Bullet Points:
** Barack Obama awarded Pearson Publishing $350 million to create the Common Core curriculum. After leaving office, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pearson Publishing paid Obama $65 million for a book deal. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s what happened with FTX in its laundering scheme with Ukraine. That’s how things work in the Swamp.
** I guess nobody else has read the Arthur C. Clarke story, The Ghost from the Grand Banks, about an effort to raise the Titanic which culminates with a submarine imploding at that exact location?
** My handguns are no longer handguns. They now self-identify as cordless hole punchers and as such are not regulated by the Federal Government.
** Reporters want to recover bodies after the explosive decompression of the Titan tour sub. (more here)
From The Long March (yesterday)
How many billions does it take to buy a mercenary army? Enough to split with Pooty and still retire once the check clears?
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How much influence on Wagner does the CCP have?
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Ed, I’d think very little. The Chinese operate in a different way. I was on the phone explaining to a colleague how they organize private efforts. The Chinese military, the PSB (police) and the Ministry of State Security (secret police and overseas intelligence collection activity) all own hotels, brothels and other “private ventures”. They undertake fentanyl trafficking and engage in computer crimes and bank frauds. That money makes its way into private hands within the halls of the military, police, etc as well as being a funding mechanism. Foreign thefts are laundered to obfuscate the movement of those funds.
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I wanted to share that exchange today for your info.
A Russian private military company is self-sustaining just like any other company (or a PMC run by Brits, Americans or South Africans). In the case of the Russians, state funds were used to incubate Wagner Group because it was used globally as a state actor as well as a profit center for the oligarchs attached to it including Vladimir Vladimirovich.
The FTX scandal outlined how the US Permanent State (Swamp) launders tax funds back to Democrats but there are a number of ways that happens. FTX wasn’t a one-off. The Chinese do it in a distinctive and different Chinese way as do the Russians, who do it in a way with a Russian flair.
California vs Japan
Meme-of-the-Day
Water
An infinite number of genders…
This Day in History
1572 years ago today in 451, King Theodoric and his riders defeat Atilla The Hun in the Battle of Catalaunian Plains.
Nearly 75 years before this in 376 AD, hundreds of thousands of Visigoths and Ostrogoths sought refuge from the Huns within the Eastern Roman Empire. But they were not peaceful, raiding and sacking the Balkans, Gaul, and Italy. The Goths managed to kill the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens and destroy his legions. His successor Theodosius I was able to make a deal with the Goths in 382, but not from a position of strength. A Roman civil war broke out in 392 and Theodosius’s victory would make him the last emperor to briefly rule the entire Roman Empire. But his death in 394 brought the permanent division of Eastern and Western Roman Empire until 547 AD. The Huns would continue to invade and be offered generous peace treaties by the Romans throughout the next few decades. The Huns also ransacked and conquered all the German provinces that Rome had struggled with for centuries.
Atilla the Hun was at the head of a large horde from the Great Hungarian Plain, and his invasion began in 440 AD crossing the Danube River. The Roman Empire was unable to deal with the crisis as they were in the middle of a war with the Vandals in Carthage. And the Huns use of siege weapons and superiorly mounted troops would capture cities in a quick succession never seen before. Atilla was only stopped by the complex fortifications around Constantinople, famously known as the Theodosian Walls, which would continue to protect the city for another 1000 years. Atilla left the city in 447 AD accepting tribune payments. He would invade Rome again in 451 AD after tribune payments stopped.
Flavius Aetius was a Roman general born in 390 AD. He spent his childhood amongst the Huns as a hostage and would use his influence with them to defeat the Eastern Roman Empire in a civil war. For this Aetius was given a prominent military position in the Western Roman Empire. And he began his career as one of the last great military leaders in Western Roman history with numerous campaigns against barbarians across the provinces. Aetius was merciful to many of the barbarians he defeated because he was aware that the greatest threat to Rome and all of Europe was the Huns. One of the famous benefactors of his mercy was the Visigoth King Theodoric I.
Theodoric was also born in 390 AD, a son of Visigoth King Alaric I who infamously sacked the city of Rome in 410 AD. Theodoric became king in 418 AD and a few years later invaded Italy. He was defeated by the Romans and was mercifully ordered to migrate his people into Gaul. There the Goths had their own independent kingdom, with the condition that if the time came. They would answer Rome’s call to war against their common enemy the Huns.
The call from Rome came in the spring of 451AD when King Theodoric was old in age. Atilla began his invasion from Germany into Gaul. It was uncertain if Theodoric and his riders would answer Rome’s call for aid. Going to war for such tribal people came at great risk. The warriors riding into almost certain death wasn’t just the end of their lives. But it also implicated the ruin of their families who would be left defenseless in the aftermath. It could become the world’s end for their people. But Theodoric personally answered the call, and his mounted warriors were critical in balancing the upcoming fight.
Atilla was halted sieging the city of Orleans in early June. Aetius was enroute with his army of Romans, Franks, and Goths. Both sides are estimated to have fielded 40,000-50,000 soldiers each. The battle began with Atilla sending his mounted archers to the Roman infantry who took the main brunt of the attack. Theodoric and his riders were positioned on the Roman’s right. It was here that Theodoric rode across the front of his men giving them a rousing speech. He then personally led a charge into the Huns where his horse was killed, and his body trampled. Laying on the battlefield with a broken body, a Hun came up to the king and killed him with a spear.
The King’s heir, Thorismund came upon the scene and was notified of the news. Many men in his position would have found an excuse to abandon danger and survive the failing battle. But Thorismund was taken with rage when he saw the king’s body. He reformed the Visigoth cavalry and led another charge in a critical moment of the battle. Atilla’s forces retreated, and his “aura of invincibility” shattered for the rest of his life.
The Western Roman Empire would still come to an end 25 years later in 476 AD.
***
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
3
The Ghost from the Grand Banks. Have not heard of it prior to you mentioning it. On the reading list for this coming winter though. As an aside, other than some experience with the “sticks”, the central cores of the B2 rotary launcher, I am pretty ignorant of all things carbon fiber. I do remember how, if there was a small nick in the material we had to pull the launcher from service. My son has a lot of experience though and was mentioning the material was not at its best when used in compression.
Wagner. Maybe just my suspicious nature and I claim no particular expertise in the matter but I suspect that the entire invasion of Russia was a setup by Putin et all to flush out the traitors to his cause. Just seems suspicious that Putin would let an enemy go. I can see Wagner forming up in Belarus and opening up another front to the war though.
As always, another concise and valuable history lesson. Thank you.
re: Wagner. Normally, it has been ‘If you shoot at the king, you had better not miss’ and I don’t know that I am seeing that…at least so far. There is a lot of things about this that seem a little off. Meeting between the parties just a week or so before it lit off…minimal casualties and damage…Did they just move an army in plain sight from Southern Ukraine to Belarus and the US/UK/et. al. were cheerleading the move?
That is my take on it. And Putin recently moved tactical nukes to Belarus as well.
Interesting times.
Moved, but under control of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces.
Too much crap news (or too little real information) to tell what is really happening…2-3 days min to rest up, re-fuel, repair, after a road march like that I would think. Are there Russian Arty, Armor, Mech assets in southern Belarus available to support a drive on Kiev this weekend? Or will we read about the Wagner boss having an accident? Starting to sound like a novel Larry. :>)
Life in 2023 makes it difficult to write fiction.
Writing History in 2023 reads like ScFi….
#1 Looks similar to the “Schwalbe.” Coincidence?
https://sensha-manual.blogspot.com/2020/05/kikka-2.html
plane 1….Nakajima kikka
Thanks Bob and =TW= right on.
Take a stab at the other two.
Reporters/Titan: Proving once again our education system is seriously lacking. How they could not know that the five are fish food is beyond my comprehension. That, along with why anyone – supposedly smart people – would get bolted into a craft that was questionable at best.
Reporters, from my experience, are not always the sharpest knives in the drawer. I don’t know what they teach in modern journalism, but research seems to be unimportant.
IDA:
1.) Nakajima Kikka jet fighter
2.) Vickers Supermarine Seafang
3.) Boeing 307 Stratoliner
Yes, you ran the table!
The Boeing 307 was a B-17, modified for passenger travel. I would have wanted to keep the bomb bay doors to rid myself of annoying passengers…ok, for the squeamish among you, I’d have given them parachutes and would have rigged static lines. Where’s the Lord High Executioner when you need him.
The last surviving 307, having just completed a multi-year restoration project at Boeing, ditched shortly after take-off from Boeing Field on its way to the Smithsonian collection. Ran out of gas. Ooopsie doesn’t even begin to describe that little oversight. Thankfully, Boeing agreed to restore it, again. I saw it a few years ago and it looks really nice.
https://www.historylink.org/File/3740
plane 2…Mk 24 Spitfire??
Close, but not a trick question. The Seafang was an evolved Spit.
The problem with the scientist meme is Not Enough Diversity.
Put some sassy Black women on the team and we’ll have a self-sustaining Mars colony before the end of 2025. If those sassy Black wimmin are lesbians or non-binary then we’ll have FTL capability within 10 years. On account of them being good with numbers you see. Just like in the movie.
It’s a well known fact that all Negros are natural mathematicians. The Jewish, white and East Asian dominance of the Fields Medal is simply proof of the triple entente of systemic racism perpetrated by the matzoh/whitebread/riceball Mafiya (sic). Step aside, Schlomo, Chad and Wei, it’s time for Johnmarvalious, Quanjavis (“Boochie”) and Detravious to have their turn. (Actual names. I did not make this up.)
Too bad Attila’s empire was sqanderd by his sons. Wish there were more officers/Generals in our current military like Attila. I’m sure not everyone would agree with that but I digress. The Seafang does look a lot like the Spitfire. That’s tripped me up before. The Wagner chief is on the FBI’s most wanted list for a litany of charges. Some of those charges having to do with the 2016 elections. I wonder where the number three is for the IAD 🤔. Probably hanging out at Martha’s vineyard. I have to agree with Paul M on education system. I couldn’t help but laugh when the Coast Guard admiral was giving his press conference and some reporter asked if there was going to be any recovery efforts for the bodies.
The current President of Hungary is a lot like his Hun ancestor.
Viktor Orbán is more conservative and rational and grounded in Biblical tenet than most of our Republicans.
The wings and fuselage are quite Spitish, but then I remembered the narrow tread on the Spit’s landing gear and the wide stance on the photo let me know it was not a Spit – at least I didn’t jump in and get it wrong.
“Remains”…
IDK, maybe if someone was in one of the endcaps, they might find part of a femur, or something?
Maybe some teeth?
People have essentially zero grasp of physical reality, anymore. “Reporters”, even less so.
-Kle.
Maybe gold fillings?
People use those epoxy fillings these days unless you’re a Russian Vor thug.
“The one good thing that’s ever come my way. Taken. Stolen. Vor does mean thief. And you goddamn Barrayaran thieves stick together, all right.”
-Memory (Lois McMaster Bujold)
So Duv Galeni’s angry rant was right!
Maybe. They’re 12000 feet down as part of a debris field.
Pureed! Seriously nothing left except DNA. One of my careers was as a fishery gear designer, and I know from experience what the pressure can do. We sent some heavy wall PVC tube with end caps down a measly 500 feet or so, when they went they blew most of the fragments right through the heavy nylon net bag We hoped would contain the pieces for analysis. For deep flotation we used a syntactic foam of glass microballoons in a resin matrix, it was pretty reliable at 3000 feet, but if any big air bubbles snuck into the mix we’d get chunks of foam in a debris field at the surface rather than getting our gear back.
To reference my earlier post…
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/counterintelligence
1. That photo of Prigozhin looks like Jason Statham with a hangover.
2. Check out the gourd on that “Ming Chunde” person. I’m not even sure that’s a human being, what with that freakishly globular head. Maybe Area 51 should inventory their holdings. I’m thinking an alien has escaped. (Or it could be a bad haircut.)
Some photos make the idea of extraterrestrials mating with humans seem plausible.
I heard that exchange between Kennedy and “that one”, immediately thinking those on The left are actually very stupid people and so mental they can’t even say “two sexes” because doing so completely destroys their tone deaf bubbled world view that drives their destructive agenda’s.
Good grapic of what happened to the Titan. Anybody who relies on Carbon Fiber structures in compression deserves what they get.
Bodies? There are no bodies. Maybe some incompressible things like bones or teeth, but the rest has been turned into a cloud of red water….
Gotta love Senator Kennedy! He ‘plays’ the cornpone country hick well… But he’s definitely NOT one!
I agree with drjim. And NFO, and, dammit, everyone else.
Feel bad for the people, not least the 19 year old, who died. RIP.
They’re on the other side now, doing whatever people do there.
I heard a sonar recording supposedly of the implosion, silence for 5 seconds then a loud clang sounding like a big metal sledgehammer hitting a giant brass gong, then echoes of the clang every 6-8 seconds for about ten clangs. Very chilling if it was real.