Bullet Points:
** Do you have a church for sale? There are buyers.
** Aides to Sen. John Fetterman, D-PA, have expressed concern over the Senator’s erratic behavior, policy shifts, and a resulting “toxic work environment,” according to an exposé published this week. “It’s as if he’s becoming a Republican,” they said. Ever since he went to the psych unit at Walter Reid Army Hospital and they re-threaded his bolt, Fetterman has turned out to be a moderate with a mind of his own (as opposed to the democrat hive mind), ignoring the talking points he was given. The democrats were particularly concerned about Sen. Fetterman’s opposition to Hamas.
** What’s going on at the United Nations? According to a report published by The Economist, the United Nations is confronting a full-scale financial emergency that could leave it unable to pay staff or fund its core functions within months. Secretary-General António Guterres has already slashed the UN’s core operating budget by $600 million—about 17%—to avoid a shutdown, but the crisis appears to be spiraling beyond his control.
Internal UN projections now warn that without additional cost-cutting or a surge in payments, the organization will run a $1.1 billion shortfall by year’s end. That would exhaust its reserves and leave the global body unable to fund its General Assembly, peacekeeping missions, or human rights operations as early as September. Guterres, in a letter seen by The Economist, has warned that the peacekeeping budget could run dry by mid-year. Wow, now that would be a crisis. Would they have to return the building to the Rockefellers if they went under, or would NYC turn it into a homeless shelter/barn?
A White House memo reportedly indicates that President Trump is considering suspending America’s $2.3 billion in annual dues as part of a broader reevaluation of U.S. involvement in international organizations.
What would all foreign spies operating under UN Diplomatic Cover do for a living if we pulled out of the UN? Aren’t you worried about their well-being?
** SPQR
** The Idiots: The competition has come down to four finalists, in reverse chronological order: Chris Van Hollen in his role as a dim-witted Juliet with a school-girl crush on brooding, gang-banging wife-beater Kilmar “Romeo” Garcia; Michelle (Big Mike) Obama for her/his/its performance as a narcissist, and also a bitter, angry, black woman/or whatever upset by the stereotype of black women as angry and bitter; Elie Mystal, a racist, public “intellectual” who thinks the Constitution was written after 1965, and Jasmine “Ghetto Lashes” Crockett, another thick-as-a-whale-omelette racist who thought she was taking the moral high ground by arguing that we should allow illegals to stay here because… wait for it… We need them to be our slaves!
** (zerohedge) Mexico doesn’t want the US Army’s help in hunting down cartels and eliminating them…When asked if he was disappointed that Sheinbaum turned down his offer, Trump replied, “I think she’s a lovely woman. The president of Mexico is a lovely woman, but she is so afraid of the cartels that she can’t even think straight.”
** On May 1, 2025, the United States Coast Guard announced a pivotal development: the Department of Homeland Security has approved full-rate production of the first Polar Security Cutter (PSC), marking a significant stride in bolstering U.S. presence in the Arctic. This milestone, detailed in a press release from the U.S. Coast Guard News, underscores the nation’s commitment to enhancing its capabilities in the increasingly strategic polar regions. The USCG didn’t announce the proposed PSC/Ice Breaker armament, but I hope it’s more than a buoy tender—more than a hard-hull littoral combat ship.
The PSCs are designed to be the largest and most technologically advanced icebreakers ever commissioned by the U.S. Coast Guard. With a length of 460 feet and a displacement of 22,900 tons, these vessels will be equipped with state-of-the-art navigation and communication systems capable of supporting various missions, from scientific research to defense operations. The first PSC, Polar Sentinel, is expected to be completed by 2030.
** AG Bondi discusses the Epstein Files.
** China’s War against the United States of America.
***
China’s Illegal Floating Cities
Glowing on the horizon like phantom cities, these massive fleets drift across the world’s oceans—operating in legal blind spots, defying international law, and vanishing before anyone can act. Backed by power and secrecy, they break rules, cross borders, and leave chaos. Who dares to challenge them? Don’t miss today’s chilling new video. The truth is darker than you think.
The Russian Problem
(Strategypage) (h/t Claudio) Vladimir Putin is known to be resourceful and ruthless. He has been running Russia since 1999 via a series of appointments he received, and then elections he won or controlled because he maintained or increased the standard of living for most Russians. That came to an end in 2014 when Russia seized the Ukrainian Crimea and parts of two provinces. Western nations responded to this aggression by imposing economic sanctions on Russia. This caused a reduction in living standards for many Russians. The only exceptions were the oligarchs. These hundred men and women emerged when the Soviet Union collapsed and were resourceful enough to gain control of many of the former state-owned companies. This made those entrepreneurs fabulously wealthy, and they became known as oligarchs. Anyone seeking to rule Russia needed the support of the oligarchs. At the same time, the oligarchs required the support of senior government officials to keep their wealth safe and themselves out of legal or political trouble. These efforts ran into trouble back in 2016 when government efforts to control what appears on the Internet inside Russia, and in domestic mass media, were not sufficient to keep out damaging evidence of corruption among the Russian leadership.
As has been discussed here (regularly), Russia, 11 time zones long and surrounded by opponents, has many problems, and to be fair to them, it takes a stern hand to keep the place together. The invasion of Ukraine (green-lighted by a corrupt US administration) made sense from a Russian perspective. They botched it, and the world watched the Ukrainian pig farmers pull their pants down around their ankles. It will take a decade for the Russians to rebuild their depleted military spending, nearly 10% of GDP, as they presently are. Even with that, the loss of military age men can not be replaced.
Russia and Putin have a tiger by the tail (not Ukraine – their entire situation). They don’t want to hang on and can’t let go. Hungry for energy, China threatens its oil fields east of the Urals. The nukes will forestall the Yellow Horde, but the depleted Russian military has made the soft underbelly an attractive target. The country is 11 time zones long, and everything during the winter must move by rail…slowly…subject to sabotage.
Putin can’t lose face because that’s all he has to hold the pieces in place. It’s a tricky situation.
Getting Away
Here’s a remoteness map of the US. If you’re fed up with all the people, move to the red bits on the map. That’s what I did. That’s why the White Wolf Mine works for me. It’s not for the faint of heart because if something goes sideways, you’re on your own. I didn’t move to where there were other like-minded people or preppers. I moved to one of the red bits on the map because there were no people in the area. And at the same time, I am close enough to a remote fire-paramedic station where I can get medical aid and an airlift if health threats are significant enough. And they put a cell tower in after I bought the place so that I could blog (pre-Starlink). I’m not saying that I predicted COVID in specific, but I had concerns about plague when I pulled my John Galt and punched out. I don’t regret the move.
Stressing, I’m not a hermit. I can drive to an airport, fly anywhere in the world, and still engage with humanity. I still shave every day and haven’t turned into a hillbilly. But it’s nice not to have the oppression of human numbers around me every day, not to have the other related human issues every single day.
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
3
4
43 built
5
60 were built and used in different roles. They hoped for an export market, but it never developed.
Parting Shot
End
(1) Yak-28.
(2) One of my dad’s planes – Grumman S2 (F) Tracker.
(3) MiG-17, unless it’s something tricky.
(4) IDK what that thing is.
(5) AW-129 Mangusta.
– Kle.
Remoteness… I’m willing to give up a bit of remoteness to gain access to barbeque, donuts, and a hearty breakfast/burger place.
Marry a chef. That solves the commissary problem.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Yakovlev Yak-28 Brewer
2. Grumman S-2 Tracker
3. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 Fresco
4. Handley Page Marathon
5. Agusta A129 Mangusta
I was too late to comment on the educated idiot thread yesterday. My experience with that genre is extensive. It seems that instead of taking the pulse of my response area, I’m giving it a prostate exam. It just reminds me of what the great philosopher Jerry Clower said; “lady, you have obviously been educated beyond your intelligence!”
Islam buying churches — Islam is a cancer and must be eradicated 100% worldwide. Yes, 100%
I hope the Coast Guard has better luck with this new set of ice breakers than they had with the Polar boats (assorted problems kept them at the dock in Seattle for years).
Will they be made in the US or in South Korea?
Although I’m not in the heart of the biggest red blob on the map, I’m secure in knowing I don’t have to deal with the daily masses.
Good move, AWF
No…red dot rural areas suck; no trash service so ya hafta use a burn barrel and make trips to the dump, have to plow your own driveway when it snows then grade it in the Spring to make it passable, well water has no multi-step processing with additives to make it better for you, power can be iffy requiring back up generators, all manner of wildlife wander through your flowerbeds and chew on your aspens and threaten your dog, no housecleaning or lawn mowing service…yup, gotta do it on yer own, the mailbox is a half mile away and big packages require you to drive to the Post Office anyway, hafta cut and split your own wood, the VFD is hours away in an emergency so you hafta subscribe to a MediVac service, your pi kup and SUV are always muddy, inside and out….and there are no neighbors closer than half mile when you need help. It’d be best if people stay in the suburbs to avoid these problems.
Good thinking!
SPQR (The Senate and People of Rome) reminded me of the struggle through English Lit. (taken as an elective to boost grade points) except for the discussion regarding Chaucer. Specifically the Canterbury Tales. We younger male students had a great time asking questions that made some of the female students blush and the majority fake embarrassment (this was in the very early 1960’s).
PRC fishing fleets – there is a very simple and obvious solution. Sink them.
Gunfire would suffice for 90% of them.
*
Nobody seems willing to do the right thing, though.
– Kle.
X2
There is no United Nations. It’s a large spy ring, their actions are as corrupt as the worst of any organized crime, and their meeting place is on U.S. soil. When it is gone, and building is demolished, I’ll feel better about things in general.
X2 – A spy ring pointed at the USA, funded in large measure by the taxpayer to undermine and commit espionage in the USA
it’s also a super way to give the various countries’s elite a paid vacation in the United States; possibly also to get them out of country for various and sundry reasons, not just as spies.
A nefarious worldwide organization to counter the effect of Western Civilization.
That you contribute to through your taxes.
That’s some prime real estate the UN sits on, and just so happens we have a developer in The White House.
😁
S2. When we lived in Chico, CA we had line of sight to the airport. Cal-Fire has an air attack base there. I remember watching S2’s still with the original Wright 1820 engines taking off fully loaded. The climb out was long and at a shallow angle, due south. Then the refitted turboprop S2T’s arrived. Improved performance seemed dramatic. Take off fully loaded, then immediate bank into right hand turn to head to a fire on the west side of the valley. More here–
——–
https://avgeekery.com/watch-cal-fire-s-2t-firefighting-trackers-are-busy-every-fire-season/
That’s.Just.Cool.
Muslims buying churches and converting them to mosques = conquest by other means.
—
But they’re amateurs at cultural subversion and lasting conquest. The proper way to do it is not through buying churches and through terrorism. (Though terrorism is a good way to get your own country. Apparently.) Pros gain wildly disproportionate control of the financial system and thus the economy. They become high government officials; and not just the elected ones. Appointed positions can be even more powerful, and often you can stay out of the spotlight, like a puppeteer dressed in black with your arm inserted up the ass of your politician-puppet, making him caper and dance for the cattle. I am speaking of course of the Overseas Chinese in SE Asia. A Chinese faction (who are actually seriously disliked by most other Chinese, incidentally) has its hands around the throat of Thailand, for example. (No disrespect meant to HM the King of Thailand, who is not what I am referring to when I speak of politicians.) If anyone thinks of Western parallels to the often-appalling Overseas Chinese in SE Asia then it’s on that person and not me. I’m not responsible for what you think.
—
Additionally, you gain control of the “educational” institutions that serve as the gateways to elected and judicial power (the US Supreme Court, for example, has been HIGHLY DIVERSE (this is sarcasm) in terms of not having only Harvard and Yale alumni/alumnae). Doubt the “control”? That moron Claudine Gay was an aberration in the list of Harvard Presidents going back decades. Harvard Presidency (and leadership of the Ivy League in general) has also been HIGHLY DIVERSE since about the 1960’s. (That was also sarcasm. And I’m probably not thinking of Teochow Chinese here.) You insert your propaganda into popular culture through movies, television, music, and pornography. Don’t discount the financial and cultural power associated with porn. It’s way bigger than you might think. Silly Muslims to not embrace porn and other cultural degeneracy.
—
Degeneracy is the best way to subvert and control a vigorous civilization when THEY are many and productive, and YOU are few. You don’t win by haranguing them and waving the Koran, or a sword, in their faces. You teach them to hate their own history, to be ashamed of the great achievements of their ancestors. You frame everything in terms of oppressor and oppressed. And despite having great financial and cultural power, somehow YOU are always the victim. People are forced to acknowledge your power, yet they will have their lives ruined if they notice OUT LOUD. You teach your targets to worship the stupid, the lazy, the degenerate, the nonhackers who do not and cannot ever contribute. You encourage your targets to not have healthy, stable, normal heterosexual marriages, but rather preach the benefits of essentially random fornication. Miscegenation a plus. You shame your targets into not having children, because The Environment and because Mother Gaia, but you simultaneously import millions of violent, low-IQ savages, who breed like bacteria, into Western countries where they will consume resources at a First World level.
—
At least that’s what I would do if I were trying to control and destroy the West. But, “I am not those men.” Control I don’t care for, but I can understand. Destroy? That’s nuts. Why destroy that which you already essentially own? All I can come up with is Resentment.
—
Buying churches and turning them into mosques. What a puny plan!
“Buying churches and turning them into mosques. What a puny plan!”
Why do I get the feeling they just want to “stuff if up our noses?
I’m sure you’re correct, boron.
Mike_C. You need a sub stack.
X2
Renner- Great guy, total SISU Warrior. More here with Rogan: https://youtu.be/7Ei_oa-vaJA?si=OYsyXuqOrm45rTGO
***
Gonna say it…the Mosque buying churches and schools…locusts taking advantage of lazy people of the faith, including trying/doing/building a full blown town in Texas…just for them. Not good. (Altho, now “we” have Pope Leo, an American, heading up the RC Church…hopefully he is a better captain steering that boat.)
***
Sidebar: In transit yesterday, just listened to Ed_B’s deal on Cherry Garcia…now I want to get back in the pickup and head straight to Ice Cream Time, order up one of his special concoctions. No fair Ed.
😁🎉
Epstein Files.
Pay down the national debt by putting all those videos behind a pay wall.
Maybe once the perps have been convicted and are behind bars.
Child Porn is illegal.
You’d have to sift through the various actors – but I am inclined to agree with Ed that even if the prostitutes are of the age of consent, promoting pornography even if the star of the show is Bill Clinton or Chuch Schumer – shouldn’t be promoted no matter how “fun” it would be to see them humiliated internationally.
Please excuse my crude remark meant as sarcasm. For all those who want justice done, it was tasteless. I was aimed at the vast prurient audience in this country.
We should all give a thought to those in the FBI that must view these videos and prepared them for evidence. I have a tough as nails cousin, retired LEO, that lasted 1 1/2 years working child porn cases. He couldn’t stomach what he was seeing any longer.
👍
The files are gone, destroyed…seems the elites among us believe they are untouchable and want their evil-doing to stay hidden. Surprised Maxwell is still alive, must have some insurance hidden somewhere.
“The files are gone, destroyed”
Actually, I doubt it. For several reasons.
Primus: Someone (multiple someones) has copies (note plural) squirreled away for blackmail purposes. These types think they’re that much smarter than the rest of us subhuman cattle and can keep control. (And so far those feckrs are correct.)
Secundus: The vids are Trophies. Like other perverted sex criminals, these things are precious momentoes. It’s like the kidnapper/rapist/murderer who keeps a lock of hair (or an actual body part) even knowing that said trophy is strong evidence against them.
Im sure there are tertiary (etc) reasons, but those are my top two.
Comer was saying this the other day, maybe a ploy to keep interested parties on the heel. However, like you suggest, this may confirm that Maxwell does have complete dossier’s on all these cretins…which, as memory serves…”Jeffrey E” was doing the “activity”s in cahoots with [some agency] to set these cretins up for control and blackmail (making all of them stupid and naive and foolish and weak). But – as the Dane’s say directly – ‘He’s dead now” (only in Danish of course)…which helps keep this under wraps. Maybe if Bondi/Patel/Bongino manage to bring it all to light (without being suicide-ed beforehand) will the impatient naysayers out here in the ether finally shut the hay up about stuff ‘not happening fast enough” despite everything [thankfully] is happening at breakneck speed? Then again, the ‘Best-est Most Upstanding Maryland Man’ wasn’t really trafficking people when he was stopped in Tennessee, despite body cam footage…nah, that stuff never happens, so why/how could it happen with such another upstanding wealthy guy like Epstein? Well, that’s the left’s instant switched ‘whatever way the wind blows’ demented argument.
Nah, it was funny.
Dark, twisted, and deeply ironic, but funny. How else to deal with Clown World? It’s sick humor, or go mad over the cruelty, the perversity, and the hypocrisy.
Frankly, I’m a bit envious I didn’t come up with your comment first. (Just as well. I’d prolly have messed up the impact by dragging Weinstein and Diddy into it.)
Yes, the up engined Stoofs were great to fly, according to friends. And ‘easy’ to get in and out of fire zones.
>>BREAKING<< The College of Cardinals didn't elect President Trump Pope, but they did select an American. Chicago-born Robert Prevost appeared at the balcony as Leo XIV.
Not being a Catholic, people tell me I should have no skin the game, but I do: as an American who is considered (a possible error) to be of the Jewish faith.
Even though I am Jewish, by birth and upbringing, I have no ties to Israel (nor do I wish to); I have not taken out dual citizenship nor is it very likely I ever will (though Hungary beckons), I still would not like to see their leftist/socialist theocracy/technocracy fall/fail and this is somewhat?/strongly? dependent upon the mid-East position of the Church.
I most sincerely hope Pope Leo XIV leads his people well.
Voted in Republican Primaries.
Everyone’s all excited about him being an American, but AFAICT
he’s at least as much a Peruvian.
– Kle.
He’s a Shining Light…. oh. Never mind.
** Is there a reference where I might find which churches have been purchased by the Islamists?
If it’s been those churches whose main concern has been the pursuit/accumulation of their congregants’ wealth under the guise of religion, I may have no objection.
I am very tolerant of those who wish to find ther own path to/understanding of G-d: I just don’t wish to be force-fed beliefs which I am unable to digest nor do I wish such to be (force-)/fed to the innocents in government-supported schools.
** My wife of 50+ years has continuously (not continually) spoken of moving to a totally isolated isle; I, however, am of a far more gregarious nature – most of the time and have reached that age/condition where I require medical aid/advice to be close at hand; isolation is definitely contra-indicated.
I am also a people-watcher, just as there are some who enjoy watching (feathered) birds. The best word I can find for this experience is “kvell”, which I have always interpreted as “to draw the fullest enjoyment possible from”: I simply love watching (and interpreting) people and their expression of themselves: their gait, their clothing and the way they wear it, their facial expressions, the way they hold themselves (sitting, standing, walking), ad inf.
During my practice years (40+ as an endodontist) I had the opportunity to put this to great use to allay/alleviate/assuage the tremendous fear/dread/anxiety the greatest majority of my patients had in their first encounter with root canal therapy (not all of it imagined – I was going to say “in their heads” but decided against it).
I wonder what those that made the remoteness map define as a road? I’ve spent a fair amount of time on roads in the big red area that looks to be around the Oregon/Nevada/Idaho corner (and the other reddish areas to the south). North of there looks to be the Sawtooth region.
LL- any insight on all the new bridges being built between Mejico and Texas? McAllen-Reynosa, Laredo and Eagle Pass?
No, it’s news to me. I’m not opposed to bridges or international commerce so long as it’s regulated. The waits for crossing are always exceptionally long if they can speed up the process, so much the better. I have a Sentri Pass so I cross quickly but commercial loads can’t do that.
Yes, speeding up the wait times is not a bad thing but it sounds like this has been pushed and financed by people in Mexico starting several years ago. My concern is how long will it take to catch up with BP, Customs and Immigration inspectors , etc.. An excellent way to do more smuggling. Guess I am just too suspicious.
The problem with the Inspection Service (CBP) comes in the form of internal corruption. I’ve known internal affairs people who said that one in three were on the take (from one faction or another). It’s true that they rotate the people from station to station but that’s not always enough. I’ve also seen videos of people changing lanes when the CBP officers rotated stations. I don’t know if they’ve been able to curb the internal rot. It will never be eliminated completely with the large amounts of money involved.
.
I’m waiting to see how it’s treated in the Second Season of Landman with Andy Garcia playing the kingpin.
Me too…Sheridan pulls no punches.
These accounts of people going towards the light (my mom’s included) run contrary to the narrative of the Christian Gospel.
A Universalist gospel. Everyone gets in free.
Nice ploy.
I once thought it might be a trick of the devil.
It just occurred to me that part of the punishment that awaits the unjust is to get a taste of the reward they might have had.
And then the drop.
I have had friends who “died” legally and returned. Their experiences mesh with Jeremy Remmer’s. I don’t purport to be an expert on the afterlife, but their accounts were heartfelt – friend to friend – and I have no reason to doubt them. Note – their exposure to “the other side” was not prolonged. We’re talking minutes. I think that’s true in Remmer’s case too.
After sober consideration, I have to call BS on the terminal infographic. One of the women should be 100 lbs overweight, with tattoos and a black eye, glaring at the other women while holding a half-orc baby, plus two children of obviously different orc-fathers (like an Uruk and a goblin, for example).
OLM.
—
At the airport. I’ve never seen so many TSA who are both white and fit at one time. Also a surprising number of 2-stripers (“Lead Officer”) working the checkpoints. I was confused until I remembered that this is day #2 of real RealID.
—
Guy across from me in the waiting seating is about my height but prolly 80 lbs heavier, nearly all of it belly. Grunting at the end of nearly each exhalation. I seem to recall that this is a form of “self-PEEP” (positive end-expiratory pressure) which is kind of like partial CPAP. Nature is an amazing thing in how our bodies can compensate for a lot of badness. Prolly gonna end up sitting next to him….
Mixed Orc/Human situations were as common in Middle Earth as they are in the inner city — as common as homosexual couples in Big Pharma commercials run on network television — and none of them pictured were ample, so bad on me for failing to be inclusive.
.
I’ve had Real ID since the program started in 2005 or 2006. So twenty years give or take a year. Maybe as a member of the patriarchy, my zeal to comply was simply selling out to the man.
.
I hope that your airplane karma was a seat-mate who was a young, aspiring super model/actress cardiac surgeon who could speak to you of your trade intelligently.
I too, have had a Real ID since 2006 when my wife and me moved to South Dakota, we didn’t have a choice. I can say I haven’t been in a federal building or an airport to fly since before then so it is a non-issue with me. I have seen no other benefit to having it, don’t get to cut in front of the line at fancy restaurants or get primo theater seats.
We should have gotten discounts…altho I keep forgetting I get a ‘seasoned citizen’ (h/t Rush) discount simply for still being alive past 55. That’s like $3 off at Golden Corral (aka The Hungry Heifer).
Thank you. I ended up with an empty seat next to me. Even better than the supermodel/surgeon. 😀
“Empty seat” probably had nothing to do with exuding an air of “do not mess with me or you’ll end up in an extended VM comment to be humiliated in front of the world”.
You have to admit Paul M, being humiliated by Mike _C is like a badge of honor, you now know you have arrived and mentioned on VM, Nobel Prizes for you are being discussed behind closed doors…
Hahaha…exactly! …and would be a pile of social justice capital, like VM Danegeld.
So China’s floating cities are the current version of Freeside?