’s a free country. But…

There is an appetite to take all you have. Those who vote left won’t have much left once the communists have looted them. There isn’t much middle ground in this war. Claudio and family made their NYExit. He said that he was happy to be gone. His family visited with me twice during their time in the US (before they returned to Italy).

Health Insurance

During President Trump’s first term, he said he would implement legislation to make all insurance plans available across jurisdictional boundaries to lower costs. He doesn’t say that now. Health insurance is political. As an aside, I’m content with my current health insurance premium and care. Is it perfect? No. But I grew up without health insurance, so it’s certainly an improvement over that. Is the cost reasonable? Yes. Do I like MediCare? No. But there’s not anything I can do about it. There are many parts of the US where the small regional hospitals can’t break even. I’m not sure why that is, but I can guess that it has to do with insurance issues – both that which the hospital must pay and that which patients must have. I don’t have a solution.

Russia

Tucker Carlson said that he spoke to a Russian close to Putin who said that Russia will launch a preemptive nuclear strike against England and Germany in two years. Britain is unarmed for all intents and purposes and is helpless. Doing that was a conscious act on their part. If the Muslims don’t take over more completely than they already have, Russia promises to wipe them out.  They become a caliphate. Take your pick. The same goes for Germany.

Are we living in a Dr. Strangelove alternate universe? Why did I put a trailer for the Coyote vs ACME movie in the middle of a credible threat by Dr. Evil to blow up Big Ben? Life imitates art.

Identify the Submarine

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Deployed from a drydock shelter…

End