Caption: Since the world’s governments (and everyone else on the planet) can track your cell phone, leaving it and your connected watch behind isn’t necessarily bad. I know that it’s comfortable to be connected. Pro Tip – Bring a burner in a Faraday bag like a security blanket.
Not the Highway to Hell?
The Hartashen Megalithic Avenue, hidden deep in Armenia’s rugged terrain, is one of the world’s forgotten ancient wonders. Believed to be 6,000 to 8,000 years old, this mysterious site consists of towering stone monoliths meticulously aligned across the landscape. Was it a ceremonial path? An ancient observatory? Its true purpose remains a mystery.
Unlike Stonehenge or other famed sites, Hartashen has escaped the spotlight of mainstream archaeology, its secrets still buried beneath the soil. The towering stones, standing guard over the landscape, hint at a forgotten civilization with a sophisticated grasp of space and ritual. Yet, despite its age and potential significance, Hartashen remains largely unexcavated and unexplored.
Ok, it might be the highway to hell. Nobody can say for sure. Ever since the State of Arizona changed the designation of Highway 666 because everyone stole the road signs – finding the actual Highway to Hell has been challenging. Maybe the best thing to do is find a highway paved with good intentions – sort of reverse psychology in the metaphorical Waldo search.
Russian Railway Woes
(Strategypage – h/t Claudio) After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, most Western ball bearings suppliers ceased filling Russian orders. This caused a significant shortage in Russia as it shifted its trains to relatively new coil bearings, none produced in Russia. Since ball bearings are used in automotive equipment, which includes tanks and other armored vehicles, these vehicles received priority because Russia needed weapons for its troops in Ukraine. This was a higher priority than supplying Russian railroads. In the last few years, this ball-bearing shortage for Russia’s state-owned and operated railroads has gradually reduced service. By 2024, the Russian railroads were much less capable of moving people or freight over the vast Russian railroad system. Essential long-distance routes like the Trans-Siberian line also felt these disruptions. The net result of all this is a sharp reduction in the ability of the Russian military to move men, weapons, equipment, and supplies by rail. Trucks, canal boats, high seas shipping, and airfreight could not compensate for the loss of railroad capacity even if they had enough ball bearings, but they don’t because they now suffer from ball bearing shortages, too. Read the entire article here.
If you’re not a Russian (or perhaps a Canadian who lives in the north country), it’s difficult to appreciate the difficulty of moving anything during the winter without railroads. Russian roads outside major cities such as Moscow or St. Petersburg are not maintained to a standard that allows for rapid transit by large trucks (18 wheels), even in good weather. Russia currently observes eleven time zones, ranging from UTC+02:00 to UTC+12:00. It is a vast country. The spring and autumn rasputitsas make any road that’s not paved impassable, and there are many unpaved roads in Russia mainly because of its traditional reliance on rail transportation.
When in the Course of Human Events…
(h/t DS) Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
We are at that point. I say this without emotion because it is obvious. Just as sunset here is a sunrise on the other side of the world, the deep state’s plan to dissolve this republic will lead to a new government, and likely, an emperor will arise.
The deep state believes it will be in charge of this new empire, and maybe it will. History indicates that is a possibility. They asked Patton after the war why he hired so many Nazis, and he said that they were the only ones who got things done.
The leadership of this banana republic is betting on that, but a prudent man does not leave his life to chance. There is a distinct possibility that this deep state will collapse like a sinkhole — suddenly and intensely — taking this deep state with it.
The Soviet Union collapsed like the house of cards it was in just two years after Lieutenant Colonel Harald Jaeger, who was in charge of East German border guards, decided to let East Berliners walk into West Berlin. It was the darnedest thing. East Germany’s border was invaded by West German TV, which showed peace, prosperity, and freedom.
Our border is invaded by criminals, mainly from Venezuela and Central America.
Last week, Denver’s NBC affiliate reported, “A video showing people carrying guns in a hallway of an Aurora apartment complex is making the rounds on social media and conservative media outlets with the narrative that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is taking over the building.
“In an interview Thursday with 9NEWS, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said the situation is being exaggerated.”
Yesterday, another Denver station reported, “Aurora mayor wants to shut down apartment complex with Venezuelan gang activity.”
Why do we have a government anyway? Why do we pay high taxes if they can’t defend us from illegal alien gangs that the Federal Government embraces with open arms?
The destruction is physical. Democrats just destroyed the largest four dams in California, saying they wanted to save some fish. Bullshit. A million fish died as the water ran downstream. Democrats want to make California as inhospitable to decent middle-class Americans as possible to have a more dependent populace that Democrats can control.
They envision a future in the pup tents that line the streets and the invaders who control apartment complexes, live in luxury hotels, and vote Democrat.
Bullet Points:
** You fight the war with the weapons you have on hand, not the ones you wish you had. Two is one, and one is none.
** When you have more years behind you than you have in front of you, you begin to think differently.
** More from Jules.
Meme of the Day
Identify the Building – pictured right.
I know that you know what the building to the left is.
Identify the Aircraft
1
5,753 built in a fighter configuration (2 graphics to aid your identification)
Armament: 2 × cowl-mounted 20 mm ShVAK cannons with 200 rounds per gun
or 3 × cowl-mounted 20 mm Berezin B-20 cannons with 100 rounds per gun.
2
Not the same aircraft as #1 above (different Soviet design bureaus)
Fitted with Shvetsov ASh-82FN radial engine with 1,380 kW (1,851 hp) to increase performance while avoiding the overheating problems of VK-107 and VK-108.
End
One is a Russian Lavochkin La-7
Ball Bearing- some things never change. In the WW2 “documentary series” Hogans Heroes they were always trying to destroy the ball bearing factory near Düsseldorf
Yes, it’s a La-7. Good job.
*
At one point, the Russians were cannibalizing unused rail stock from lesser-used railroad spurs and repurposing the high-carbon steel from rails for ballbearings. I guess that they’re running out of that option now, too. They have some of the old armor from tanks that can be repurposed, but even the T-55s are shipped to the Ukraine Front, where they’re used as self-propelled guns. Maybe they can be towed off and stripped of the metal once destroyed?
Two is a Yakovlev Yak-3 also Russian.
Yes. It’s as if the design bureaus were working diligently to copy each other.
Identify the Building:
Saint Basil’s Cathedral
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Lavochkin La-7
2. Yakovlev Yak-3U (based on description)
Yakovlev Yak-3UPW (based on photo)
The photo of the Yak is that of an “aftermarket” replica. Good ID, Surly, good call.
Hmmmm……walls around the Vatican, walls around the Kremlin? Hmmm….. you reckon walls work? Maybe if we had walls and a Swiss Guard of mercenaries…Hmmmm.
California capital building in Sacramento, ain’t it?
Dammit. I meant the building to the left. Moar covfefe, please!
Sign thieves ruin cool road names. There used to be a Copperhead Road out in the west part of the county, but thieves kept stealing the signs, so now it’s Maple grove Road. Nobody wants that one.
Wood you want to steal that sign?
IDA- A.I. never sleeps. However watch out when I’m able to get some.
Thomas Jefferson had it right… Down with what I like to call the, “Big Three.” Black Rock, Berkshire Hathaway and Vanguard.
Patton hiring Nazi’s-Probably another reason why “they” probably took him out.
Meme of the day- Yet another reason I do not golf.
Pro Tip – Listen to LL. Use the burner only one time. And don’t use it to call someone you know. !Then destroy it!
STA-Lethal
👍🏻
CHRONONEUROSIS
When you’re dealing with high-power people, highly intelligent executives, top people in their own fields for whom time is of the utmost importance, you may become a chrono-neurotic when you have to adjust to their schedule.
As an endodontist (root canal specialist) you have two people to satisfy: the referring dentist (for the quality of your work) and the patient (for their approval of their treatment).
This type of patient typically walk into an office 5-10 minutes before the scheduled appointment time (immediately noticing the odors, décor, and cleanliness of the waiting room, as well as demeanor of the person greeting them) to allow for the necessary time required to fill out paperwork and do not expect to become permanently ensconced there; they expect to be whisked into an operatory by the dental assistant within 2-3 minutes after handing back the papers, and the dentist appearing before them shortly after the x-ray shield and bib are in place.
At this point I totally refute the initial sentence; very few people will tolerate sitting in the waiting room for more than fifteen minutes (particularly at an endodontist’s office). When the patient’s dentist tells them that they need root canal work, they receive the news with the same degree of joy as the prisoner being told “they will be hanged by the neck…”
My OL, luv o’ me life, walked out of an (well-respected and very busy) oncologist’s office after waiting 30 minutes (a small dark waiting room with 4 chairs and 5 patients), got on the phone to the referring physician (her gynecologist of many years), and received a call from the oncologist’s office within 5 minutes apologizing and setting up another appointment 2 days later.
Yes, there are many valid reasons for delays, but the front desk person (and the doctor as well) must be sensitive to the patient’s time needs, apprise the waiting patients of the problems/causes for the delay, and be ready to provide them with a replacement appointment in the not too distant future.
Some may call this problem “time anxiety”, but this doesn’t quite describe the depth of this psychosis that may be found in some doctors.
I bring an iPad with downloaded books to any medical appointment, planning on being jacked around for hours. I’m the perfect patient.
*
DDS – “This may hurt.”
*
LL – “Promises, promises.” (DDS gives a weird look from behind the mask)
*
I usually pop a Vicodin 10 before going in, but I never tell them about it.
When I was 16, I had some serious gastric distress. My folks said to drive to the doctors office who opened at noon.
I was at the door at 11:50. I saw a friend from school there walk up right after me. He thought he broke his arm.
We sat in the waiting room for 3 hours as they brought other people in.
The doc, a family friend starts to look at me and I asked him to look at my friend first.
I had acute appendicitis and was sent to the hospital in an ambulance. It came out that night.
Didn’t see my friend again.
The doc fired his receptionist and apologized.
>Didn’t see my friend again.
Wait! Ever? Or just that day. What happened?
—
Speaking of medical people who need to be fired: I just heard a story (on YT, not personally) about a man who was deployed overseas for months during his wife’s pregnancy. So he wasn’t able to attend prenatal appointments with her. But he got leave for the birth. He really wanted to be there in the room, and his wife really wanted him there as well. Something happened and he had to step outside the hospital for a moment. He then could not get back in, as in he was physically barred by Security. Further, they threatened to have him arrested by actual police if he tried to enter. His wife did not know what happened. The baby came; that went well. But the husband missed the birth of their first child and the wife thought the worst because he simply disappeared. It turned out that the midwife took it upon herself to resent the husband for not attending the prenatal visits. She informed hospital staff that the husband was an abuser and the wife was afraid of him, and that he should be barred from entering the building.
—
It’s getting worse on all fronts in the medical world. Patients think of themselves as “customers”. Well, yeah, they are, but it’s not a bloody McDonald’s or Target. If I have an elective procedure scheduled and the operator is running late? Sure, that is annoying. But I don’t want him rushing through an unexpectedly difficult case and potentially harming the prior patient, just so I don’t have to wait. (To be clear, I am not particularly concerned about the random other patient, but if the operator will rush through that, what’s to keep him from cutting corners on ME?) MDs and other staff are burned out, cynical, and increasingly with the younger ones, entitled and resentful. And don’t get me started on nursing homes. Unless you have a lot of money, or family that can be there nearly around the clock, the likelihood of being neglected, if not outright abused both psychologically and physically, by some sub-80 IQ savage from a third-world shithole (yes, that IS code for certain places) is very much nontrivial.
Jules,
seeing the set of her lips and the crease in her forehead medial to her right eyebrow, I would tiptoe backwards, more quietly than any mouse; that looks to be a tempest majestic.
She has a wolf named Lucifer. You don’t need to know more than that.
> decided to let East Berliners walk into West Berlin
.
Populations mostly don’t revolt when they’re murdered or starved; populations actually revolt when their expectations are raised. The East German government made a mistaken announcement that the border would be opened, then changed their mind. But the people didn’t change their minds back.
.
> Why do we have a government anyway?
.
“Government” is the word we use today to name humans who are predators of humans. Just try having a conversation with a retiree about how it’s wrong to want several times more out of social security than they put in.
Socialism – including socialist security, which was never intended to provide full retirement, is another example of how you can run out of other people’s money, or deficit spend to $35 T.
What remains of any real-world government after you subtract all the Socialism, all the forcing of innocent persons to do things they don’t want to do? Jefferson wasn’t even the tiniest bit libertarian, just ask Sally.
.
Government is not like a gut bacteria, a placeholder which occupies an ecological niche to prevent even worse bacteria from living there. If you want “liberty and justice for all”, then you don’t want any “government”.
Now the West Germans are upset about the East Germans voting AfD . Oh look, a correction! Surprise. Thank goodness, and the FBI/DOJ/DNC, our elections are safe.
Our US elections are the fairest and most honest possible, overseen by the impartial FBI and, as you point out, the DNC. Complain? There’s a cell for you next to WSF’s. Give a treat to his dog if you want a bunk with an extra mattress and an extra scoop of gruel.
Duck jerky. Only the best for man’s best friend.
Aurora, CO
The situation there is complicated. I have a blog cooking with some coverage.
Mike Coffman is the Aurora Mayor (term limited) and is nobody’s patsy. Aurora has always been a pimple on Denver’s ass (years past we owned two homes there). It is divided by two counties (Adams on the North, Arapahoe on the South) that results in different tax and bond systems. Denver’s main jail sits on the North side. The city is home to more immigrants, legal and illegal, than any other place in Colorado. There is a significant perpetually pissed off black population and a mobile “unhoused” population. Squeezed continually are ‘native’ Mexican descendants. The city council is always split between (P)regressives and conservatives. At the moment the conservatives have a slim majority. The Chief of Police office has been a revolving door forever. Some officers would have been at home in the LAPD Rampart division circa Rodney King.
Perhaps Aurora’s biggest problem is the Califorication of Colorado with the suburban Liberals keeping their neighbors nice while pushing problems into Aurora and surrounding locales.
Not a new story. Maybe Aurora will gentrify after this?
Not likely. SE Aurora is a land of ticktacky townhouses, condos, apartments and small lot two story houses built of particle board and warped 2x4s. Central Aurora is post WWII houses. Fitzsimons Army Hospital, Buckley Air Force Base, and Lowry Airfield were the main employers during the post WWII years.
we have an obvious, major problem (several, in fact) and everyone appears to be talking (rings) around the blatantly clear solution.
I don’t believe that by clearing up one incident in this city and another in that town, one at a time, is going to solve the overall problem that the United States is being invaded by hostile forces.
The Europeans are likely sitting back and laughing: “the United States will finally have their own war.”
“Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston”
Coffman: Harvard Kennedy School
Johnston: Yale undergrad; Harvard Graduate School of Education, MS; Yale Law School
—
I for one am comforted that we are led by the best and the brightest. And such DIVERSITY in our leadership. (Ave! O Sacred Diversity.)
Skull and Bones has provided some of our brightest leaders in the US of A.
It was an interesting movie, never knew S&B existed until then (moons ago now). I am decidedly not in that club, although the Breitling Old Navitimer II watch would make me rethink that decision.
Coffman is an Marine/Army vet and not an effete Ivy School pussy. As an example, he spent a week living on the sidewalk 24/7 to better understand homelessness. I lived in his district when he was a Congressman. Mike Johnston? Blah!
>in 2022, most Western ball bearings suppliers ceased filling Russian orders
Well, THAT led me down a rabbit hole. (I am really a-motivated about work today. Sigh.)
The question was how western ARE “Western” suppliers? Quick search says Swedish, Japanese, German and US companies supply (much) more than 50% of the global market. But where are the actual things made? Sites were very cagey about that, emphasizing that headquarters are in the US, or Germany, or whatever (like Boeing is a Chicago company). Sure enough, China is the biggest net exporter of ball bearings. Germany, Romania, and Sweden also make more bearings than they use. The US is a huge net importer of bearings, even if we do make some here. So what’s to keep the Russians from buying from China directly? I’m sure the Chinese don’t care about the legalities and niceties of ownership. I remember all the stories of the Chinese blatantly stealing US IP and more importantly, process knowledge beginning with the first wave of “hey, let’s go exploit the Chinese!” [#hand-rubbing intensifies] not long after Nixon “opened up China”. If the Chinese aren’t helping out the Russians, it’s not because they respect Western embargoes or the plight of coke-addict cross-dressing comedians, er, I mean the average Ukrainian on the street. It’s part of their own rivalry with Russia.
—
Exploiting the Chinese. Yeah, that worked out well for the West, eh? “And so he went from ravishee to ravisher.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsTpdqLFtoo
Speaking of Ramparts during Rodney King. 3 of us Border Patrol rode a night shift with a Ramparts officer. He said ” When we stop everybody out. Dont look at me , watch the doors and windows of the apartment complexes. If you see a flash of light……”
I was already in the Pomona area for the Great Western Gunshow. When Mayor Tom Brady canceled the gun show, the sale of ammo and gasoline because of the Rodney King celebration I left and went back to Sandy’s Eggo.
I stopped by the station CAO and everyone had deployed to LA.
“The leadership of this banana republic is betting on that, but a prudent man does not leave his life to chance. There is a distinct possibility that this deep state will collapse like a sinkhole — suddenly and intensely — taking this deep state with it.”
That’s my take.
Regarding those stones, early anti-tank wall?
–
Though it does look like it sets up perfect hiding places for hunters to hide behind to attack large herds of migratory animals.