Bullet Points:
** In war, the enemy gets a vote. They make plans too. Just because you have decided on a course of action and want a particular result does not mean your opponent is required to cooperate.
** Many people can’t tell the difference between a ‘clip’ and a ‘magazine,’ so I am posting this picture (right) in Bullet Points. What do you think it is? What happens when you’ve expended your last round?
** WSJ – “Having set the stage for a year of high-level engagement with the Trump administration, Xi Jinping is now chasing his ultimate prize, according to China watchers: a change in U.S. policy that Beijing hopes could isolate Taiwan.
As President Trump has shown interest in striking an economic accord with China in the coming year, the people said, the Chinese leader is planning to press his American counterpart to formally state that the U.S. “opposes” Taiwan’s independence.
Since coming to power in late 2012, Xi has made bringing Taiwan under Beijing’s control a key tenet of his “China Dream” of national revival. Now, well into an unprecedented third term, he has repeatedly emphasized that “reunification” is inevitable and can’t be stopped by outside forces—a reference to Washington’s political and military support to Taipei.”
VM Commentary – West China seems unrealistically optimistic about East China throwing in the towel and offering itself up for destruction at the hands of the Communist Horde.
** Tough questions for Ilhan Omar.
** Oil prices surged to their largest weekly gain in about three months after Ukraine’s recent drone strikes crippled parts of Russia’s refining infrastructure, causing a drop in fuel exports. Russia has responded by imposing a partial ban on diesel exports and extending restrictions on gasoline shipments through the end of the year, which has further tightened global supply. Meanwhile, increased demand from economic activity in the U.S. and expectations of continued geopolitical volatility have added upward pressure on prices.
** Correction – no cartel drug boats have been blown up in the Gulf of Mexico. Three were blown up in the Gulf of America.
h/t Frank
Frank sent me a graphic of him interacting with small, space alien creatures. You can caption it, “Frank, friend to the little guys.” Frank assures me that they don’t want to be ‘illegal aliens.’ They’ve suggested that if he allows them access to his body (I’m not sure which orifice they’ll enter through, but being aliens – we all know their preference), they can join with humanity – almost legally. VM wishes Frank a pleasant journey of discovery with his new friends.
h/t Claudio
In China – (Ken Cao) – a discussion of Culture in Red China
Imagine a country that claims to have 1.4 billion people… but deep down, even that number is a lie. Now imagine that every single one of those people acts like the main character in a video game, where everyone else is just an NPC to be used, exploited, or ignored.
Behind the propaganda and glittering skyscrapers is a society built on radical selfishness, where altruism isn’t just rare — it’s dangerous. Helping your neighbor isn’t noble. It’s stupid. This isn’t just cultural. It’s engineered. For decades, the Communist Party has rewired an entire society, systematically destroying trust and cooperation: Villagers forced to denounce their neighbors. Children are rewarded for reporting their own parents. Temples, churches, and independent communities were crushed into dust.
Over time, people learned a brutal truth: “If you trust anyone but the Party, you’re dead.”
Even today, helping others can backfire catastrophically: A man helps an old woman who fell — she sues him, accusing him of causing the accident. Donations to the Chinese Red Cross after disasters vanish into luxury cars and villas for insiders. Kindness becomes self-destructive. So people stop helping. They retreat inward, teaching their children to only look out for themselves.
Generations later, empathy atrophies, replaced by a permanent culture of radical egoism.
The result? Education becomes a war zone. Workplaces can devolve into snakepits of betrayal. Politics becomes pure self-service. China faces a collapsing population, a slowing economy, and a hostile world — precisely the kinds of crises that require trust and cooperation. But in a society where everyone is out for themselves, there’s no way to adapt. The system becomes brittle… and eventually, it breaks.
Why This Matters Globally: Historically, groups that failed to cooperate didn’t just stagnate — they disappeared. Tribes, kingdoms, empires — gone. Evolution doesn’t care about GDP or bullet trains. If you can’t work together, you don’t survive. China’s leaders talk about “great changes unseen in a century.” But the real meaning? Collapse. Extinction.
And it’s coming faster than they realize. This isn’t just about China. “Moral Chinese” isn’t about ethnicity — it’s about a mindset. Any society that loses its capacity for trust and altruism is on the same doomed path. If radical selfishness spreads, civilization itself could implode. The next time you see someone cutting in line, cheating in business, or betraying a friend for gain, remember: It’s not just bad behavior. It’s a warning sign of a much deeper decay.
Speech and Violence
All of the lying that the elite left has done about Charlie Kirk – before and after his murder – has made that point obvious. Most of us already thought that the next edition of the DSM would have to make room for Trump Derangement Syndrome, but I think that KDS (Kirk Derangement Syndrome) might be an even more virulent mental disorder. Because if THAT guy could be accused of hate speech, who among us could go unscathed by that same accusation?
Would ANY nationally prominent leftists be left standing, were that standard enforced? Everybody who has called half the country Nazis or fascists would be out instantly. And that’s what, 95% of them, right off the top?
That’s not to say there’s no place in a healthy society for “consequence culture.” Normal people wouldn’t want their kids being “educated” by evil trolls who celebrated Charlie’s killing. Nor would they want to be treated by doctors or nurses who did that, or patronize any businesses whose owners or employees engaged in that behavior.
The exception to free speech protection is speech that “incites violence or poses an immediate threat to public safety.” I’m going to read some SCOTUS precedents to get a better idea of what that looks like. One example comes from another popular leftist political streamer, an unhappy thing (not sure how it self-identifies) named Stephen Bonnell II. He has given himself the stupidly self-aggrandizing name “Destiny.” Which I won’t use, because it’s ridiculous.
If you give yourself an inflated name, you’re a gigantic douche. Examples include “Charlamagne tha God,” whose real name is Lenard Larry McKelvey (left). And I get it, because who wants to be called Lenard Larry, especially when your dopey parents managed to spell “Leonard” wrong? But his nom de stupid is even worse! It’s composed of three words, the first two of which are misspelled, and the third is blasphemous. (So good job, Lenny!) The offense is compounded by naming himself after a truly great Medieval character, Charlemagne. (His name is cool in at least three languages, since Charlemagne is French for Charles the Great, and his Latin name was Carolus Magnus.)
If you EARN a great name, you’re immune to charges of douchiness. See the original Charlemagne, also Alexander the Great, and William the Conqueror, who were as labled. Sidebar: I remember that years ago, Dennis Miller (one of my comedy heroes) had a bit about the first time that Gordon Sumner showed up to the pub with his friends and said that from now on, he was going to be called “Sting.” Miller mocks the idea, but apparently, Sting was one of the rare people cool enough to pull that off. Lenny McKelvey and Lil’ Stevie Bonnell are definitely not.
Anyway, Steve Bonnell (blue hair, right) is an influencer on the left, and also something of a broken person. But I repeat myself. He’s allegedly had a disordered private life that has included allegations of bisexuality, revenge porn, and two quickly failed marriages, the second of which he proudly touted as an “open” marriage to a Swedish gal… which ended when she publicly cuckolded him and left him for another guy. Unexpectedly!
He said, “If you [conservatives] wanted Charlie Kirk to be alive, Donald Trump shouldn’t have been president for his second term.”
Compare them to Charlie Kirk, whose default settings were humor, compassion, and a desire for dialogue. By now, we’ve all heard the half-dozen comments of Charlie’s – cherry-picked from thousands of hours of his speeches and debates – and the best they could come up with was that small number of out-of-context but logically defensible statements, and the time when he called a career violent criminal a “scumbag.” (Fact check: true.)
Charlie at his “worst” was a million miles away from the bitter malevolence of Piker’s and Bonnell’s calls for pain, violence, and death to be visited on their political opponents.
My instinct has been to reject calls for the government to pursue and charge individuals for their political speech, regardless of how misguided or offensive it may be. But as the left has gotten more and more violent these last 5 years, I’m taking a second look at that question. Both Piker and Bonnell have millions of low-IQ, socially failing leftist followers, many of them with more than a dusting of mental illness. When Piker tells them directly to kill landlords and to disembowel their political opponents, does that constitute incitement? When Bonnell implicitly tells them that they need to make conservatives afraid for their lives and blames Charlie’s murder on the people who elected Trump, does that constitute incitement?
The United States of America or Western China?
(link) “Place Your Bet On The Future Of Energy: U.S. Or China”, Francis Menton argues that a pivotal shift has occurred in global energy policy. Under the current U.S. administration, subsidies and tax credits for renewable energy and grid-scale battery projects have mainly been withdrawn, putting all energy sources on a level playing field—without government support.
Meanwhile, China has intensified its commitment to clean-energy dominance by directing massive public investment toward manufacturing infrastructure (solar cells, wind turbines, battery components, etc.).
Menton contends that the U.S.’s retreat from renewable subsidies and China’s aggressive state backing are shaping not just an energy market rivalry, but a strategic race for technological leadership. He further asserts that the wind/solar/battery model may prove unsustainable in the long run, predicting a likely collapse of many of these ventures over the next decade.
Identify the Ship:
1
2
3
Hint: Knock off of a knock off.
4
Hint: Go for it, Claudio
5
There’s no hull number, but there is a flag.
End
(1) French frigate Suffren.
(2) Japanese destroyer Onami, (Takanami class)
(3) Indian frigate Betwa.
(4) Italian Paolo Thaon di Revel OPV.
(5) Looks like one of the Danish Absoloms.
– Kle.
You’re on a roll this morning, Kle.
I thought #1 was the French Hot Air Balloon Carrier (HABC) “Montgolfier.”
Bullet points: Pretty sure everyone here knows, but it’s an en bloc clip, and the empty goes
flying out the top and makes a “ping” noise. Garand rifle, of course.
– Kle.
En bloc clips-
I bought some French made 30-06 M1 ammunition that ended up in Australia as surplus in the 1970’s. Still in the M1 blocs. Steel cases and could not be reloaded. Good for pigs up close in scrub where the likelihood of finding brass was zero. Mostly split it up and used in a Remington 760 pump action. Some a friend used in his Garand.
The teltale “ping” can be problematic in combat…which is why the M-14.
It doesn’t matter for how the rifle functions, but the clips stuff down into the action easier with the top round on the right-hand side because your thumb naturally wants to go there as you hold the op rod back with the flat of your hand.
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McCann Industries used to rebarrel M1’s to 458 Winchester Magnum, because as the old hot-rodders used to say, there is no substitute for cubic inches. Or maybe hippos raiding the tomato patch was a problem in their area. https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2015/07/06/oood-mccann-industries-458-win-mag-garand/
WWW, @ 500 grains is a 458 worth having on hand to disable moving “armor” ? i.e. over bored 454, 460 zombie invaders?
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With that much fireworks going off, I wouldn’t be worried a bit about a lil ping.
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Lately I’ve been drawn to the dual purpose ammo. 45-70 @ 250 grains. Enough for tires and radiators?
I loathed the M-14. Jammed when hot, weak stock at the pistol grip, sloppy action and bad balance. I understand two companies made the early ones with Springfield simply retooling their M1 tooling while TRW started from scratch and produced a superior rifle. The ones in my unit must have been Springfields. The one I was issued was accurate; the only good thing I could say about it.
The WWII vets I talked to said the whole ‘ping’ thing was BS. There was so much noise you never heard it.
Discounted heavily on the interwebs and yousetubes also. Yes, in a very quiet situation you could potentially hear the ping, that is if you still had any hearing from 8 rounds of .30-06 going off close enough for you to hear said ‘ping.’
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Dismounting a detachable magazine also makes noise.
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And, well, easier, when laying down prone, to load from top down than to have to reposition the whole rifle to replace even a 10rd magazine, let alone a 30rd mag.
I take friends to the range with my M1 just so they can hear the ping.
The movies make it a giveaway to the enemy, but you really have to listen for it.
https://www.facebook.com/edward.bonderenka/videos/661789223166633
First the *ping*… and then the Garand Thumb! You can hear that loud and clear when someone fails to make sure they’re doing it right!
Thumb
Ah, memories. Never happened to me. Others? Frequently.
Once.
Once indeed. Oh, my. Raised to an art form. Had my Garand out of the stock and laying across my lap while I was seated at my work bench, action locked open. Don’t recall now why. Anyway, I felt it start to slip off my lap and blindly grabbed for it. Left thumb wound up in the front of the action. Bolt released and got a full, lubed run at chambering my thumb. My nail eventually grew back.
Love that ” ting” ! My tinnitus is pretty high level and yet in the video it sounded like a Metallica drummers symbol :)
The first rifle I trained on. My gear made me look like a Saving Private Ryan extra. I still love the Garand, and all it’s progeny.
My respect for my dad soared after I picked mine up and realized he carried one across Europe in one hand and a spool of copper wire in the other.
Do tell. My army buddy’s dad was an army lineman during the Battle of the Bulge. He eventually retired from ATT.
En-Bloc Clip going into an internal magazine. There. Clip/Magazine combo. Damn fine rifle, not a bad one to go to war with.
1?
2?
3 looks to be INS Betwa a Brahmaputra-class guided missile frigate
4 is Paolo Thaon di Revel the lead ship of the Thaon di Revel-class offshore patrol vessels.
5?
1 – French FS SUFFREN D602
2 – Japan Takanami-class destroyer JS Sazanami
3 – India guided missile frigate INS Betwa
4 – Italian Navy Patrol Vessel Paolo Thaon de Revel
5 – Royal Danish Navy HDMS ESBERN SNARE Frigate
Excellent
Identify the Ship::
1. French destroyer Suffren
2. Japanese destroyer Ōnami
3. Indian frigate Betwa. Descendants of the British Leander-class.
4. Italian patrol vessel Paolo Thaon di Revel
5. Danish Absalon-class frigate
A.I. sleeps?
I think it’s more like: “Downloading update 32 of 471”.
– Kle.
RATZ! Tried to post a pic of me shooting an M1 in a match with a WWII division. Clip and empty in the air. Won’t let me paste it. Sigh.
I posted one above from the range.
Mine was a still shot from my photo library. Sigh.
For the actual Charlemagne, at least 4. He was also Karl der Grosse.
– Kle.
Ah, yes… Charlemagne, allegedly one of the greatest Christian missionaries. Reportedly, every time his armies would conquer a Hun, or Goth, or Vandal tribe, he’d line them up next to the nearest body of water and give them a choice: be baptized in it, or be drowned in it. We’re told that the cries of “Hallelujah! Now I see it!” were positively deafening. Of course, how many of the new converts actually stayed converted once Charlemagne had led his army away is subject to discussion… but his success at conversions meant that it was advanced in favor of declaring him a saint when he died. (The sword of his son at the neck of the local bishop is also presumed to have been a factor in assessing his sanctity.)
Ain’t church history fun?
It worked. Still better than forcible conversion to islam.
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Missionaries to the Scandinavians used to give one white linen tunics for a conversion. Cunning Scandinavians started getting multiple baptisms in order to get multiple tunics.
Clip vs Magazine.
I think it’s Back to Bataan where John Wayne empties a Thompson and calls for a guy to throw him a clip.
The guy did not answer, “Did you mean a magazine?”
Clip vs. magazine. Best way I’ve heard it put–you use clips to load your magazines.
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As to the M-1’s “ping” in combat, a quote from Marine veteran of WWII in the Pacific, “In a fire fight, you can’t hear shit!”.
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Here’s another one that sparks debate, it’s specific meaning having changed over time: “Lock and load”.
Forgot to add–got my Garand through DCM in 1981, $126.
The blog ‘Come and Make It’ has an article “Chinese people move staggering $900 billion from China in 2022 alone” by money laundering.
https://comeandmakeit.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2025-09-22T20:09:00-07:00&max-results=5
Clip is what you do to your hair.
Magazine is what you read while waiting for the barber.
Yeah, I thought ‘ping’ as soon as I saw that picture, with Garand Thumb a close second.
In Counterman v Colorado Eleanor Kagan wrote for the majority that Frees Speech does not cover the incitement to violence.
unfortunately this only goes to show (IMHO) that SCOTUS is definitely not our best and brightest (jurists/thinkers); just ’cause someone tries to get me agoin’ don’t mean I’m a gonna git goin’ (in the direction the want me to go).
jJust ’cause someone yells “Fire” in a crowded theater, doesn’t mean I’m going to stampede (not the word I want to use, but you get the notion) for the nearest exit.
If another Adolf want to go stumping around this country: Fine!
OTOH, if he’s going (or incite his followers) to threaten me or mine, that’s a horse of another color; I feel that gives me the right to proceed with whatever means I think are necessary to alleviate the problem.
the term “Free Speech” means to me that anyone should be able to say/write whatever they they want as long as they’re aware of possible consequences: or as I was brought up ” You respect me; I respect you.”
Exactly.
> Culture in Red China
I try to have as little to do with possible with persons from the PRC for exactly the low-trust reasons described. I have heard (and directly observed) enough stories to keep pretty resolute on this path. You’ve occasionally run humorous bits on what it’s like to date a Filipina. I wouldn’t know, but I’m pretty sure that Shanghainese gold diggers would give the most predatory Filipina a run for her money.
> This isn’t just cultural. It’s engineered.
Oh, very much so. PRC culture is extremely different from traditional Chinese culture [1]. But the same is being done to us in the supposedly “free” West. While the old values still exist, popular culture in the degraded West is, uh, let’s call it “Globalist” culture.
[1] Not sure where, if anywhere, traditional Chinese culture still exists. But I probably don’t fit in there either, though it does have its virtues. Douglas Daye’s book on Asian Culture in the setting of organized crime (thanks Mike W for the tip — it’s a great book) talks about East Asian cultures being “high context” while Western (specifically northern Euro, Protestant) culture is “low context”. Low context means the same laws and standards apply to everyone, whereas “high context” is where the “correct” response depends strongly on who you’re dealing with. Of course no culture is zero-context (the rich man, the pretty girl, always gets treated differently; I’d argue that we’re screwed because somehow wealth or beauty (much less piety, goodness, innocence, etc) are now less important than Victimhood; it’s a VERY, uh, Globalist thing to give primacy to victimhood.) Daye mentions the Nordics, Netherlands, Switzerland, etc as being particularly low context countries. Which is interesting because I tend to get along very well with people from those places, way better than I do with most Asians.
—
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Hasan Piker is also Cenk (horse-f*cker) Uygur’s nephew. Piker is VERY good at inciting his followers, then playing dumb when called out. Piker is a very bad actor, and is clearly not held to the same standards as the vast majority of Twitch streamers, most likely because he is a huge revenue generator. YouTuber Ethan Klein (who I don’t particularly care for) is currently engaged in legal action against a number of Piker’s “content creator” orbiters. Basically he set an obvious trap for those people, and being idiots they fell into it. As I said, not a Klein fan, but I hope he gets to not only the idiot orbiters, but also Piker himself. “Andrew Esquire” a corporate attorney who runs the Youtube channel “Legal Mindset” has a number of informative vids about Piker, and Klein, etc.
—
As to “Destiny” (what kind of man gives himself a stripper name?) I tried in good faith to listen to him on a few debates and Just Couldn’t Take It. Destiny is basically an idiot who thinks that being able to look stuff up Wikipedia makes him an expert. It’s terrifying that such a mental mediocrity is so popular and has such wide influence.
—
The story I heard about “Sting” was that it was a nickname given to him by someone else because Gordon wossname at the time often wore a black and yellow sweater. And had a rather prickly personality, so Sting was something of a semi-affectionate/semi-hostile tag (think of team names) rather than a self-appellation. But I could be wrong.
Good to see you back commenting…read it twice so I wouldn’t miss great literary wordmanship in spearing those deserving. Once again, you did not disappoint.
Yep, but it bothers me that he knows so much about Cenk and company.
Don’t know much more than that. My Hasan knowledge is basically catching strays from Legal Mindset. LM is my source on the doings of nuisance streamer and general spitstain Johnny Somali. (Unfortunately, not only have I learned a bit about Hasan, I’ve also learned about Johnny’s roommate and possible lover Hank Yoo. Bleh.)
the difference between the wispy corolla/corona(?) of hair(s?) on his head (and left wrist) and his well-trained, well-combed, thick-haired mustache is striking
Your opening graphic reminds me of Wilford Brimley.
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The device in question is an 8-round “En Bloc” clip for an M1 Garand. It pops out after the last round is fired.
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Interestingly the random blog archive link on my feed of this story is to “Dissecting Michael Brown and Ferguson” you wrote in 2014.
Your description of Chinese social incohesion reminds of the US or the UK. Just imagine how far advanced we’ll be with digital ID.
Excellent (typically so) blog fodder aside…and as it is later when imbibing on such excellence so will refrain from my normal not concise write-age – altho ID Ship #1 looks like either a seriously plain jane hot air ballon got parked on the command tower or someone left a package of Double-Bubble over a stack…weird…anyway…to my point: What then is a Shy Zealot? Is it a person who sits behind their keyboard in their moms basement pounding out all manner of online screeds but walks with pale-faced head down and slumped shoulders just to grab a soy latte at the corner coffee shop? Or is this the person in the far back during a so-called “peaceful protest’…there, but not really fully engaged in said anarchy du jour? Just curious. (I do like the imagery tho…like don’t mess with me whilst in my chair.)
As Ahnuld said, ‘it’s not a tumor’
Hehe…no kidding.