Blogging Continues

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all that wander are lost,

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not touched by the frost. (Tolkien)

Crossing the Colorado River

Crossing the Colorado at Lee’s Ferry, circa 1873. The trail on the south side, called Lee’s Backbone, is still visible.

Those Irrepressible Twelvers

The Hidden Imam won’t reveal himself (or herself) until all unbelievers are killed (convert or die).

(h/t Claudio) Analyst reports and recent satellite imagery reveal that Iran has been developing a vast and deeply buried complex known by intelligence sources as Pickaxe Mountain (Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā), located just south of the Natanz uranium enrichment site that was damaged by B-2 bombers last summer. File this one under, “thank you, sir, may I have another?” (Animal House)

Excavation of multiple tunnel portals, spoil piles, and fortified access points has intensified since the June 2025 airstrikes on Iranian facilities, suggesting that Tehran is racing to complete a structure capable of withstanding precision attacks.

Experts from the Institute for Science and International Security, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and other monitoring groups note that the mountain’s configuration resembles a hardened enrichment or centrifuge-assembly plant, designed to shelter sensitive nuclear activities far beneath the surface. The International Atomic Energy Agency, led by Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi , has repeatedly requested access to this site. Still, Iran has so far declined to permit complete inspection, fueling speculation that advanced centrifuges or stockpiles of enriched uranium may be relocated there.

In parallel, intelligence and media reports indicate that Iran’s missile factories are operating “around the clock,” with engineers and technicians working in shifts to replenish and expand the country’s arsenal following the recent confrontation with. According to several sources, Tehran’s new doctrine emphasizes launching a massive, simultaneous missile barrage—potentially up to 2,000 projectiles—rather than sending them in successive waves, a tactic intended to saturate and overwhelm Israel’s multilayered Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow defense systems.

While this scenario represents a strategic escalation, analysts caution that such an operation would demand enormous logistical coordination, hundreds of launchers, synchronized command systems, and vast fuel and transport resources. Still, the convergence of these two developments—the secretive fortification of “Pickaxe Mountain” and the accelerated missile-production surge—signals that Iran is preparing for the possibility of a direct, large-scale confrontation while limiting external oversight of its most sensitive nuclear infrastructure.

What a difference 70 Years Makes

Bullet Points:

** OBAMA’S MELTDOWN GOES VIRAL After Senator Kennedy Drops $638M Obama Foundation “Ghost Money” Exposé – “This Is My Legacy You’re Touching!” (VM Comment – don’t forget Big Mike. It’s his legacy too.)

** JULES, high blood pressure, and grapefruit. A confession and commentary all rolled into one.

Note: Grapefruit can dangerously interact with blood pressure medication by inhibiting enzymes that break it down, leading to dangerously high levels in the bloodstream. This can cause a sudden and severe drop in blood pressure, leading to dizziness, fainting, or other serious side effects. The interaction is most common with certain blood pressure medications called calcium channel blockers, but it can also occur with other cardiovascular drugs and last for over 24 hours. 

** Tucker Carlson: How the USGOV is planning on poisoning you. Make of it what you will. Tucker keeps doubling down.

** In Poland: Sikorski: If Putin conquers Ukraine, we would be next. We’ve spent 2% of GDP on defense for 20 years, now 4.7%. My finance minister says he’d be eviscerated if he didn’t [spend 4.7%]. We will eat grass rather than become a Russian colony again.

** Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund launched a $2.5 billion Japan-focused private equity fund with ORIX, a giant Japanese financial services firm, in a move highlighting rising investor interest in Japanese buyouts. Qatar Investment Authority is joining firms like Blackstone and KKR in seeking to put more cash into Japan as governance reforms and aging business owners seeking successors spark a wave of deals. The QIA will contribute 40% of the fund’s capital, and ORIX will contribute the rest. It will target deals for companies worth at least $200 million. Japan appears increasingly attractive to Gulf countries seeking investment opportunities and partners to support their own economies. It’s a major buyer of Qatari gas and Saudi oil, and next month the Saudi sovereign wealth fund will take its flagship investment conference to Tokyo for the first time. The fund has doubled its investments in the country since 2021.

** No matter how hard you push the envelope, it will still be stationary.

** An explanation and a discussion of the most famous closeted situation in US history.

** President Donald Trump remains “committed” to sending each American a $2,000 dividend check to be distributed from tariff revenue, the White House press secretary said.

** Trade schools are not discussed here, but a remarkably frank chat about the university system is explored. Have you considered a master’s degree in advanced protest choreography? Don’t confuse this with lesbian liturgical interpretive dancing. That’s an entirely different major from the theology department.

** President Trump has three baby mamas, five children, has an immigrant wife, lives in government housing, and the left still hates him.

** Early espionage devices. A piece of iron, formed to look like a lump of coal – but it’s a bomb. The Confederacy – too much, too little, too late.

** Older Americans in the bottom 60% of wealth die at nearly double the rate of those in the top 20%. Those in the bottom 20% die on average nine years earlier than those in the top 20%. Over 45% of older adult households lack the income to cover basic living costs. Eighty percent are unable to handle the expenses of serious illness or long-term care. “The analysis shows…that there is a growing wealth divide between the bottom 80% and the top 20%. The reality is that the vast majority (80%) of older adults are struggling financially now or are at risk of falling into poverty if faced with a financial shock. Most of them will face financial insecurity as they age.” – National Council on Aging

** (Wall Street Journal) “President Trump on Friday moved to lower tariffs on beef, coffee, and dozens of agricultural and food goods, marking a significant rollback of his so-called reciprocal levies as he looks for ways to address Americans’ concerns about the cost of living. Trump issued an executive order modifying the reciprocal tariffs he imposed on virtually every trading partner in August, exempting more than a hundred everyday food items, including fruits, nuts, and spices.”

(VM Commentary – Sometimes the President’s art-of-the-deal flip/flopping causes tension because people outside of the DC bubble who are being acted upon don’t know which way to take business. What works well for a real estate development doesn’t always work well in the USA or worldwide. People like predictability, and so do stock markets.

His Excellency

First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.

This is a detail from the painting “Harlem Heights,” showing General Washington paying his respects to the dying/dead Lt. Colonel Knowlton as he is wheeled past in a cart. Washington never wore a white wig during the war; it’s an old fairy tale. He wore his own brown hair sometimes with a little powder. The blue ribbon on his chest denotes the rank of Commander in Chief. https://artofdontroiani.com/

The Police are in the Way

It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy. – 1984

Zoltan Mamdani has named his longtime advisor, Elle Bisgaard-Church, (right) as his chief of staff. She is the principal architect of Mamdani’s proposal to have social workers respond to 911 calls in New York City. Her appointment is seen as an indication that Mamdani will shift significant power over public safety away from the New York Police Department. Critics point out that social workers are unlikely to be able to handle many of the problems they will encounter, and that the public will pay the price.

— from prisons and police themselves, to their manifestations in all forms throughout society. Each step forward in reducing the size, power, and authority of the repressive forces of the state expands the space for mass, organized, and collective action of the working class, and clears ground for us to build the institutions of a society to serve our communities with real justice and equality.

We are committed to the horizon of abolition and the path leading us there. Our demands:

• • Defund the police by rejecting any expansion to police budgets or scope of enforcement, while cutting budgets annually towards zero
  • End the criminalization of working-class survival
  • Freedom for all incarcerated people
  • Demilitarize the police and end colonial policing of our cities and neighborhoods
  • Freedom of working-class self-organization and democratic political action
  • Invest in community self-governance and care, not cops”

DSA Political Platform

“We firmly assert that the only way actually to keep New Yorkers safe is to cut the NYPD budget to zero.”

DSA Planning Document

More Democrat Party Fraud

(Link) Gavin Newsom’s former Chief of Staff was just arrested by the FBI and charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the United States, including funneling campaign money for personal use. Dana Williamson, the former chief of staff to Governor Newsom, was arrested by the FBI.

Prosecutors say Williamson siphoned millions from dormant political campaign accounts for personal use, raising questions about oversight in Newsom’s inner circle. The indictment, unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, accuses Williamson and four accomplices of exploiting forgotten campaign funds from high-profile politicians, including former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. If convicted, Williamson could face up to 20 years behind bars on the most serious counts.

The public corruption investigation exposes a pattern of alleged financial misconduct from California’s one-party Democrat political machine. Critics, including Republican leaders, claim that there are too many instances of fraud and corruption surrounding Newsom for him not to know about them or be involved.

Details of the scheme: Williamson, a longtime Democratic consultant, allegedly stole over $1.5 million from at least 15 dormant campaign committees between 2018 and 2023. Funds were rerouted through sham consulting firms and fake reimbursements for non-existent services. Arrested alongside Williamson were political operatives Greg Campbell and Sean McCluskie, plus two other people who were not named. All face conspiracy charges, with the group accused of falsifying bank records to launder the money.

Among the raided accounts were those tied to Becerra’s 2018 gubernatorial bid and other Democratic campaigns, where leftover donations—meant for political purposes—were instead stolen and used for luxury purchases, travel, and personal debts. Prosecutors also say Williamson tried to cover her tracks by deleting emails and coaching witnesses on what to say, leading to additional obstruction-of-justice charges.

Williamson served as Newsom’s chief of staff from 2019 to 2021. While Newsom’s office has distanced itself, saying Williamson left “on good terms” years ago, the arrest raises questions about the governor’s tolerance for criminal conduct within his administration, as many point to past scandals like the unemployment fraud debacle that cost California billions under his watch.

Federal investigators, tipped off by routine IRS audits of political nonprofits, unraveled the plot through bank records and undercover communications.

Will she flip on her former bosses to get less time in prison?

In Iraq

As some of you know, I have a professional interest in Iraqi politics. There was a national election on November 11, and we’re all trying to figure out what the results mean. It’s a Gordian Knot, and I wish it were as easy to cut through.

A Shia Coordination Framework member suggested on November 13 that the framework could exclude Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al Sudani’s coalition from government formation, even though Sudani’s coalition likely won a plurality of seats in the November 11 Iraqi parliamentary elections.

The Shia Coordination Framework’s reported interest in excluding Sudani from government formation reflects Sudani’s ongoing rivalry with certain Shia Coordination Framework parties. The number of seats that Sudani’s coalition ultimately receives will impact how easily the Shia Coordination Framework can exclude him in government formation.

The framework is a broad coalition of the major Shia parties, though it is not unified and includes factions with competing interests. Key members include the State of Law Coalition (led by Nouri al-Maliki) and the Badr Organization (led by Hadi al-Amiri).

The Shia Coordination Framework appears to be considering how to involve Iraqi Shia nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr (a pro-Iranian/pro-terrorist) in government formation, likely to reduce Sadr’s opportunities to destabilize the process and the next Iraqi government. Sadr has periodically mobilized his predominantly Shia Iraqi base, including during the government formation process following the 2021 elections. Shia Coordination Framework parties may seek to secure Sadr’s tacit cooperation in government formation by offering his movement positions and/or resources in the next government.

Identify the Ship

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111 built

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End