Home listings in Washington, DC, for the last fourteen days.
The average price per home has dropped by $150,000. It’s just the opening salvo. The ranks will be thinned—at least decimated. I wouldn’t buy in that market yet, and if I were going to buy, I’d negotiate hard.
The smartest ones saw the handwriting on the wall and sold short – early – before the market collapsed on them.
What About Ukraine?
“Vice President JD Vance, while at the Munich Security Conference, warned that Washington could hit Russia with more sanctions and even use “military tools” on the table if it refuses to agree to a deal allowing Ukraine’s long-term independence. He told The Wall Street Journal, “There are economic tools of leverage; there are military tools of leverage. There are any number of formulations, of configurations, but we do care about Ukraine having sovereign independence,” the vice president continued.
This was the most hawkish warning yet issued by the Trump administration in the context of pressing for a final Ukraine-negotiated settlement with Moscow. He further assured European allies that Trump will not go into talks with Putin with “blinders on” and that “He’s going to say, ‘Everything is on the table, let’s make a deal.”
Vance also said: “I think there is a deal that will come out of this that will shock many people.”
Impeachment
Several House Republicans are preparing articles of impeachment against federal judges who are blocking some of President Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s key policies. Federal judges have blocked Trump’s executive order that limits transgender care for minors and his administration’s plan to reduce the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by placing 2,200 employees on administrative leave. Another federal judge blocked Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing the Treasury Department payment records.
Arizona GOP Rep. Eli Cranen (R-AZ – my congressman) is preparing articles of impeachment against U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who temporarily blocked DOGE from accessing the Treasury Department, according to The Hill.
“Our case for impeaching Judge Engelmayer is basically that he’s an activist judge trying to stop the Trump administration from executing their, you know, Article 2 powers to make sure that the laws are faithfully executed,” Crane told former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on his One America News Network show.
Jules Laments
“Oh, brilliant. Just brilliant. Here I am, trying to maintain the image of a fearsome, blood-curdling beast of the village, and yet, here I lie. On my back, feet in the air, like some sort of oversized, fluffy cushion.
I mean, look at me! I should be prowling the forests, striking terror into the hearts of all who dare cross my path. But no, here I am, belly up on the sofa, grinning like a maniac with these ridiculous fangs showing.
Do I look menacing? Probably not. But, honestly, what do you want from me? It’s exhausting being this terrifying all the time. Sometimes, a dog needs a nap and maybe a snack to not care about his dignity.
Oh, and don’t bother with that ‘cute’ talk. I’m not cute. I’m viciously intimidating. Well, except for the fact that I look like a giant teddy bear that could accidentally sit on you and make you regret life decisions. Now fetch me my treats, peasant. I’ve earned them.”
***
Bullet Points:
** The price of chicken eggs has become a marketing tool. Thanks Pedo Joe.
** (h/t Claudio) This rare phenomenon, predicted by Einstein’s theory of relativity, reveals the power of gravitational lensing, allowing scientists to glimpse far-off galaxies otherwise invisible. The find is a testament to Euclid’s groundbreaking capabilities, suggesting a future filled with even more cosmic surprises.
** LSP – Defend your English honor! I didn’t realize that St. George, who apparently didn’t kill a dragon, after all the hype that he did, was a Turk.
** Do you need a drug to fix what’s wrong with you?
** During a hearing on Wednesday, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee revealed that since 2003, the U.S. government had issued a staggering $2.7 trillion in improper Medicare and Medicaid payments, including to individuals overseas who were not eligible to receive them. The subcommittee’s findings shed light on the extent of fraud, waste, and mismanagement plaguing the nation’s healthcare system. At least we now know why Medicare represents a significant portion of federal spending. In fiscal year 2023, the Medicare program cost $839 billion — about 14 percent of federal government spending. Medicare was the second largest program in the federal budget last year, after Social Security. And now we know that an unlimited number of payments representing an unlimited amount of money can be dispersed to tens of thousands of accounts with the SAME NUMBER, and up until now, nobody has cared.
** (h/t Claudio) European demographics are telling. What about this—to forestall doom, they can import all of the Palestinians? They have a love affair with them anyway. Many unmarried and unemployed military-age males could blend their genetics with the Europeans to bolster the numbers. It’s been tried before. What could go wrong? Europeans offer generous welfare benefits to the lame/sick/lazy, hard-core unemployable. It’s a perfect match!
** When the mainstream media is behind your movement, you’re the Swamp, not the Resistance.
In Crazyland
“American voters have turned against liberalized drug policy—an understandable reaction to the experience of West Coast states and cities, which recently tried approaching fentanyl use and drug dealing as rights to be respected.
Places like Oregon and San Francisco quickly reversed course in the face of rising suffering and public opposition. But what lessons can be drawn from the past half-decade’s radical shifts and reversals in drug and crime policy in the Pacific Northwest? As I explain in a new Brookings Institute white paper, the experiment began in 2020.
Well-funded activists persuaded policymakers and the public that even flagrant drug dealing and open drug use were inappropriate targets for police intervention. Voters also rejected pressuring addicted people to seek treatment in favor of an exclusively harm-reduction approach.
Enforcement plummeted. From 2020 to 2022, arrests for drug possession dropped by 68 percent in Oregon and 90 percent in Washington. Arrests for distribution fell by 42 percent and 30 percent in the same states over that period.
San Francisco’s District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a leading proponent of the new policy approach, did not convict a single person of fentanyl dealing in 2021—a year when more than 500 San Franciscans died of drug overdoses. If you wanted to use or sell hard drugs free of any constraints, there was no better place to be in these years than the Pacific Northwest.
In the eyes of the individualistic libertarian-left activists, this drug-friendliness was a success. Residents of the region were not so delighted. From 2020 to 2022, property crime rose 10 percent in Oregon, 23 percent in Washington, and 33 percent in San Francisco.
It was flat in the rest of the country. Violent crime rose 17 percent in Oregon, 28 percent in Washington, and 17 percent in San Francisco, declining 5 percent nationally. Portland, which slashed its police budget, set records for homicides in 2021 and 2022.
Pacific Northwest drug-policy reformers claimed that decriminalizing and destigmatizing drug use would lead more users to seek treatment and that drug overdoses would fall. Treatment utilization was flat. And overdose fatalities in Oregon and Washington grew at 40 times the national rate in the year ending October 2023.”
*********
Identify the SMG
1
***
Identify the Aircraft
2
3
4
***
Identify the Cylon
From the candid photos below, identify which number Cylon is pictured. She happens to be my favorite Cylon. You have plenty of hints below.
The following two are trick photos (below) because they contain two Cylons.
You can identify them both if you’d like.
Cylon on an airplane or is it a space ship – they’re everywhere.
Cylon at home
End
3 is de Havilland DH.103 Hornet successor to the Mosquito
Yes, good obs.
The SMG is the Lanchester Mk 1 or Mk1*. Designed in the 1940s and used by Britain’s Royal Navy amongst others.
Having enlarged the photo there appears to be no selective fire lever in front of the trigger. Based on this, I will amend my answer and say it is a Lanchester Mk1*.
Do want.
Mike, I thought you’d be on that one, and you’re correct. Lanchester MK1
Hogsbreath, I think that it’s a Sterling Lanchester, however, good obs on the SIG. At this point it could be either based on appearance. I think that the context makes it more likely the Lanchester. But I’m not THAT confident.
https://youtu.be/9Ns2lv3b_p4?si=_Mrlduv-Dbh4zCma
https://youtube.com/shorts/8lgEDnWbsBs?si=pPhd_dSBYYzBkvEl
Jules Laments – there was a meme floating around a bit ago saying something like “We were wolves once, wild and wary. Then we noticed you had sofas.”
The original Starbuck was planning, after they got to Earth, to retire from the military and open a line of coffee shops…
I thought that’s what Starbuck did when they arrived. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), they brought Cylons with them…
Identify the SMG:
1. Lanchester
Identify the Aircraft:
2. Convair R3Y-2 Tradewind
3. de Havilland Hornet F.3
4. de Havilland Sea Hornet
Identify the Cylon(s):
Tricia Helfer, Grace Park
Yes, but do you know which Cylon was which model? They had model numbers.
Number Six and Eight respectively.
!!!!
Glad some of you knew [about the Cylon gals], having not watched any of those shows I had no clue.
You missed out.
IDSMG:
1. SIG Bergmann Model 1920 submachine gun in 7.65mm Parabellum, with 50-round magazine.
IDA:
2. Convair R3Y-2 Tradewind
3. de Havilland Hornet F.3
4. de Havilland Sea Hornet
IDC:
1. Tricia Helfer
2. Grace Park
As above commented – It might be a Bergmann, but I still think it’s a Lanchester.
What makes you think it’s not a SIG?
It might be but the context suggests a Lanchester is more likely. They do look a lot alike.
The Lanchester is a knock off of the Sig MP-28. The photo could depict either technically.
I will stick my neck out and say that, in my opinion, for what it is worth, that the weapon is definitely a Lanchester Mk1*. I base this assertion on several points which follow, in no special order.
Photo appears to have been taken in Southeast Asia, probably in the waters off Malaysia or what was then Borneo (what is now East Malaysia).
I base this on the jungle covered hills in the background, the flat sea (which was quite common in these coastal waters – except during the monsoon), the type of boat the sailors are in as well as the boat behind it, which are typical of small water craft found around the coasts and rivers of Malaysia and Borneo.
The sailors appear to be wearing the 1960s Royal Navy tropical working uniform. The sailor holding the Lanchester appears to have Royal Navy seaman’s rank insignia on his right arm (this insignia was also common to other Commonwealth navies at the time). I don’t think the sailors are Australian because if they were, and they were armed with submachine guns, they would have had the Owen submachine gun.
Whilst in Borneo in mid to late 1964 I met/saw, on several occasions, Royal Navy sailors armed with the Lanchester Mk1* whilst they were manning small boats such as that depicted, on the lower reaches of the Sarawak River, Kuching, and the lower reaches of a number of other rivers. Have never fired one but, on the first instance I encountered the weapon, the rating carrying it let me examine it. It was, from memory, quite heavy. Heavier than the Sten or the Sterling.
Do not know where you sourced the photo Larry but it appears, from the capital letters IWM in the bottom right hand corner, that the original comes from the exhibits/collections held by the Imperial War Museum, London, United Kingdom. This would appear to indicate that the seamen are from the Royal Navy and, as the Royal Navy had Lanchester Mk1*s in its inventory, that the weapon is a Lanchester Mk1*.
“Transgender care” All the alarms are going off and my spiritual blood pressure is at a pressure cooker level! This 1984 thought speak of gaslighting and renaming, and redefining of the English language is ” Calling good evil” and visa versa. USAID is exactly the opposite if the title. It’s an F’n laundry machine. ( pardon my duetch and limited French) It’s not “care” it’s worse than genital mutilation, it’s diabolical and contrary to the original creators design, xx and xy. A millstone around the necks of the cupables is not enough. Public executions are a very healthy deterrent for crime IMHO.
USAID was big in funding pediatric genital mutilations based on recent findings. As you say, hanging is too good for them.
SMG I have no clue but have been wondering L.L. if there will be ships to i.d. if you run out of planes. Thanks for everything. Especially yesterday’s assessment of SE Asia. I’m a moth drawn to the flames of the real news and what’s really happening. SMR’s rule! ¡ Viva la Republica!
Surly is pretty good at ship identifications. We’ve had a few here over the years. They can be tricky because in the earlier days they were often almost one-off. I try to make the ID’s solvable. Some are obviously more challenging than others. It’s like the Cylons – sure you know the actors, but the trivia runs even deeper than that.
Fly your J6 colors high my friend!
-STA lethal
That was meant for GFW2
D.C. is in recession. It’s ironic, since the district was pretty well insulated from the terrible economy during, and after, the covid debacle. With the reduction in grift in the capitol, there won’t be a government safety net, and if there is one thing good that comes from this, it will be enough people realize the perils of a government that stops understanding fiscal responsibility, and robs the public coffers for gain.
I wonder how many home mortgages are under water, and the owners clueless of how they played a huge part in their problem.
Yes, well, with values dropping rapidly, if you’re not upside down on your mortgage today, you could be tomorrow.
Re: Tricia Helfer (number six) from BSG.
Her coworker on BSG, Katee Sackhoff – Starbuck Thrace – has podcast show on YouTube. Tricia was one of the first interviews I saw. Here’s the short version with a link to the full show.
https://youtu.be/3aBEy1miEvc?si=2d_bL_Lz4CK65PCn
Home listings in Washington, DC
I need to find a motor home and head out. There is a small fortune to be made there hanging paper. 2006 sub prime all over again.
Take Banner along for protection.
New business opportunity…in 8 months when the majority of these homes don’t sell and PDJT’s severance deal abruptly ends.
two way off topic thoughts for the day:
** do the companies, who interrupt/advertiser movies/shows every five minutes and kill the story line, have the slightest idea that a large majority of us are making lists: lists of no-purchase zones? dont’ they understand that this current marketing technique will only decrease their sales?
** why can’t the Demcrats/Liberals/Socialists/Marxists sitting in Congress, instead of wasting their adherents’ time trying to find ways to “fight Trump”, look at his plans and back/vote for the ones they feel might actually improve the lives of the citizens of our country – or are they in it just for the money? Am I asking too much?
The flaw in your question is you offer an actual solution…Dems and half the Rs don’t want real solutions to real problems, in their mind that’s not why they are there despite saying the opposite on camera.
X2
what you’re saying is that the people we elect to Congress, not the “Bureaucracy/Swamp” denizens, are no more than grifters, by definition,
and if that is what you’re saying, we may require some changes to the Congressional election/candidate system before this becomes a bloody mess;
then again “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”, they’re certainly not doing it themselves; our courts? does that branch have any constitutional power over the legislative branch in cases of actual malfeasance?
In a recent email sent to my Colorado State Senator regarding “gun control”, IMO, all the time and effort spent on a minor issue allowed him to appear “to be doing” something while avoiding solving real problems. Surprisingly, I haven’t had a response.
Same thing in D.C. Not all of them. Lauren Bobert CO 4th and Harriet Hageman WY come to mind.
As MrsPaulM says “moving the peas around the plate to look like you are eating them”. Politicians are very good at looking busy. We all knew someone like that in school, now they have power positions within government…hopefully soon to be eliminated.
Q: How does an administration reduce the size of government?
A: From the bottom up…no different than pulling the plug on a dirty water bathtub. Plunk, gurgle, gurgle.
Housing markets don’t lie, trends reflect the truth, driven by peoples behaviors.
If memory serves showing our county Assessor what cheat he was using old peak valuations based on sales during Covid to jack up our [takings/rent] property taxes. According to real estate trends, valuations peaked in May 2021 yet the current valuation period was 2023, charting by American Association of Realtors showed valuations dropped to 2015 levels. I won my argument…but was, and am, severely frosted that I have to even deal with this baloney by some unelected bureaucrat demanding I pay them for the privilege of living on my wholly owned property.
– Data is irrefutable…DC real estate will tank. Hopefully that means the congestion will ease for those doing actual productive work M-F…AT THE OFFICE. (That sound you may hear is the tiniest of violins….sorry, my sympathy bank has run out for these people, many who somehow managed to unionize.)
***
Cylons – A.I. generated images certainly have gotten better at looking real, easily fooling the male aide of the equation.
Data are irrefutable, Paul. “data” is plural; “datum” is singular.
As Rush used to remind us, words matter.
Hehe, true! Call it an East Coast manner of speak. But yes, words matter (as much as we miss Rush I think he would be/is proud to see things going the way they are, the ship righting.)
normally I wouldn’t bother, but this was a sticking point that was explained to me in painfully great detail many moons ago:
I believe Paul M is not using the word to mean singular points, but rather one large mass (lump) of collected information in which case, similar to collective nouns, it would (in the majority of cases) take the singular rather than the plural form of the verb: the data shows …
where one might be discussing the differences in a set of melting points of similar lead alloys one should probably use the plural: the data show …
The Grammar Nazi
+1
Depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is.
Wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Feigning cuddliness luring the unwary to their doom..
I am opposed to decimation of the federal workforce. Ten percent is not enough and they to live long enough to get by on 10% of their former incomes.
That’s I’m pretty sure that’s Cylon 36-24-36.
No, decimation is not enough. Excluding the standing DOD, you could do it on 40%, and the man on the street wouldn’t know the difference. Of course with all of those hard-core unemployable hitting the street, it causes an unemployment problem.
they should learn to code
Ah, that’s cold.
Pick blueberries.
We do need blueberries for our smoothies.
Musk eliminated 80% of Twitters workforce, slashing overhead and inane positions…and X is doing just fine. Some have become indoctrinated into thinking that more government employees, along with their massive budgets ($211B for 2.3 million employees for the Executive branch alone), will solve the problems of the prior government workforce’s wasteful ineptitude.
–
The office coffee service was too weak, thought maybe because the packets…that said 100% Columbian…so I put two in the basket. Came out TWICE as lousy. Hafta start with quality or the result is never food.
Ahh, iPad typos…
*…never good. (Packets were weak and lousy to start, despite advertisement to the opposite, doubling up was not a solution.
My dear LL, wasn’t St. George a Centurion?
Love the Cylon photos, good work.