In 1862
(h/t Claudio) On the morning of December 14, 1862, hundreds of wounded Union soldiers lay suffering in the cold on Marye’s Heights in Fredericksburg, Virginia, victims of the previous day’s bloody battle. Behind a stone wall, Confederate soldiers listened as the wounded called out for water. Among them, a 20-year-old South Carolina sergeant, Richard Rowland Kirkland, stepped forward with a daring plan that would earn him the title “The Angel of Marye’s Heights.”
With permission from his commander, Kirkland gathered canteens and walked into the battlefield under sporadic fire, tending to each wounded soldier he could reach. He propped heads, spread blankets, and offered water, moving from one desperate man to the next. As word spread, soldiers from both sides ceased firing, allowing Kirkland to continue for an hour and a half until every wounded man in his reach had been helped. His courage and compassion transformed a scene of horror into a moment of shared humanity.
Today, Kirkland’s bravery is memorialized on Fredericksburg’s battlefield with a monument dedicated in 1965, inscribed: “At the risk of his life, this American soldier of sublime compassion, brought water to his wounded foes…Dedicated to National Unity and the Brotherhood of Man.” He was killed less than a year later at Chickamauga, but his legacy endures as a testament to empathy, courage, and the power of humanity even amid war.
The Lure of Easy Money
What does Zoltan Mamdani intend to do via open, “legal” means? That question misses the point. Lenin did not implement his Communist agenda by working through the existing Russian legal code. He was a revolutionary. He staged a revolution. The end justified the means.
Mamdani founded a chapter of the Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP), which is effectively the political wing of Hamas in the United States. He is a Marxist. He belongs to a party, the DSA, which says:
“DSA stands for the total dissolution of the United States empire.”
Do not expect that a man who ascribes to these views will then confine himself to seeking to achieve his objectives by working within the confines of a system “founded on genocide”.
Tenants’ organizations, likely styled as communes, will seize private residential and commercial property and declare themselves to be operating collectively and to have abolished private property. Mamdani will not oppose them. He will stand with them. They will be acting in accordance with his announced policies.
Other “communes” will announce they will no longer allow the police to operate within their communities and that they will police themselves. This will be in line with what we have already seen in “autonomous” zones around the country. Mamdani will not send the police against the people. He will celebrate those who have escaped from the “prison house of nations”.
(VM Comment: Some of us used to kill Communists for a living. It’s odious to see that filth embraced by Americans.)
Bullet Points:
** (Right) Here is a detail from the painting “Victory at Yorktown”, showing British soldiers of the 23rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Welsh Fusiliers) marching on to the surrender field. The uniforms look cleaner than one might suspect after a siege because Cornwallis issued new ones from stocks on hand. Most likely so his men could go into confinement with warm clothing for the winter, and so the Americans couldn’t have it either. https://artofdontroiani.com
** Debt is the most aggressively marketed product in the history of the world. Everywhere you look, debt is normalized and presented as something that’s going to HELP you. That’s a lie. And a lot of people are profiting off of that lie and keeping you broke. Your income is your most important wealth-building tool. And when your money is tied up in monthly debt payments, you’re working hard to make EVERYONE ELSE rich. You work too hard to get to the end of your life and have nothing to show for it! TODAY is the day. Today is the day you can decide to change your life. (Ramsey)
** A debilitating trend can be seen in many blue cities, where the push for mass migration, illegal and legal, is clearly intended to import a voting base that will keep leftists in power forever. Zoltan Mamdani received about 32% of the votes from those born in New York, but over 60% from those born outside America. And Democrat politicians in NYC brag that their public schools teach students in over 100 different languages.
** FDR started food stamps in 1939, but they ended four years later, when WWII did what FDR couldn’t: end the Great Depression. And immediately, bodies of the starved dead piled up like cordwood all over the continent. HA! I kid. Actually, Americans sailed along for 20 years without food stamps OR mass starvation. Unexpectedly! Until another leftist genius, LBJ, got into office and said, “Our food supply isn’t broken. Let me spend a few trillion dollars to fix it, thereby creating armies of morbidly obese dependents who will have to vote for us, because they will literally die if we’re not there to pour Count Chocula down their gullets 24/7.”
** Summary of the article: “I knew his policy proposals were idiotic and dangerous, I just lacked the spine and courage to say so and chose career over conscience in endorsing him anyway.”
Justice
He found his father facedown in the dirt, pockets turned out, buzzards circling low. Then, in 1875, on the outskirts of Helena, Montana, Nathan Briggs knelt beside the old man’s body and made a quiet promise. He buried him shallow — the ground was too hard — then saddled his horse and rode toward the horizon without a map, living on dust and rage. Three days. No food. No mercy.
The trail led through heat and hunger, through nights so cold his hands went numb on the reins. He followed hoofprints, broken glass, a torn scrap of cloth — small things, but they pointed to the guilty. When he finally found them around a dying campfire, they barely had time to stand. The desert lit up with gunfire, and Nathan’s vow turned to thunder.
By dawn, only the wind moved. He buried the thieves in the same dirt they’d stained with his father’s blood and rode home with the sun at his back. Folks said he never spoke a word of it, just tended the land and kept his father’s hat on the wall. But when strangers asked about those graves in the sand, Nathan Briggs only said, “Justice don’t need witnesses.”
It’s a Start
Where’s the Beef?
The U.S. cattle herd has fallen to its lowest level in more than half a century—roughly 28.2 million head as of early 2024—after years of drought, high feed costs, and declining profitability. A smaller herd and steady consumer demand have done precisely what any economist would predict: pushed retail beef prices higher.
This is supply and demand in motion, not a global conspiracy.
That said, the market’s structure makes these swings more painful. Four dominant packers (Cargill, JBS, National Beef, and Tyson) control about 80–85% of the fed-cattle slaughter market. Such concentration, unchanged for decades, amplifies volatility and limits the rancher’s share of the consumer dollar. The result is a widening “packer margin” or “price spread”: retail prices climb while the price paid to ranchers stagnates. That’s the real economic fracture policymakers should be addressing.
Ownership nationality, by contrast, matters little. Whether the company is headquartered in São Paulo, Sydney, or Sioux City, every processor faces the same constraints: tight cattle supply, rising input costs, and heavy regulation. Blaming “foreign packers” distracts from the real causes and risks, turning sound economics into scapegoating.
There’s a certain irony here. Accusing producers of “price gouging” whenever prices rise has long been a progressive reflex, a rhetorical cousin of the “greedy oil company” or “big grocer” trope. For a Republican administration to borrow that same populist script blurs the line between market realism and political pandering.
Prices rise because conditions change, not necessarily because anyone is cheating. If the goal is to stabilize or lower beef prices, the path runs through productivity, not prosecutions. Policymakers could:
- Support herd rebuilding with drought-relief and risk-management tools.
- Expand competition by strengthening small and mid-sized domestic processors.
- Invest in feed, water, and transport infrastructure to reduce costs.
- Re-evaluate tariff and trade policies that may inadvertently raise input prices.
- Investigations into anticompetitive behavior are appropriate when supported by evidence, but law enforcement cannot substitute for coherent economic policy.
The greater danger is that populist blame games (from either party) will drown out serious reform of a structurally fragile industry.
Economic nationalism should never slide into economic denial. The challenge before us is domestic—production capacity, market structure, and distribution of value, not some shadowy foreign manipulation. Restoring stability will require rebuilding herds, improving efficiency, and respecting the complex logic of supply and demand.
Hitchhiker’s Guide
Identify the Ship:
1
2
3
4
Identify the Rotors
5
Parting Shot
Stormy Daniels before and after
The TDS infection certainly changed the trajectory of her life.
It’s not unlike going to a high school class reunion and seeing the lady you dated back then and saying to yourself, “Wow, I dodged that bullet.”
End
2 is USS Cook a Knox-class frigate.
4 is Japanse JS Maya the lead ship of her class of guided missile carriers.
Very good!
1 – USS Stein a Knox-class frigate – was originally designated as a destroyer escort (DE-1065) and later reclassified as a frigate in 1975
2 – USS Cook Knox-class frigate
3 – USS Normandy a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser
4 – Japanese Navt Maya lead ship of the Maya-class
5 – Russian Kamov Ka-52 Alligator
Excellent – you’re up early.
I believe the medical term for Stormy is that she is “Buffet Oriented”. The pocket watch tattoo on her belly is now looking like something painted like Salvatore Daly.
Cold, JiminVA – accurate, but very cold.
😄
Beef cattle-
Interesting that the USA and Australian beef cattle herds in 2024 are identical at 28.2 million.
Australia has about 1/12 of USA population and exports about 75% of our product. Japan and USA are our biggest customers. Most producers I know would happily sell more to the USA if there wasn’t import quotas stopping us.
(Spent way too much time handling cattle and a shovel in stud pens when I was younger).
It’s complicated.
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I’m not a cattleman or a dairyman, though I grew up around both – and they’re different. My favorite flesh is beef, hands down, though I also like swine, fish, and chicken. I’m not anti-vegetable. Cows eat vegetables, and I eat cows, so cows represent processed vegetables in my view. The same is true of chicken, pigs, and fish when you come down to it.
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It’s challenging to make a living as either a farmer, rancher, or dairyman. I’m thrilled that people do it because if not for them, we’d all be gone quickly. It’s true of being a baker or restaurateur, and the margin of profit can be tenuous as with any trade.
Some people say that hamburgers will kill you. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15290725/Man-22-fights-life-swallowing-burger-without-chewing-joke.html
We’ve been invited to the local Cattleman’s dinner in a week…curious to see their commentary on the subject, knowing that many have gone to private shops such as GoodRanchers, etc., sidestepping Big Cattle processors who have been gouging producers for decades (that Ramsey quote comes to mind here as well).
Lifelong friends are ranchers in Routt County, CO. Their operation is now 3rd generation and their brand is well over 100 years old. During most of their lives they had “town jobs”. They were smart enough to use various preservation laws over the years to keep taxes low and developers away. Their determination included forgoing easy riches. 100+ acres 20 minutes away from Steamboat Springs is worth millions. Their son and daughter-in-law made the decision that their way of life and where they raised their child was more important than the money they were making in the tech industry.
The point here is that ranching is a calling, a life chosen, and “rich” ranchers deserve every dime they make.
Major hat tip to them for choosing lifestyle. Part of the rancher/farmer struggle is because of the urban dufuses working all angles to put them out of business by the backdoor. As many have said, no farmers or ranchers…NO FOOD. Seems pretty basic for those of us paying attention and without a lot of time on our hands to meddle in other peoples business.
My parents both had town jobs when they bouth their first farm.
Don’t think you would make a living from a 100 acres raising beef anywhere.
My parents ran cattle on 4000 acres near the coast ( reasonably reliable rain)
A cousin runs cattle on 160 000 (250 square miles). Well inland and often no regularain.
I’ve eaten (and enjoy) many meats. I notice you don’t mention goat chops; a heretofore unknown delicacy – in NYC and certain Somali-infested areas of the country
Full disclosure – the lamb is cooked best in the Plaka in Athens. I don’t mind lamb, but once you’ve eaten it prepared by masters, it’s not as good elsewhere. Some of the best meat I have EVER eaten was goat, cooked in Sinaloa (narco-central) in Mexico. It was magnificent. At a roadside restaurant. There were other roadside restaurants in the vicinity that were closed. I asked the local I was with why that was the case. He said that the narcos were dissatisfied with the food and murdered them. The place I ate satisfied the local narcos and presumably SEDINA/SEMAR (Army/Marines). Either way, I have no idea what they did to make it memorable, but it was.
Secret ingredient…maybe supplied by the Narcos – or – grandma’s recipe handed down over the ages?
The venison harvest is about to commence.
One of the major complications is that you can’t sell meat commercially unless it’s been USFDA-inspected. And inspectors are very, very, very hard to come by. That’s why it’s “technically” legal to have venison in restaurants, but it’s not *practical* – there aren’t any FDA inspectors to inspect the smaller processors that handle venison. Similarly, *any* smaller or midsize processor could sell their beeves commercially to restaurants and supermarkets… if they could just get the meat inspected. But alas, a terrible shortage of government inspectors combines with the ironclad stranglehold of regulations demanding the inspection.
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This is why it’s pretty easy to buy beef on the hoof at the county fair from the 4H kiddos and pick it up from the processor (for value of easy that are terrifying to most folks until they’ve done it the first time), but every single package is stamped “Not For ReSale.”
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It’s also why the power concentrates in smaller and smaller hands – because it’s easier for the bureaucrats to only have to go a handful of places, and be full-time inspectors there. I cast no aspersions on the inspectors themselves, but aspersions aplenty on the system that perpetuates perverse incentives and drives the instability as hard as it’ll go. (And prevents us from having a market to profitably and meaningfully reduce the overpopulation of the hoofed rats… ah, deer.)
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A second complication is the bureaucrats of a different agency shutting down all the domestic tanning operations that they can, in the name of preserving the purity of the air and water from evil nasty chemicals. If you want processed hides at this point, it pretty much has to come from overseas. This means that domestic cattle lose a major chunk of potential profitability compared to import cattle – not just the leather, but all of the collagen that comes off the inner hide (which has a stupidly large demand in cosmetics, as well as nutritional supplements).
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It’s never as simple as it seems, eh?
There are private beef herds with cows that were raised without being tagged and taxed by USGOV if you know where to look in AZ. They deal with private buyers and it’s not inspected. I know that it’s illegal but the quality is very good – on the line of Amish beef.
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But as you say, it is all complicated.
One thing that could lower beef prices is for the government to stop mandating corn to be fed into gasoline tanks. End ethanol mandates and subsidies = more food for cattle = lower beef prices at the supermarket.
Of course, Monsanto will complain about their loss of taxpayer money. Maybe if they’d provide something useful for the country….
I’m not a big one for government subsidizing unless it’s on the order of “time of war” – in extremis.
Regarding America’s herds, people forget that the Biden/Autopen Administration went hell-bent on killing whole herds over ‘hoof-and-mouth’ outbreaks that were unconfirmed by labwork. That and the removal of water and grazing rights adversely affected ranchers’ ability to raise cattle to slaughter.
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Tie that in with the 4 big meat-houses conspiring to keep the intake price low and the increase in feed prices due to Biden and fuel costs due to Biden and, don’t forget this one, increased attacks upon the beef industry by the EPA for ‘pollution’ caused by animal waste and you get a perfect storm resulting in high beef prices that won’t come down for 2 years (the minimum time to rebuild herds…) at least.
So Hochul went from vacation in Puerto Rico (a conference, sure) to a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Grifting is a great gig. No wonder they don’t want a ‘democratic’ socialist cutting in on their turf. “Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers have ties to the Dominican Republic, making it a sizable voting bloc for Hochul to court as she seeks re-election in 2026.” (nypost) Oh, there’s all those American connections, too. I wonder how much minneapolis style fraud gets shipped there?
You’re a cynic, Fredrick. Hochul, a PUBLIC SERVANT, is merely ‘servicing’ the public.
Pretty sure, in politician-speak- “servicing the public” means fleecing constituents for personal gain while acting all magnanimous. “Here’s some day-old bread…are we not merciful?”
I’m thinking “stud service” for some reason.
Yes indeed.
Zoltan, NYC; It’s almost identical in population as Hong Kong. Let NYC be an autonomous territory. All the stars that promised to self deport both times DJT was elected can relocate there and “Make NYC Neverland and Grievous for ALL” who dare enter. Cease ALL fed and state funding and let the Dissolution agenda run its course. It would be a den of devils, a memorial example of defying governance by our Constitution.
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It’s grievous to see a majority democratic populace voting itself down the drain. What imminent solutions besides a recall, would clean up this mess?
Are you excluding the use of a neutron warhead (which would preserve the lives of the cockroaches)?
problem is: NYC is akin to a primary cancer site. at this point surgery (excision) plus chemotherapy/warfare may me the only reasonalbe solution
X2
Identify the Ship::
1. JS Hiei
2. USS Cook
3. USS Normandy
4. JS Maya
Identify the Rotors:
5. Kamov Ka-52 Hokum B
Exactly. You nailed #1.
I’m surprised, but you are the AI
MadMommie is proving to be as expected for those paying attention and not swayed by his smarmy vacuous Bravo Sierra. “But PaulM, he’s young and smart and speaks so well and says all the right things…that will be FREE! FREE!FREE!”
Oh well, can’t fx the galactically stupid who say “Thank you sir, may I have another!”
***
Dave Ramsey is correct, when an age-old approach to building a life forward gets destroyed by the greedy, including colleges, which need to collapse like the dark star black holes they are. Save for a house, which is getting less obtainable as has been in the news…again, because of the greedy ones…grandma never bought something if she didn’t have the money. Credit card companies are predators.
***
Justice: “SSS”. Might need to bring some of that back when the modern system fails victims. Juss sayin’.
By driving the backroads and byways of southern Idaho, you wouldn’t be aware of any beef or dairy shortage of animals. If hamburgers kill, I would have been dead about 50 years ago.
I seem to recall the LBJ quote about a particular segment of the voting population he was targeting was a bit more colorful and succinct with his choice of words.
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No matter how enormous an asshole you think LBJ was, you really have no idea of the scope of his assholishness until reading any one of the 4-volume set about him written by Robert Caro. You don’t even have to read all four – that’s quite a hike – just pick any one of them and you’ll come away with the sense that the LBJ Library should be renamed The National Pissatorium.
Taking a whiz on LBJs grave is almost a national duty.
Thanks WWW for expanding my ‘velvet hammer’ vocabulary today with ‘assholishness’ and ‘ Pissatorium’… descriptive without actual cursing. Very usable.
I serve at your convenience, Sir.
What WWW said. LBJ’s “welfare” program was a cunning, evil, scheme to use taxpayer dollars to buy votes.
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In just about every photo of LBJ, post WWII, you will see a miniature Silver Star ribbon pinned to his lapel. Here is the story of his airplane ride.
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https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2001/april/silver-star-airplane-ride
As I thanked you recently for Troiani’s works,
now, I must thank you for the background to this-
https://artofdontroiani.com
I knew the work, but, not the story. My mistake.
I say this to, yet again, prase you for your wide ranging topics (!), attention to Details, personal as well as informed insights.
As A Southern (Texan) man, I can’t help but wonder
🤔
If I may borrow from the truly Great Texan- George Jones:
who’s gonna fill Mr LL’s shoes?
as to that son of say tan */@#^]{~…*** el bee jay…
I am 70.
Some of my earliest memories are of family get togethers when I was knee high to a cicada,
hearing my grandparents, their generation, nd my parents nd their generation of family/friends,
detailing, locally known truths of that snake of a creature. Many of which I am confident no Texan ever revealed to a “foreigner”
I will skip the “dallas event” as well.
Anyway, more than enough vitriol.
Mr LL
I cannot thank you enough
🫡
Juan
sic transit gloria mundi – all glory is fleeting.
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LBJ was a contemptible human being. He’s met his maker. Who knows how that will change him?
I’m trying to imagine who engineered the first presidential coup, if not him.
agriculture in my area turned to beef after the tobacco played out, then the dairy farms burned in. the old farmers/cattlemen are dying off and their offspring have no use for the hard work the life entails. fellow down the road used to keep a couple hundred head, shuffling them to and fro with the grass etc. he called it quits this year. sad to see the fields empty as i go by. local butcher has all the work he can do and more. but it boils down to the same thing. youth of today even in the country have no desire to toil their lives away feeding unappreciative strangers for pennies. can’t really blame them, i left the farm too. not because of the work but because i figured out 5 decades ago it was a no-win situation. funny, as far as i went, i’m not sure it was any better than if i’d stayed. i do love the smell of freshly plowed earth, new mown hay, curing tobacco in the barn. and who doesn’t love the smell of hickory smoking bacon in the smokehouse. ahh the life. pretty soon the land will be split up for doublewides and mcmansions alike……..
Bucks County, PA – my youth stomping grounds on an acre next to the farmers field – has gone the same: builders-grade housing developments on rich legacy farmland ruining the exact reason those moving there put as a premium feature. Not all of it, certainly, still rural in places…but farmland to PUDs – what we called neighborhoods – chips away at the Colonial roots.
Bill Gates simulated beef failed. Maybe it can be improved upon and the upcoming generation will accept it?
RE: Its a start; ain’t diddly happened and I doubt it ever will. This administration has had ample time to do something and hasn’t done diddly.
Not meaning to disruptive,
while I largely agree with 1chota,
I would say that that group has done Plenty!
to increase distrust in, o lessee, de oh jay, eff bee eye, homeland “I’m 70”
I never heard that term applied to USA until…
Did I miss the personal tour and financial reckoning of AU in KY?
If the didn’t hang himself guy is all just a demonrat hoax, why did pdjt wait decades to say so?
coz he shies away from controversy?
I posit that he has done Plenty.
of wrong things.
nd fed us all, largely, with smoke nd mirrors.
ok
shields are down.
send in the barrages…
why the slow walk of obummer nd cronies?
why so much time nd attention on minor matters like buffet friend adams nd james, who are at best, 3rd stringers.
why bet the usa future on teck bros/ai nd trackable didgit “money”.
as an example of what could done, in true service to true Americans,
why is doj blondi on Soooo many matters?
https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=68704
LBJ, Clinton, and the Lightbringer.
How did our country survive? Will the wounds ever heal?
Only two presidents I admire are Gerald Ford and PDJT. Ford, because he inherited a mess and did his best, which was damn good. PDJT because what you see is what you get. Piss on the rest of them, graves or living? No, don’t like standing in line.
I kinda like Washington, Coolidge and Reagan too.
I don’t want to start anything by mentioning Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln was a masterful politician. Jeff Davis was a smart man and rebuilt the Union Army as the Secretary of War before the rebellion. But Davis wasn’t the politician that Lincoln was.
Should have added, in my lifetime.
I believe in giving space for ” a change of mind = repentance. I also believe in the death penalty. If Hochul is complicit and or state legislature cannot end the insanity ( like CHAZ) in Seattle; what other recourse can be taken on state or Federal levels? Use of force can be financial, and other means, true? Announcing a Nuetron would merely spread the cancer elsewhere. Good ol folks, living their whole life there, law abiding citizens, need a no B.S. leadership IMHO.
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Cities; we plan to not stop for fuel, food, or restrooms going through most of them. There were contrary experiences in Memphis and Columbus OH ( my wife taking one look at the restroom and saying ” back in the rig kids, were driving farther on.” I’m guessing every metro has it’s “south side of the tracks,” where a body keeps the doors locked while driving. But when there’s a comedian, or Commie Bass turd seated in the highest seat of the court, the whole community is in jeopardy. Who will come to their defense?
– extra rant; When I saw the Ho’s billboard near 4 corners, last fall, it was in, I mean the middle of nowhere. I thought great! Team KH is campaigning for the native vote, and only Miners and Oil men gonna pee on the posts of that sign.
I pay a little less than $4.00 per pound for beef which is purchased from a friend of mine who ranches between Dallas and Texarkana. This includes hamburger, steak, roast, brisket, and everything else in individually wrapped plastic (just like at the grocery stores). Of course, I have to purchase half of a steer to do that and freezer space can be difficult when you are putting 450 pounds of beef in it. But the price is right, and it is the most tender beef you can buy.
X2 – Similar in Arizona. You need to buy a beef or you can go in halves.
The last of the half a longhorn we just finished was around $8/lb, especially by the time we factored in driving down to see the friends, hotel for staying overnight, and longhorns being less meat on the hoof per cow than Angus. (They’re kinda skinny, as cattle go). However, I got to hug friends, meet the herd, share some good booze and even better stories, and finally figure out that her competition guns are the improbable pink because it makes them instantly identifiable when grabbing off the rack full of black guns.
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The hardest dilemma I’m facing when it comes to getting another half a cow is… the cut sheet for the next one!
I prefer beef, but I also like elk and moose when I can get it. Re NYC, Some of us might have to kill Communists again. And I don’t see the ‘communes’ working out well if they pick the ‘wrong’ group(s) to mess with.
It’s more difficult to get Moose steaks at the Food Giant or Safeway.