LL on vacation: A surprising number of people I see are wearing masks while out in the fresh ocean air. I wonder what rock these morons crawled out from under, but I mind my own business while wearing a Nous Defions ball cap.
- Meaning: “We defy” or “we dare”. Some translations include “we threaten,” suggesting a mix of defiance, challenge, and a bold, arrogant challenge to everything.
- Origin: The phrase was first used by the French Resistance during WWII and was later adopted by US military units that worked with them, such as the OSS.
- Modern use: It was adopted by the US Special Forces unit Blue Light, which served as a precursor to Delta Force. The motto is now associated with the Commander’s In-extremis Force (CIF) within the Special Forces.
- Symbolism: The motto is often paired with the iconic skull, crossed arrows, and dagger insignia, which also has roots in the counter-terrorist training facilities at Fort Bragg.
Bullet Points:
** Someone once said, “A camel looks like a horse designed by a committee.” The Obama Presidential Library looks like a building designed by a committee…of camels. I’m sure Barack’s husband, Big Mike, had a significant influence on the design.
** In Venezuela, they’re upping the game. The drug boats that were trying to run the US blockade singly are now trying to do it in twozies – in the hopes that one of the two will be able to deliver fentanyl to the USA. It ends predictably.
** Is old Commie Bernie tapping AOC? Zoltan outs them.
** Good morning. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the ongoing “Schumer shutdown” of the government, now in its third week, “is starting to cut into muscle here,” and it could start costing the US economy $15 billion a week. On the plus side, Bessent reported Friday that thanks to tariff income and reduced government spending, last month’s budget surplus was a massive $198 billion, the biggest September surplus on record and 147% higher than last September.
** Construction needs to meet building code requirements – but sometimes even that isn’t enough.
** Who is behind “No Kings?” Yeah, you know who. The democrats are proud of their branding.
** (WSJ) “China is gripped by an insidious problem that is eroding its economy: It is trapped in a cycle of competition so fierce that it is destroying profits, driving a brutal rat race among workers and fueling a deflationary spiral. This is “involution,” a once esoteric term that has come to define life for many in China and capture the most significant problems in the world’s second-largest economy. Involution, stated, means that, even as China pursues global dominance in industries of the future—artificial intelligence, renewables, robotics—much of its economy is in a race to the bottom that threatens to devolve into widespread stagnation.”
** If you go to prison and are forced to share a cell with Michelle Obama, what do you do? I guess you go with the flow.
** Children have to endure what their parents do to them. What do/did you do to your kids that embarrasses them?
** It’s better to have a canopy that deploys than one that does not. Gory Gory, what a hell of a way to die.
** The 9th Circuit overturned a temporary restraining order put in place by a federal judge in Portland – removing the legal impediment that was preventing the Trump Administration from sending National Guard troops to Portland.
“After considering the record at this preliminary stage, we conclude that it is likely that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority under 10 U.S.C. § 12406(3), which authorizes the federalization of the National Guard when ‘the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States,’” the majority wrote in their decision.
** Oh Canada – Canadian snowbirds staying in the U.S. for more than 30 days are now required to register and provide fingerprints at the border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The rule, introduced last April under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump at the start of his second term, applies to anyone over 14 planning to stay longer than a month. Visitors must complete an alien registration form, submit personal details, and provide biometric data such as fingerprints. Those visiting for under 30 days or holding NEXUS clearance are exempt. Registrants must also carry their documentation with them at all times while in the U.S.
Boron is STILL in the Hospital
Squaring Off
(h/t Claudio) Who should own Japan? If you ask the Japanese, they will predictably tell you that they would like to keep their home and its resources. If you ask a Celestial in Communist China, they’ll explain to you (maybe patiently) that it (all) belongs to them, no matter what the Japanese think.
Japanese media cited the 11th District Coast Guard Headquarters as saying four armed Chinese Coast Guard vessels entered the contiguous zone surrounding the Senkaku Islands on Tuesday.
A contiguous zone lies 12 to 24 nautical miles beyond a country’s territorial waters and serves as a buffer zone where foreign vessels may be monitored or warned against approaching too closely.
Japanese patrol ships issued warnings urging the Chinese vessels not to cross into Japan’s territorial waters, officials said. It marked the 330th straight day that Chinese ships had been sighted in the area, further extending a stretch of patrols in the zone that began in late December. But who’s counting? Well, the Japanese are for one.
China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Coast Guard said in a statement that its ships had “sailed in the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands” during what it called “a lawful patrol conducted in accordance with domestic and international law.”
Reserves and Resources in the East China Sea are similar to those in the South China Sea. Territorial disputes make it challenging to assess reserves, and parts of the sea remain underexplored. Approximately 22 million barrels of petroleum and other liquids and 482 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas in proved and probable reserves are in the East China Sea, according to Rystad.
In 2020, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) analyzed the potential for undiscovered conventional oil and natural gas fields as part of its National and Global Petroleum Assessment project. It is estimated that the East China Sea has potentially 160 oil fields, which may contain resources of anywhere between 310 million and 1.7 billion barrels of petroleum liquids. It is also estimated that the sea has potentially 10 natural gas fields, which may contain resources of between 1.3 Tcf and 7.3 Tcf of natural gas. There are indications that the East China Sea also has gas hydrates, particularly around the Okinawa trough, which are unconventional gas resources.
Behavior like this is causing the Japanese to arm themselves, develop a very significant blue water navy, and buy the very latest military equipment from the United States. Were it not for this, they would have remained pacifist. Thank you, Pres. Xi.
Does a Charge Work?
Sometimes, it didn’t work out well for the French at Agincourt.
You know that it’s time for a little Sabaton.
I had a boss who was a dead ringer for the actor who portrays John III Sobieski.
Economic Warfare with the Communists
Morgan Stanley: “If you’ve been following the US/China relationship this year, a pattern has emerged: A new round of tariffs or export controls, a flurry of headlines, and market tremors, followed by a search for the next uneasy equilibrium. The latest episode is no exception: China’s move to tighten rare earth export controls and the US threat of 100% tariffs are launching another cycle.
While an unsatisfying conclusion for bears and bulls alike, it’s our view that a continued dynamic of rolling negotiations and truces is more likely than either a durable trade peace or a hard economic decoupling. We see this as a grinding, tactical contest for advantage as the US and China seek to secure their financial futures. Against this backdrop, neither Washington nor Beijing seems eager for an actual split, at least not anytime soon.
The economic costs would be staggering, and both sides know it. Key strategic interdependencies (e.g., rare earths, semiconductors) remain.” Hence, we think both sides are calibrating their moves carefully to avoid tipping the balance. China’s export controls, for example, may end up providing enough flexibility to keep civilian trade flowing, even as they create leverage ahead of high-level negotiations this month. The US, meanwhile, is attempting to ramp up domestic investment in critical sectors while not slamming the door on Chinese imports altogether.
The result is a relationship defined by uncertainty, periodic flare-ups, and a persistent sense that the rules of engagement could change at any moment.”
Feminists for Islam
(Link) It’s a lot like being “steers for steak” Support Feminism; join the Islamic Sharia-supremacists! Talk about cognitive dissonance! The only thing dumber is the “Gays for Hamas” folks. Hopefully these people do not reproduce and do not teach our children in schools.
The piece opens by attending the recent conference of the gender-critical feminist charity FiLiA, where the author observes what she views as a troubling trend: an increasing number of women identifying themselves as feminists while simultaneously championing Islamist or pro-Palestinian causes.
Among the signs, she notes stands offering hijabs in the conference foyer, Palestinian flags, keffiyehs and pamphlets she regards as anti-Jewish. Burchill argues this juxtaposition, feminist activism and unabashed support for Islamism, is incoherent, because she believes that feminism and Islamist ideology fundamentally contradict one another (for example, in terms of women’s rights and religious patriarchy).
She further contends that some women on the feminist left display a pattern of “suicidal empathy” toward Islamist causes or the occupied Palestinian territories, even when those causes stand at odds with liberal values of gender-equality and free speech.
The article paints this phenomenon as symptomatic of broader ideological confusion in modern activism: a world where identity politics, anti-Zionism and radical solidarity tropes blur boundaries and lead individuals into alliances that, the author suggests, betray core feminist aims.
Venezuela
Does the CIA have the capacity to engege in covert action in Venezuela? The Bolivarian Intelligence Service is augmented heavily by the Russians, Cubans. They may have some difficulty getting drugs north to the USA, but for a foreign service to operate inside Venezuela it requires more than merely cash and a lethal presidential finding. Authorizing war (by other means) doesn’t mean that you have the capacity to do what you’d like to do.
The CIA is largely still the Biden CIA – meaning that it was gelded by a woke agenda and most of the people worth two squirts, left. Building new networks with experienced operators takes time. You can’t just turn a switch. The Agency has been scouring the ranks of it’s retired for people who can deal with the problem but a lot of them have timed out with age and even the capable face a significant challenge. Having the language capability and the theater experience doesn’t automatically imply the ability to automatically create a reliable network in a denied area
Identify the Aircraft
1
Identify the Armor
2
Identify the Ship
3
This ship is operated by a country that I didn’t know had a navy. It is a type of stealth corvette. The ship features a “low point” design and combines this with radar-absorbing paint to reduce its radar signature. In a departure from existing designs, there is no funnel stack—instead, the diesels exhaust near the waterline to minimise infrared signatures. Top speed is expected to be around 30 knots. The hull has two sets of fin stabilisers as well as bilge keels.
4
Two of everything and weenie packs.
5
Same aircraft carrier – different dates – December 41 above – October 44 below
(big hints – nationality is obv. The fact that it survived to Oct 44 is another)
Parting Shot
They finally found something that a very few of them can do – the rest can learn to code or pick cotton (by hand) like a female tennis player.
End
1 – Pakistan A-5C Fantan – Chinese made export version of Q-5 Fantan
2 – British M2A4 light tank “Al Capone” Part of the WWII Lend Lease program
3 – Algerian Navy Adhafer-class corvette ANS Adhafer Purchased from China
4 – Russian Kynda Class Guided Missile Light Cruiser
5 – Japanese aircraft carrier Shōkaku
Shokaku was sunk on June 19, 1944, by torpedoes from the U.S. submarine USS Cavalla. Very good guess because she was Zuikaku’s sister ship. But she didn’t make it to October 1944…on the surface.
(1) Nanchamg Q-5 “Fantan” ? (Pakistani)
(2) M2 light tank.
(3) Algerian corvette Adhafer.
(4) Grozny / Kynda class… no time to figure the pennant.
(5) Zuikaku.
– Kle.
With CBP enforcing the new entry process, I’ll have to ask my friends in Yuma to see how big the flock of Snow birds gets.
I’ve already seen Canadian plated cars in Tucson.
There are a lot fewer Canadians than there used to be. I travel through Quartzsite, AZ, to cross the border into California at Blythe from time to time, and there are tens of thousands fewer Canadian RVs dotting the desert.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Nanchang A-5 Fantan
Identify the Armor:
2. M2A4 light tank
Identify the Ship:
3. Algerian corvette Adhafer
4. Kynda-class cruiser Varyag
5. Zuikaku
Got them all Excellent
Working vacation; I did word study #1 for the day before reading paragraph 2. Woke google a.i. translated “challenge”for “défions.” Another Kuggerand added to my arrearage. (Definition #2). Immense gratitude L.L. for another healthy brain workout.
We haven’t met, obviously you know me quite well
Please for the moment use the picture you can find at Google that shows me quite well as boron
I promise to send you a good picture in the near future,,
You’re not allowed to go down on us Boron. Your Witt, Wisdom and wiskery humor is always appreciated. Get well soon!
X2…SISU- Refuse to expire before your real expiration date…tell the doctors to get their danged act together. ((prayers))
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
X3…..you’re on everybody’s prayer list!
If not for all you guys (and gals) there is no way I don’t know how would have made it through these past 2 weeks.
There is absolutely no way I would have been able to obtain any unpolluted information as to what is going on in the world.
I don’t know how I could find myself so absolutely isolated in 2025.
General information should be available everywhere in CONUS, not highly questionable propaganda through The eyes of someone with terrible myopia
Time and again I say thank you very very much
I liked that phrase “timed out.” I am no longer retired, I am timed out.
I have a beach condo in St. Augustine for the past 30 years. This is the first year I do not have any winter reservations.
That’s weird.
MrsPaulM’s family has had a condo near St Pete Beach since 1985, golf community overlooking the Gulf. During the Covid PsyOp saw prices for these 800-100sqft condo’s essentially double to the $600K range depending on type and location within the [very nice] complex, just checked last week, $325K, which is normal. Simple supply and demand fostered by (((fear))) of being Locked Down by the Buffoonery In Charge and wanting to get outta Dodge.
I love the mask wearers too. Driving in your car all alone and the windows are up and you’re wearing a mask. Bless their hearts.
Have a fabulous day and week. ☺
I see students in Ann Arbor walking outside with surgical masks on.
It’s their binky.
Perfect characterization Ed…”Strong men create…Good times create weak men/guys/boys”
Shockingly, I sometimes see folks with “facehuggers” east of the Reno/Sparks Metroplex. One regular wearer in my building on base. Not anyone I know, however.
At the height of the “epidemic”, after Governor Sisolak (Lick-a-Sack) declared that we couldn’t host large gatherings, there was a coyote-hunting tournament at the campground I lived at. 50-60 people, nobody masked. Took pics of the event but couldn’t post them for various reasons. Good times.
I sense a Country song in the making….Take Yer Mask and Shove It!…..
I wonder when the Canadians reciprocate?
There was a time when going to Canada was almost like going to Ohio.
Now it’s like going to a foreign country. And given the influx of immigration (particularly to Ontario), a very foreign country.
MRSLL was particularly piqued at the way CANGOV treated their citizens during COVID. (Same with AUSGOV) I reminded her that USGOV wanted to do the same thing to us, but the 500 million firearms in private hands and trillions of rounds of ammunition gave them cause. You can bait the bear in the US, but at some point, the shit will get real, and nobody wants to see what that looks like. 2A is a great moderator of governments, even if no shots are fired. She now views Canada as a hostile state, run by drug gangs and communists, which is odd because she typically restrains me in her way when I explain how things really work.
.
Will Alberta and Western Canada form a more perfect union to protect themselves from the criminals and communists? It’s an interesting question.
I just look at the persecution of Pastor Artur Pawlowski and others such as the truck convoy, other pastors.
We are close to losing Canada from Western Civilization as we are losing at least some of Europe.
All because…like Dem run cities here…of a few large cities wrecking the entire country. Yeah, Canada is toast unless they garner the fortitude to stand up to government tyranny, like Pastor Pawlawski did.
Obama Presidential Library looks like a Nazi flak tower.
Dystopian Tower of Babble
Don! You nailed it. I was thinking along the same lines – something about this abomination looks familiar – YES, a Nazi flak tower, exactly.
Nazi flak towers are more aesthetically pleasing. The Obama library will probably have a few dozen liens against it until it falls down from neglect.
It would be a good Halloween haunt building. The ghosts of all those who Hillary slew might take up residence there since she never got a presidential library of her own.
Seriously. Who is the architect of record?
Oh.
The architects of record for the Obama Presidential Center are Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects | Partners, working alongside the Chicago firm Interactive Design Architects (IDEA). Tod Williams and Billie Tsien were selected by the Obama Foundation to lead the design for the project.
They did the Barnes Museum (Philly) https://image.wmsm.co/62a13d2e1a427.webp?quality=80&width=1024
And the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago https://archive.artic.edu/modernwing/building/
And the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. https://www.logancenter.uchicago.edu/
.
Those other buildings don’t suck too much.
Ed…if O is operating the same control he has with the former Robins Nest property in Hawaii, ticking off everyone involved, including neighbors, then the design team may be getting strong armed. Then again, it’s not finished…could get better, could get worse.
No. Flakturms look much better. That Obama POS building looks like Frank Lloyd Wright pooped his version of a chemical cracking tower. (Can you tell that I think FLW was a whackadoodle and an idiot and a bad architect? Gee, what would have given you that idea?)
–
Seriously, Flakturms are cool. Functional, massive, powerful, enduring. That Obama POS will start falling apart like a Chinese Tofu-Dreg project.
re: Much of the Blog content and news these days…
Seems much of what we see and hear in the news is 80% focused on the “Florida Man” types running open loop as if they were important and relevant (maybe to God, but not so much us). Sure, “if it bleeds it leads” still holds…but seriously…obese tatted multi-colored hair chicks (excuse the term, I reserve that for certain types) who truly only take up space, unhinged weakling males dressing as girls, friggin’ Senators and Reps – some who should be deported back to their origins – screeching lies upon fabrications, college “professors” cheering the death of a 31 yo young man doing great things or our President (that ‘1A does not allow yelling ‘FIRE!’ in a movie theater’ aspect). Add to that a gov’t forced Healthcare system that is failing miserably…on and on. Heck, ‘No Kings’ was beyond moronic, it was a flop that accomplished nothing (like it’s paid adherents do each day, other than angst driven scream therapy that never abates the tortured mind). Or the Democrats constantly cheating at all levels, then justifying it (way to go NYC, glom onto the Muslim Manchurian MadManny, see what that gets you.)
The idiocy never ends with the 1%…half or more who need to see the inside of a cell with the other half ensconced in a mental institution. The Democrats and MSM have generated a tiny army of immoral mind-numbed robots (h/t Rush) who will never see the light of reality…or God for that matter. The problem is how to eradicate (or deprogram, if possible, likely not) these joyless warped twisted minds so they can become productive members of American society (sticking to the USA for now, don’t really care what the UK or China or Putin/Zkyy or others are doing…those have done it to themselves, but that’s why we have Federal Government Foreign Policy wonks and a DeptofWar, to handle that for us citizens so we can focus on the here and now…locally).
Not sure there is an answer…short of putting hands on them and praying over their addled souls…but a black heart is tough to break, and you really can’t fix stupid.
[mini-rant over)
The addled geriatrics who were hippies are trying to re-live their misspent youth in the Grantifa movement and have joined with the sexually misshapen Halloween furbies in a common cause. And America’s youth is attending Turning Point meetings. It must gall the communists that their hard-earned billions are going to fund tranny Halloween parades with great grandma sitting in her wheelchair, wheezing on oxygen, cheering them on.
Whatever floats their boat I suppose…but geez, they need to get a grip, the “stick it to the man’ era is long over. Then again, I have always thought that when one ages to their respective ‘point of no return’ certain types revert back to their childhood in behavior…heck maybe all of us (altho I did tell MrsPaulM that if I start drooling like a baby she’s to run me out to pasture and leave me for the coyotes).
Dementia is a sad state. We see it manifesting in the Gentifa people. All those hard drugs they took in their youth, etc.
When you’ve “timed out” and want to be relevant again.
X2
X3
Being a Floridian (imported at 10 years old,) most of the “Florida Man” people are those the other states purposely dumped on us. That, and at least we actually report crime down he-yah.
–
As to the snowbirds and yankees, just go away. Thanks to yankees, we here in Florida have been dealing with South New York for 40 years. SNY is, well, Broward County.
The Senkaku Islands sit on the western edge of the Okinawa Trench, and are sitting on top of an untold amount of oil/gas fields. The CCP is desperate for that, wanting to stop their dependence on Russia. When Obummer and Xiden stoppe drilling in the Gulf, the CCP bought/leased every available rig and put them to work just outside US waters in the Gulf… sigh
If the Chinese want oil, let them invade Siberia.
Ain’t enough popcorn in the world for that one. Bad juju for all involved, and even those not directly involved.
That would be ‘interesting’ to put it mildly…