According to the sources, the procurement could possibly involve a new, upgraded variant called F-16G, described as an improved version of the Block 70 currently in production. Aviation Week reports that the new variant could include conformal fuel tanks, 600-gal. wing tanks, an infrared search and track (IRST) pod, a Sniper targeting pod, and a drag chute. We need to order several hundred.
Russians – Laundering for Fun and Profit
(h/t Financial Times, Claudio, Banking Info.) A Kremlin-backed forgery scheme moved $6.9bn through global banks. A massive data leak has revealed that A7, a Kremlin-backed fintech company, used an industrial-scale document forgery operation to move more than $6.9 billion through major global banks despite strict Western sanctions against Russia.
The operation, exposed by a Financial Times investigation based on hundreds of thousands of internal files, bypassed the SWIFT network cutoff using traditional money laundering, front companies, and counterfeit trade data. Some of the transactions directly funded sensitive Russian security services and military hardware, including night-vision scopes.
Following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Western nations restricted Russian banks from the SWIFT international messaging system. The Kremlin established and promoted A7—originally founded in Russia and Kyrgyzstan by Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor—as its flagship provider to keep cross-border import payments flowing.
To trick international compliance systems, A7 deployed a complex evasion mechanism: A7 set up a network of at least 100 active front companies (and mapped out 100 more) across the UAE, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan, and Indonesia. The network produced thousands of counterfeit invoices and fake shipping documents. Staff deliberately falsified customs codes and altered descriptions to bypass automated anti-money laundering (AML) checks. For instance, internal communications showed employees debating whether to disguise a purchase of military night-vision scopes as “shoes” or “glass,” ultimately choosing glass to avoid triggering red flags against the recipient’s payment history.
Heavily Impacted Global Banks
The leaked files spanning late 2024 through mid-2025 detail how billions flowed undetected through tier-one financial institutions:
| Bank / Entity | Funds Processed / Received | Details from the Investigation |
|---|---|---|
| First Abu Dhabi Bank (UAE) | $1.8+ billion | Outbound payments funneled through accounts opened for 17 different front entities. |
| Standard Chartered (Hong Kong) | $1.1 billion | Received by A7-linked accounts between late 2024 and August 2025. |
| DBS Group Holdings (Hong Kong) | $273 million | Flowed through client and transactional accounts. |
| Citigroup | $74 million | Received by Citigroup clients over the same time horizon. |
| Deutsche Bank (Europe) | $18 million | Processed on behalf of European clients linked to the network. |
| JPMorgan Chase | Undisclosed portion | Used by A7-linked entities to facilitate the cross-border movement of funds. |
Responses and Fallout
Following the leak, affected financial institutions scrambled to address the compliance failures. First Abu Dhabi Bank stated it has since identified and closed all A7-linked accounts flagged by the report. DBS stated it had no direct relationship with A7 but confirmed it took appropriate control actions against an implicated account holder. Standard Chartered, Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Deutsche Bank reiterated their strict commitment to AML reporting rules but declined to comment on individual client data.
VM Comment – The Russians constantly point an accusing finger at Ukraine as the center of organized crime activity in Eastern Europe, but I don’t think that the Ukrainians could teach the Russians anything. Are the Ukrainians a nexus for traditional criminal behavior? Of course they are. No secret there. Why do you think that Joe and Hunter Biden were so invested there (along with a number of other US politicians and their offspring – Nancy Pelosi, Mitt Romney and others both Dem and Rep)?
A Victory over the Weather?
Has the weather tax you’ve been paying – paid off? — Take a victory lap!
CRINK – was KAOS
The CRINK alliance is a geopolitical acronym standing for China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, coined by Western analysts to describe a loose, informal network of anti-Western nations. Unlike NATO, CRINK is not a unified or formal military alliance with mutual defense obligations for all four members (though individual bilateral ties exist, such as between Russia and North Korea). It functions more as an opportunistic alignment in which these authoritarian regimes cooperate on overlapping interests to challenge the U.S.-led international order. Russia’s war in Ukraine has significantly accelerated military, economic, and technological cooperation among the four countries. The nations frequently coordinate diplomatically and support each other’s narratives in international bodies, aligning within broader frameworks like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS.
Red China acts as a broker and conduit for trade with heavily sanctioned partners.
One interesting note is how little actual trust exists between CRINK’s members. It reminds me of the wary relationships between the La Cosa Nostra, Crips and Bloods, Mexican Cartels, Triads, and Biker Gangs in America. They all did business with each other at different levels, but without much love. As has been discussed on this blog before, it has recently been revealed that the Southern Poverty Law Center funded the local KKK to keep the enemy going for the purpose of fundraising. Like the relationship between the White Aryan Resistance (WAR), the American Nazi Party, and the Jewish Defense League. You wouldn’t think there would be interconnectivity, but there was, because it’s more about money than ideology. What ideological nexus is there between Iranian Shiite Twelvers, the atheist Red Chinese, and the Russian Orthodox Kremlin? The rats all circled around Venezuela until President Trump nixed that deal.
Like Gays for Gaza? Yes.
What exactly is MIDA – in Utah?
In 1993, Hill Air Force Base was in danger of being closed. According to Utah economic-development official Rick Mayfield, “Hill Air Force was the largest employer in the state. It was really the economy of Davis and Weber County.” Faced with the possibility of losing Hill, a grassroots lobbying group of local Utahns sprang into action. Their campaign helped keep Hill Air Force Base open and save an estimated 23,000 jobs.
But surviving one round of closures did not necessarily make Hill safe. Officials realized Hill’s best defense against another BRAC round was to increase its military value, since that is the primary factor the Pentagon considers when deciding which bases to close.
One way to increase that value was to put Hill’s underused land to work. Through a federal program, the Air Force could lease the federal land at Hill to private developers in exchange for money or new infrastructure. Hill found about 500 acres to develop, but the land crossed two counties and four cities, each with different rules, making development highly complicated. So, Utah created MIDA in 2007—one authority that could coordinate land use, taxes, and infrastructure on designated land, regardless of local policy. MIDA’s first project, Falcon Hill, helped turn underused land around Hill into a huge aerospace development and generated new infrastructure for the base.
After the first project’s success, lawmakers passed several laws that broadened what MIDA could do. In 2009, the legislature passed a law allowing MIDA to include private land in its project areas. A 2010 law, SB 124, sponsored by Sen. Jerry Stevenson (the same Sen. Stevenson on the MIDA board), gave MIDA the power to impose a resort communities tax. Then, a 2018 law, SB 240, with Sen. Jerry Stevenson as the chief sponsor, gave MIDA the power to impose an accommodations tax of up to 15% on lodging on government- or MIDA-owned property. In 2020, the same Sen. Jerry Stevenson sponsored SB 192, which let MIDA collect tax increment for up to 40 years instead of 25. Meaning as much as 75 cents of every new property-tax dollar can fund the MIDA project instead of going to the county or school district for four decades. In 2024, SB 169, also sponsored by Sen. Stevenson, authorized an additional resort sales tax and expanded where the 2018 accommodations tax of 15% could apply.
MIDA today operates much like its own city authority. MIDA’s board is appointed, and of its eight members, seven can vote: the governor chooses five, while the Senate president and House speaker each choose one. The eighth, nonvoting member comes from the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity. For the past eight years, Stuart Adams has served as both MIDA’s board chair and president of the Utah Senate.
Now MIDA is building a data center beyond the reach…
I’m not anti-data center. I think it’s the way forward for now. But the creep (see MIDA) is interesting.
Bullet Points:
** Whimsy of art and the art of whimsy in Nottingham, UK (Jules weighs in).
** In South Carolina – Charlotte City Councilwoman Tiawana Brown (right) was just sentenced to federal prison after being found guilty in a COVID relief fraud case. Brown’s attorney asked for probation, and prosecutors did not oppose that request, but the Judge denied the request and ordered prison. “These programs are set up at a time of great desperation for a lot of people,” said Judge Bell. “The public is tired of being ripped off.” (Chick with a stick?)
** President Donald Trump used his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to renew his attack on the International Maritime Organization’s Net-Zero Framework, accusing the UN shipping agency of attempting to impose a global carbon tax that would drive up transportation costs. “Last year, my administration was forced to intervene to stop an obscure U.N. body, the International Maritime Organization, from secretly establishing a first-ever global carbon tax,” Trump said, claiming the measure would raise international shipping costs by “10 to 20% — and maybe more than that.” “There is no global government,” Trump added. “And while I’m president, there will be no global taxes.” – Why are we still in the UN? Why do we pay one dollar a year to those brigands? The only exception I could think of would be if the UN designated the White Wolf Mine as the exclusive sales agent for carbon offsets and biodiversity credits – my hypocrisy has limits – but my pocketbook will accept $$ billions $$ from any source.
** Geneva-based trading house Mercuria just confirmed a $𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 to Project Vault, the Trump administration’s strategic reserve built to break America’s dependence on Chinese-controlled critical minerals. The announcement landed in New York during UN General Assembly week, with Mercuria joining Hartree Partners and Traxys as anchor suppliers. The U.S. Export-Import Bank approved a $𝟏𝟎 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐧 for the project back in February, on top of roughly $2 billion already lined up in private capital. China currently dominates processing for the rare earths and critical minerals that go into everything from fighter jets to EV batteries to your phone — and has shown it’s willing to weaponize that chokehold. Every dollar into Project Vault is a dollar Beijing can’t hold hostage later.
Identify the Ship
1
Class is ok.
2
3
Identify the Aircraft
4
Parting Shot
End
3 is HMS Veryan Bay
Exactly
(1) I’m going to go with an Ise class battleship, but it might be a Nagato. Hard to tell from that angle. IJN.
(2) Finnish Hamina class FAC.
(3) Perhaps a Castle class Corvette.
(4) Lavochkin La-5.
– Kle.
Ah, I see RCC has #3 correct, above.
-Kle.
Very good, Kle.
As I read about MIDA in Utah, I kept thinking how the Gotion Battery Plant and othe projects (windmills, solar, etc.) get shoved into communities.
And yes, Data Centers.
The wrong way of going about it.
That’s my point as well. I think that the anti-data center lobby is Chinese-driven. Most of the objections don’t seem to be well-founded. Water and coolant can be recycled in a closed system without much, if any, loss. Power can be generated specifically on site – or drawn from the grid if it is robust enough. MIDA is FedGov saying we’re building it, and you can rotate on it. Take that!
Have one here being ‘discussed’ and opposed. Montana is hugely rural, lots of open space to park a data center without concern. No one has asked my opinion on the ‘referendum’…yet…but I know how I’ll answer the ‘not in my backyard panic’ narrative.
There is one discussed near me. They want to burn hydrogen to power it and draw water from the aquifer to facilitate that. I’d rather see them use a SMR.
Sounds like an advisory position for you.
I had some small involvement with the water usage angle because of a position (unpaid) that I have, dealing with the water conservation angle and the aquifer (geology). The project stalled, and I am not sure where it stands right now. I didn’t oppose the data center, but I question hydrogen as a long-term power source compared with other options. Arizona Power Supply (APS) closed a huge coal power plant in Northern Arizona (Biden Regime) that could have supplied the power needed without draining the aquifer (somehow a green initiative because carbon isn’t involved).
The United States weaponized the dollar by negating $284 billion of Russian held US Treasuries.
Worst mistake ever made in the history of all countries. Now, nobody trusts the US as they all know full well that the US will steal their money if they disagree with the US.
That the Russians are stealing it back is no surprise.
And every central bank on the planet is buying gold hand over fist so they they do not become victims of US thievery.
The US froze $284 billion in Russian assets. Russia did not hold hundreds of billions in U.S. Treasuries when the U.S. froze the assets. The Central Bank of Russia aggressively dumped roughly 84% of its American debt holdings around 2018. Moscow deliberately liquidated its U.S. Treasuries to shield its financial system from anticipated Washington sanctions, diversifying instead into gold, Chinese yuan, and euros. Critics and central bankers globally argue that these actions may ultimately accelerate “de-dollarization,” as non-Western nations increasingly seek alternative currencies to avoid potential asset freezes by Washington.
.
In 2024, the U.S. passed the REPO Act, granting the president authority to officially confiscate the $5 billion held in U.S. jurisdictions to aid Ukraine. The European Union does not legally confiscate the core assets but transfers the interest profits generated by the frozen billions to fund Ukrainian defense and reconstruction. We can split hairs over what belonged to whom and whether authority exists to “repurpose” the fund’s interest primarily held by the EU.
Note: The median price of a home/residential dwelling in Northern Virginia is $660,000. Assuming that number is correct, $5 billion represents about 7,500 homes. Falls Church, VA, has ~6,585 housing units (~6,273 households). So $5 billion roughly (very roughly) equals the residential value of a small suburban city in Northern Virginia.
.
I’m not trivializing $5 billion but the state of Virginia operates on a two-year budget cycle, and the newly enacted 2026–2028 biennial budget totals $205 billion. So a small fraction of the operating budget of a mediumish US State. It could be Virginia’s slush fund.
.
U.S. National Intelligence Program (NIP) requested $81.9 billion for Fiscal Year 2026 as reported by the Federation of American Scientists. That is the white budget. The black budget is significantly higher.
>The median price of a home/residential dwelling in Northern Virginia is $660,000.
Fair enough. There is however a school of thought that the entire world, not least ordinary Americans, would be far better off if 90% of NOVA (and the corresponding part of Maryland, and of course WDC itself) simply ceased to exist. If you’re feeling generous, imagine them all raptured to heaven. Or the other place.
—
>Worst mistake ever made in the history of all countries.
I dunno about that. Pretty sure we had the “hold my beer” event in February and we have not even begun to see the full scope of the downstream events.
BabBee could do a BtK parody where he says to his adversary, ‘You want fries with that?’ BOOM!
***
Charlotte City Councilwoman Tiawana Brown: Speaks to my ‘What’s in a name?’ aspect. Apparently ‘Tiawana’ believed she was entitled to Covid as reparations…or…she could simply be an entitled scumbag. Good on the judge who likely is seeing these ‘thieves in suits’ cases emerging across the co7ntry and got tired of the thievery…despite the weak prosecutor/DA.
…unfortunately on that happy note, not all judges are good or moral, in fact it appears many are activists or operatives working against our duly elected President.,which should be prosecutable:
“U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted CNN, MS Now, and Politico a temporary restraining order (TRO) and demanded President Donald Trump restore their access to the White House.”
Heard this on the ‘news’ yesterday and being discussed by the watcher pontificators…what a bunch of baloney, as they scream ‘1A Rights!”. Yeah…my Heinz 57 rear-end to that baloney. You want access to ‘report’ (😖) then quit the attack on our (again) duly-elected
President and his A-Team. PDJT needs to put a street sign up at the Press door: GOA WAY.
Hope he ignores this judge who has no say in the matter.
President Trump could do a Biden every day and call a lid. Or just create a different “pool” to draw from and CNN could get their feed from the new pool. Or CNN could report news fairly. What a concept.
When you take a privilege and turn it into your personal activist operation you lose the privilege. Alt-Media is replacing the Swamp outfits…they are in the death roll but don’t know it…can’t come fast enough.
See parting shot: Is Trump anti chicken since he wants to eat their young?
Can’t have a rational discussion with an irrational person, and there is an increasing number of irrational people out there emerging from the woodwork…something in the food or water.
“Parting Shot”
“I had bacon and eggs for breakfast.”
So you’re saying: “Kill all Muslims”?
The bacon part is telling. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
To those who consider bacon verboten…much appreciated, that’s more for the rest of us.
More than several years back my youngest, teaching in Dubai, was going out with a good-looking, super intelligent Arab whose family were (Muslim) refugees from Lebanon; he was in import/export and took off time to visit us in Oreegoon with her during the school holidays.
On Sunday I made breakfast: dozen eggs scrambled a la boron, couple pounds of bacon rendered crispy, and (I’d found a place to get Brooklyn deli) rye toast.
“The bacon’s done perfectly,” I said as we were passing the serving plates around.
He answered “I really don’t like the taste.”
Uh-oh, I thought, I’d sooner she date a Khussid or, better yet, a nice religious Sicilianu; I’ll have to have a word with her.
Doesn’t like bacon. Humph! My Aunt Bettie!
“Why do you think that Joe and Hunter Biden were so invested there (along with a number of other US politicians and their offspring – Nancy Pelosi, Mitt Romney and others both Dem and Rep)?”
The main reason I don’t support Ukraine … as I support nothing for which those dweebs you mention are in favor. And since I don’t believe the Russians are more than a possible regional threat, I don’t concern myself much with them either (although I would like to visit the Hermitage in St Petersburg). And against the crowd, I favor “friendly” relations with the Russians more than many of our other so-called allies. Like any of the sand (spit!) people.
>”friendly” relations with the Russians
Never! Russians must suffer forever because of … oh so many reasons.
The Pale of Settlement;
Surviving the USSR;
And most recently, for finally starting to emerge from the long economic shade cast by the epic looting of the country by “oligarchs” under the benevolent oversight of the Best and Brightest economists and pundits from Harvard and its sister gate-keeping institutions.
How dare those Russians? Survived the Bolsheviks. Survived the first wave of oligarchs and their Harvard (Yale, Columbia, etc) enablers. And now surviving the Kaganite (Nuland) neocon war. How DARE those borscht-swilling, bear humping, vodka soaked untermenschen?
We here in Florida had the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was a big payola move to keep Disney interested in developing here. Basically an autonomous (from county or state) self-taxing feif covering a large bit of land.
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Started out as a nice idea, got Disneyworld and Disney Corporate set up here.
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And then mission creep set in. And then mission flood set in.
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H1B visas taking over everything? Only the Feds could potentially stop that, and they didn’t.
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Grooming gangs and child porn/child sex rings? Amazing how employees embroiled in said sick perversions were hidden on Disney property, from county, state and fed law enforcement.
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Using the vast power of the Disney empire to try to control what the governor and state legislature could do. That was the last straw. Disney didn’t expect DeSantis and the Florida Legislature to kill their golden goose, but it’s dead now.
Same thing with Utah. Mission creep, outright exceeding the purported scope of the concept. And it will be hard to kill, oh so hard to drive a stake through its evil little heart as we all know a small but significant amount of money is flowing through backchannels to various Utah politicians to keep the grift going.
X2