Bullet Points:
** Your Appalachian word of the day – odor.
** An important step – During the Large Scale Exercise 2025 off Norfolk, the U.S. Navy demonstrated at-sea reloading of Mk 41 VLS cells aboard USS Farragut using the crane ship USNS Gopher State, showcasing both traditional crane transfers and a new frame-style reloader. This evolution advances the Navy’s mission to rearm warships at sea without requiring a return to port. Officials emphasize that safe, efficient underway VLS reloads will enhance fleet lethality, endurance, and operational flexibility
** Be the therapy.
** The swap.
** What’s going on at LSP’s compound in Texas? He’s making Cowboy Candy. Another edition of Cooking, with LSP.
Recess Appointments
(Signal) Harry Reid, the former Democrat leader of the U.S. Senate, left the Senate in 2017 and died in 2021, but his ghost must still be haunting the chamber. How else can one explain why the Republican majority is continuing the blockade Reid initiated back in 2007 to prevent a Republican president (George W. Bush) from using recess appointments to get around the various roadblocks Reid put in place to delay confirming Bush’s nominees?
As of July 22, 256 nominations were pending in the Senate. It has been six months since President Donald Trump was inaugurated, and, in that time, only 86 nominees have been confirmed. Vital leadership posts in numerous government agencies remain unfilled, severely handicapping the president’s ability to make the changes that are needed—and that were supported by 77 million Americans who voted for him in the 2024 election—to reduce the size and scope of the bloated executive branch. Not a single U.S. attorney—the lawyers responsible for vital criminal prosecutions all over the country—has yet been confirmed, leading to fiascoes like Democrat-appointed federal judges refusing to reappoint Alina Habba as the temporary U.S. attorney in New Jersey.
The president has been forced to yank her nomination from the Senate so she can continue to serve as the acting U.S. attorney, all because her confirmation has been held up.
There is no justifiable reason for this situation to exist. Or for the current Senate to continue Reid’s political strategy.”
The Rouble
MOSCOW, (Reuters) – The Russian rouble’s 45% rise against the U.S. dollar since the start of the year has made it one of the world’s best-performing currencies – but the sharp appreciation is proving to be a double-edged sword for the heavily sanctioned Russian economy.
The strength of the rouble means that dollar-denominated energy revenues generate fewer roubles for the Russian budget. Russian businesses also argue that it is making exports more expensive to buyers in dollars and other currencies. President Vladimir Putin’s central bank governor, Elvira Nabiullina, contends that a softer currency would be a sign of economic vulnerability.
Nabiullina, who on Friday announces the latest interest rate decision, says the exchange rate is not just there to please exporters, stressing that the strong rouble is a product of the tight monetary policy needed to fight stubbornly high inflation.
Interest rates on rouble deposits have also soared above 20%, making the currency attractive to savers and as a speculative trade for its yield. At the same time, high borrowing costs have slowed imports, reducing demand for foreign currency.
The central bank says there is a freely floating exchange rate; it has been selling the Chinese yuan, its only major intervention tool, to support the rouble. When the rouble strengthens against the yuan, its rate against the dollar also strengthens to avoid arbitrage.
Since sanctions were imposed on the Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX) in 2024, the rouble has traded over the counter against the dollar and euro. Banks report their quotes to the central bank, which uses them to set the official rate. This market is opaque, as only the central bank has access to complete transaction data. Some smaller, mostly non-Russian banks report quotes to market data providers. The rouble trades against the yuan on MOEX. Dollar/rouble futures, which also trade on MOEX, provide some market guidance on the exchange rate. There is no black market rate for foreign currency in Russia, but it is hoarded.
Racism or Common Sense?
Immunity
The Supreme Court has made it clear, including in its 2024 ruling in Trump v. United States, that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for their official acts—actions taken within the core constitutional functions of their office.
Intelligence evaluation, like diplomacy or prosecutorial discretion, is a textbook example of such a function. Courts do not sit to second-guess whether a president “should have known better” about the reliability of a source. As long as the act falls within the president’s constitutional duties, it is shielded from criminal prosecution.
To put it plainly: if President Trump had received conflicting intelligence reports, and chose to rely on one he found more credible—even if others vehemently disagreed—that would be within his right as president. The same standard seemingly applies to President Obama.
Bathhouse Barry’s decision to weigh the Steele Dossier—or any intelligence product—as meaningful was within his role as the final arbiter of national intelligence. You can question his judgment, you can debate the consequences, you can question his motives, but you cannot criminalize the choice.
This is not about giving presidents a blank check.
It’s about preserving the constitutional balance of powers and recognizing that executive decisions—even unpopular or controversial ones—are not inherently criminal simply because we disagree with them in hindsight.
The line between policy error and criminality is not merely thin—it is essential. Otherwise, every outgoing administration would be vulnerable to politically motivated prosecutions by its successor. Promoting intelligence—even flawed intelligence—is a discretionary act fully protected by presidential immunity when undertaken as part of the president’s official responsibilities. Bear in mind that this is not a defense of Obama; It is simply (hopefully educated) guess at how any attempt to prosecute Obama might fare in the Judicial sphere.
But that is no reason not to Spit Roast Brennan, Comey, Clapper, Strzok, and a host of others if prosecution is still tenable.
What is to be done with the Central Intelligence Agency?
(h/t AND) The news is filled with revelations concerning the actions of senior CIA officers in 2016 as a plot took shape to deny Donald Trump the White House. Fake allegations of collusion between Trump and Putin would be pushed via the vehicle of a garbage dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. It did not matter what the American people wanted; the Praetorians would decide who would rule. It’s not as if there isn’t a historical preference for putting your thumb on the scale.
How far have we come from 2016? Have things changed? Are senior CIA officers now loyal to the sitting President and acting in accordance with the Constitution, or are they still taking direction from people like John Brennan?
Inside CIA, significant numbers of powerful, senior officers are still taking direction from Brennan and doing all they can to ensure that no true lasting reform takes hold. This is not the view of a few isolated individuals. This is the near-universal opinion of those with access to what is happening inside the Agency right now.
“Brennan controlled promotions in the agency and NSA through Hayden for about 12 years. First from the White House for 4 years, then as DCI. The agency was disloyal to its constitutional oath during Trump’s first term and simply resisted or ignored Him during his presidency. Then Brennan heavily influenced and steered the agency during Biden’s term. After 12 years of seeding the intel community, you can permanently alter the complexion and effectiveness of any federal department.”
The Party in Exile
Brennan himself is not hiding in a cabin somewhere in obscurity. He continues to live in Washington, DC. He is a principal with WestExec Advisors, which, in effect, is the next Democratic administration in exile. Amongst the anti-Trump crowd, he is a hero, the man who fought to keep the “great unwashed” from daring to presume they could decide who would be President.
Brennan is “a Distinguished Fellow at the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School, a Distinguished Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a senior intelligence and national security analyst for NBCand MSNBC, a member of the Board of Directors of ImmunityBio Inc, and an advisor to a variety of private sector companies.”
Outside the CIA, DNI Tulsi Gabbard seems to fully understand the necessity to clean out the stay-behind assets the Deep State has planted in the Intelligence Community. She is making steady progress in replacing those who are working against President Trump and reform. To be fair, the DNI’s office is comprised of a very small group that can be more easily managed and purged.
The solution would seem to be in building a new structure with individuals you can trust implicitly and who you know are not playing for the other team. I know that’s what DCI Ratcliffe wants to do, and I think that he’s relying on the Porter Goss model (not wholly, but in concept) to do that.
Notwithstanding, there may be a great many senior officers inside the organization who are still taking orders from John Brennan.
Earthquake 8.7
How often do magnitude 8+ earthquakes occur? Not very often. While the last one occurred in 2021, on average, Earth experiences about one magnitude eight earthquake per year.
Yesterday’s magnitude 8.7 earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula is a powerful example of a megathrust earthquake along a subduction zone. At the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the Okhotsk Plate, resulting in frequent moderate to large earthquakes, such as the recent magnitude 7.4 event on July 20. Subduction zone earthquakes don’t just shake the ground; they also displace the seafloor, which can trigger tsunamis that travel vast distances across the ocean. Earthquakes like this highlight the importance of global seismic and tsunami monitoring systems.
Identify the Aircraft
1
30 built
2
3
Hint: This aircraft was first flown in 1946. It featured a compact design with straight wings, a single Westinghouse J34 turbojet, and an air intake mounted in the nose. Its most notable innovation was the use of “Metalite”, a lightweight composite material made of balsa wood sandwiched between aluminum sheets, intended to reduce weight. However, this material proved problematic in the demanding carrier environment.
Parting Shot
I look to the beclowned “Spartacus” Booker for comic relief in political discourse. (more here)
He’s the Hank Johnson of the US Senate. In a world of low IQs, the question of whether he has a lower quotient than Senator Hirono (D-HI) is always a matter for intense debate.
End
1?
2 is Vought F-8E Crusader
3 is F6U-1 “Pirate”
1 is Douglas BTD Destroyer
Yes on 2 & 3!
Apart from the blatant anti-Sinotism of The Babylon Bee (Noticing that we’re shitty drivers will lead inevitably to another Great Leap Forward, another genocide), I’d support a “No Haitians” option. The worst Uber drivers I’ve ever had were Haitian men.
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Immunity: That’s what I said the other day. As to Brennan, bad enough that there are likely people still taking orders from a bad man who happens to be a Muslim convert. But how many within our (“our”) security and intelligence apparat are placing the interests of organizations identified only by a room number over the interests of the people of the United States? (But remember kids, Noticing is Hate Crime and will be punished.)
I reflect on my Lyft driver from Sky Harbor Airport the other week (Ramases IV) – with possible demonic possession as suggested by EdB…and yes, maybe if he’d been Haitian instead of Egyptian, he’d have been worse. But I can’t attest to that.
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The Brennan Situation and all that it portends, with deep-seated rot, is not a new phenomenon in the world. Ancient Rome, the Byzantines (who were an extension of that) and so forth would have said, “Hold my garum.” Cleopatra would have said, “Hold my snake.” – which isn’t a homoerotic thing at all because gender was clearly defined then – it wasn’t fluid.
Tell me your Lyft from Sky Harbor wasn’t all the way to your house! (Ramasses #whatever was punished enough by having to deadhead all the way back, I trust.) Anyway, the other night my flight which was supposed to arrive 23:57 got in just after 0200 the next day. There was a horrendous wait for Uber/Lyft. Sometime after 0240 I finally got a Lyft. Thai fellow, very pleasant (though he had a subwoofer rigged in his Subaru Forrester and was playing his SEA-pop using it — I despise car subwoofers). Coming off the freeway, he went past the metal-sensor thing (for traffic light) but stopped for the yellow light — VERY un-Boston. We then sat for nearly 10 minutes waiting for the light to change because the system didn’t know we were there. I was so tired I didn’t care and didn’t say anything. The driver was getting noticeably twitchy and embarrassed but didn’t want to run the red (good idea, there’s prolly a half dozen cameras on that light). Anyway, the next morning I noticed that Lyft had sent me the “are you being kidnapped? Send “yes” for help!” text. Ahahaha!
No. That would have been a 2.5 hour drive with Ramases IV. I hopped the Lyft to my hotel (having arrived late at night). MRSLL drove to pick me up and haul my sorry carcass home the next day.
“kidnapped”?? COOL!
(Shoulda said yes, could add what happens thereafter to your “Stories Abroad: My Adventures Without Even Trying”)
“Noticing is Hate Crime and will be punished”…I love to notice because that gal viciously attacked in Cincinnati (who never should have been in that clear and dangerous cesspool at 3Am…but that’s another story) was – kid you not – videoed by no less than 100 people for their asinine social media pages (@$#%!!!!) and ONLY ONE had the presence of mind to call 911. So sue me for noticing “stuff” (the ‘them’, not you).
(Just spitballing here…but I suspect you and LL, and a pile of others here, also employ high yellow alert ‘noticing’ while out and about.)
Just goes to show you that the barbarians are inside the gates and a great many think they are entertaining. I’m afraid that this shows how far down the drain our society has gone, is it too far?
No, we are a resiliant lot, proven by the last six months of undoing the dementedness. People are staring to come around (THAT segment who needs a mental reset). WTP must stay the course and never let up on the gas.
IDA-
1.Douglas BTD Destroyer, specifically a BTD-1
2. Vought F-8 Crusader
3.Vought F6U Pirate
Excellent!
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Douglas BTD-1 Destroyer
2. Vought F-8E Crusader
3. Vought F6U Pirate
Cool to see (I wish I could’ve seen it ) the Navy working out the ship to ship transfer for the VLS launchers . I have said before the old way was odd and squirrely and not good , I’ll find the footage of this new transfer and check it out , they were working on something called TRAM last I checked . I also am happy with the fact the Nav called this episode “Large Scale Exercise 2025” instead of something all Tom Clancy like “Atlantic Iron Gonad Venom Pincher Two Five ” , or “Mantis Sling to Stream Support Leg Padeye Drop Chute” . M triple S LPDC , that does sound very Navy . The pictures that I have seen do look a lot like a STREAM Support Leg , with a worm gear padeye combined , with guides into each cell . I wonder if the setup has to be moved each time or is on tracks installed on each row of cells , (detension the span wire and move cell to cell) , like any unrep , it is a sweatex I am sure . And dangerous , even more so in rough seas . It also would be a very complicated “emergency breakaway”.
It’s surprising that it took THIS LONG for the US Navy to get serious about VERTREP.
Wasn’t that something Commander Salamander brought up recently?
Pffft. Where I work, a few button-mashes and the VLS cannisters are reloaded and ships resurrected/repositioned. Same for the aircraft. Shields on/off, always-full fuel systems, etc. It’s all about developing/training tactics, communications, and especially, managing resources. Instructors make the students work and they don’t always win. Empty VLS loses the battle. Making VERTREP work for real would be most excellent, save time, and keep the ships much closer to the battlespace.
‘The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.’ – Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf
Vertrep ?….. coming alongside a “crane ship ” like the gopher state , setting up over the side fenders, yokohamas, or special bumpers while marrying up the two ships afloat , neither making headway is setting up two ships as ducks , not a vertrep. Never had a Vertrep that didn’t involve helicopters . ch46’s and sh 60’s were all I ever saw on a CG doing vertreps , except weird shit like a 53 dropping a man or men on a cable and horse collar and that was done on the fantail .
I’m just a deck ape , but the real problem is obvious , the Navy never saw the situation arising where they would go through missiles at such a rate (Red Sea). Look at Ukraine , RF fires
decoys to draw fire and overwhelms the system , fire some trash . Good to see the Nav working on the problem ….use what ya got I suppose , even if it is a crane ship . Seas are rarely favorable , especially when you want/need them to be . The original pics I saw from Port Hueneme , working with the TRAM System (I wasn’t there) looked like a ship to ship spanwire set up , even in simulation , I didn’t see a crane ship , somebody pulled a rabbit out of their ass , sometimes it works who knows . But marrying up two ships at sea to transfer weapons ain’t like tying up together at a party cove at Lake Havasu or Lake of the Ozarks with topless babes to drink beer , I wish it were as easy as passing coolers and checking out tits .
Using a crane ship is more of a floating pier arrangement . Well if that’s the best you have use it .
Meant to say it would be a complicated emergency breakaway due to, 1. the nature of the cargo being transferred (It ain’t a pallet of apples , or a flange valve) 2. The receiving ships , rig (whatever it is) is way more inboard . 3. What to do if canister is halfway in ? Hmmm , must transfer the load onto the load bearing lowering gear free/independent of the spanwire right quick as it makes it “over the hole” .
“Up until now, the potential to have working Navy ships at sea was not possible. The demonstration that just occurred offers increased lethality to our war fighters,” Capt. Anthony Holmes, commander of Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division in California, said Friday.
The TRAM concept isn’t new. In the 1990s, engineers at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division developed the idea of a prototype to replenish underway warships’ VLS magazines. But coming on the heels of the Gulf War, the prototype was never fully developed, and the system remained warehoused as the perceived need for such at-sea weapons resupply capability had waned, officials said.
This was a sitting still transfer at sea with cranes, not an underway replenishment , and again the USNI ignores the fact that an underway at sea transfer of a full weight canister was transferred at sea , we did it , on the USS Lake Erie using our starboard midships padeye and VLS Crane and transport dollies . Belay my last (post) ……. these fuckers, USNI, owe a very big apology to the whole crew of the Erie ,specfically OD Division, Weapons Div, Capt. Parks (Admiral) , and Adm Wayne E Meyer (RIP) “the Father of Aegis” who gave us an attaboy for getting it done . Lying sack of shits . Now I am pissed . Good Luck finding Jimmy Buffet’s “One Particular Harbour” of calm in the middle of the ocean , might as well do it in Bahrain or Jeddah or Jebel Ali . Real Men do it underway .
Appointments: “There is no justifiable reason for this situation to exist. Or for the current Senate to continue Reid’s political strategy.”
Yeah there is, when you’re a bunch of spoiled brat children on the playground who demand all the attention while hating when others win.
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Is it just me, or do others see these tactics always employed by the Dem’s as childish, like 6 yo juveniles fighting over who gets the biggest cupcake with the most srpinkles?
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PDJT and The A-Team are the obvious adults in the room, steering America out of the idiotic turbulence back into clear air (albeit not entirely smooth sailing, but it’s only been 7 months). The whiners and sneaky and nasty subversive game-players in Congress and Statehouses are proving their complete incompetency and irrelevance (working out vid’s, Panda heads…my point is made). Trump’s move with Habba is brilliant, keeps her in the role where she is right over the target (exactly why the Dem’s are trying to block her nomination). The number of nominations still out there being blocked/slow-walked is beyond the pale (150+/-). The funny (not funny) thing is the Dem’s and their addled media shills are causing Trump to do end-around’s while screaming “DICTATOR!”. Even greater is him doing a nice drive off the 1st tee while at his spectacular Trump International course in Scotland while the Scots applaud and he climbs into ‘Golf Force One’ for his second shot.
The optics alone can’t help but make us MAGA types smile (okay, truth be told…laugh hilariously out loud…unless you’re from the upper midwest, don’t want to be too showy).
I’m watching the new prime series Ballard, an spinoff of Bosch, and it’s pretty good. In the first episode one of her volunteers expresses that she’s an empath. The reaction is perfect.
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I just realized last night that the team lead is Ballard, noticeably a female, her volunteers are women, a likable gay retired police detective, and a standard white guy who seems to be stupid. And all the LAPD detective force are male and jerks.
The attitudes shown in Michael Collins’ work – Bosch and colleagues tickle me because they have LAPD arrogance down cold. The command staff are all dicks – down cold. I haven’t watched Ballard but I enjoyed Bosch and will take your word for it and will view it.
X2… thanks for breaking trail on this Ed.
Dude with the baseline in the video?
*
“Hawt!” says this formerly baritone playing widow.
*
Thanks for sharing.
Sidebar: Came in for lunch…heard no Fed rate change. A brother said “They want us to suffer. Pr—ks.” As a followup to LL’s FOMC overview the other day, PDJT has his answer that Powell and The Fed need to go away…WTP are tired of these Wall Street banker pals making a mess of things.
You may be tired of them. I’m tired of inner city people killing each other for fun and profit. I’m tired of drug cartels. I’m tired of grievance people. But they’re not going away.
True, but the more they off each other (consider the demographic doing so) the emptier the jails. And there is a large group of inane and insane factions to be tired of…but they simply will not go away, forcing my hand: New private road sign ‘GOA Way’. (Which could backfire, egging them on to take the sentiment as a personal challenge. Too bad the Hydra-6 is unobtainium.)
Brennen, Clapper, et al need to ‘go away’, and their minions need to be rooted out. Not sure if that is possible in 4 years… sigh
I don’t know how best to make an example of Brennan. He’s the brains of the operation. Clapper is a buffoon, not stupid, but a boffin who took direction from Brennan. I doubt that Clapper is still in play. He might accept a cooperation agreement in exchange for leniency in sentencing.