Winners and Losers

Blog Post
Larry-Lambert

 

Cowpens: Here is a detail from the painting “Cold Steel at Cowpens” depicting South Carolina Dragoons and North Carolina Mounted Militia attacking the 71st Regiment of Foot (Fraser’s Highlanders) . The British force under Tarleton, which was heavily outnumbered, was practically annihilated, with the majority being taken prisoner. This, combined with King’s Mountain, was a colossal blow to Cornwallis’ campaign in the South.    https://artofdontroiani.com/

 

Is it Possible to turn a Saberliner into a VSTOL Fighter Jet?

I had never considered it, but yes, it was proposed. The Northrop/NASA N-309 project envisioned turning a North American T-39A Sabreliner into a V/STOL testbed, using either eight lift jets with two lift-cruise units or a configuration of ten lift engines supported by a pair of cruise engines. Despite the ambitious mix of lift and propulsion systems, the aircraft never advanced beyond the proposal stage.

 

 

Michigan Culture – According to EdB (and others)

Michigan, according to Jeff Foxworthy: If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you may live in Michigan. If someone in a Home Depot store assists you and they don’t even work there, you may live in Michigan. If you’ve worn shorts and a jacket at the same time, you may live in Michigan. If you’ve had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed the wrong number, you may live in Michigan. If “vacation” means going anywhere North of Grand Rapids for the weekend, you may live in Michigan. If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Michigan. If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Michigan. If you have switched from ‘heat’ to ‘A/C’ on the same day and back again, you may live in Michigan. If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you may live in Michigan. If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both doors unlocked, you may live in Michigan. If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Michigan. If you design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you may live in Michigan. If the speed limit on the highway is 70 mph, you’re going 80, and everybody is passing you, you may live in Michigan. If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you may live in Michigan. If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction, you may live in Michigan. If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you may live in Michigan. If you find 10 degrees “a little chilly”, you may live in Michigan. If you actually understand these jokes, re-post this so all of your Michigan friends and others can see, you definitely do live – or have lived – in Michigan.

 

Shameless Self Promotion

There is something intoxicating about a secret. There’s something terrifying about a shadow war. You may not know much about Laos or the world of WHITE POWDER. You aren’t supposed to. Drugs, sex, and murder combined with personal and national agendas to create the hidden world of heroin, where governments and drug empires collide.

WHITE POWDER is the story of a US Army officer, Craig Burton, who became something else. Burton’s metamorphosis can’t be explained except within the context of others whose roles played a part in the outcome.

It’s a story of spies from various nations, with both personal and national agendas, who gathered in Laos and were willing to do ANYTHING to achieve their objectives. The end inevitably justified the means.

Lastly, it’s also the story of Charlotte Sabon, who met Craig Burton, fell in love, and was willing to murder to keep him. In the end, she got both what she wanted and what she deserved.

 

Other coming novels: The Confederate Cipher (Volume 1) is complete, pending cover art and publication. The Duelist (Volume 2) will likely be complete by January 1, with a publication date 2 or 3 months after Confederat Cipher. The Expedition (Volume 3) is in the early stages of writing, and the basic outline is complete, with about a chapter finished. Depending on the reception from the reading public, there will likely be a fourth volume and maybe a fifth. I wrote 8000 words on The Duelist yesterday, for example, so I feel as if I’m in the writing groove. A few personal tragedies (other people’s lives that impact mine) have forced me to dive into writing to deflect reality, and I think that it’s working on all fronts. I hope to have The Expedition in print three months after The Duelist. The BIG hang-up is getting the hard-copy work (which I rely on others to do) finished. If we’re talking digital, they’d be out. Many of you have complained about digital media (only), and I’ve heard you. But it’s like pulling teeth.

 

Bullet Points:

** How did they do it when the Iron Age began? This is an interesting primer, and I think it is worth your time.

** Elon Musk and I share an interest in novels written by the late Iain M Banks. I recommend them—Musk sort of lives by them, which is interesting in and of itself. I’ve had one-on-one phone discussions with him about this, which is another story (last year)—more on his shared vision with Iain M. Banks and the Culture novels.

** (Claudio brought this up – I’ll comment) US, China, and Russia vie for control in Greece’s strategic ports – After helping the Piraeus port flourish, the dominant Chinese company, Cosco, is being edged out. Western interests are eyeing the Russian-Greek owner of Thessaloniki, the second-largest port, which is about to upgrade to accommodate ultra-large container ships.

US-Greece Plan New Elefsina Port to Rival China’s Piraeus Hub – Greece is rapidly advancing legislation to transform Elefsina (Eleusis) into a critical energy and transnational logistics hub, a move directly backed by the US to establish a strategic alternative to the Port of Piraeus. Greece operates on a system of heavy bribes (call it heavy grease if you’d like). Nothing happens there without significant payoffs and kickbacks. The Greek Government had positioned itself 100% behind Pedo Joe Biden’s Regime, betting on black.

–Snake-Eyes and Pres. Trump wins. Now Gavin Newsom’s and Don Jr’s ex Kimberly (who has been down on everything except the Titanic) is President Trump’s Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic. The US has to be paying more, or maybe the Chinese are paying less to keep things running in Greece. The Greeks (as is so often the case) switched masters, and it remains to be seen how long they’ll stay bought this time.

** The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a “Federal Benefit Payment.” This isn’t a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security, but our employers did too. I know that Congress didn’t segregate the funds and that they squandered them. Now it’s part of the “full faith and credit of the United States,” but I am uneasy about that term. Maybe it’s just me. The same is true with Medicare. They’re thrilled to withhold and then reluctant to pay out. They FORCE both of those systems on us at the point of a bayonet. The payments are compelled – and dumped into the General Fund.

** Is Islam an “American Religion“?

** Zoltan the Communist proposed a $30.00/hr minimum wage in NYC. Gavin Newsom signed a $ 20-per-hour minimum wage in California, which went into effect in April 2024. Since Newsom signed the bill, according to the Employment Policies Institute, 16,000 fast-food jobs have been lost, and menu prices have increased by 14.5%. Let’s recall what a @nytimes editorial said in 1987. (Now the paper has since done a 180–but Econ 101 has not done a 180): New York Times Editorial (1987): The Right Minimum Wage—$0.00 “Raising the minimum wage by a substantial amount would price working poor people out of the job market. A far better way to help them would be to subsidize their wages or—better yet—help them acquire the skills needed to earn more on their own… “More critical (raising the minimum wage) would increase unemployment: Raise the legal minimum price of labor above the productivity of the least skilled workers, and fewer will be hired… “Those at greatest risk from a higher minimum would be young, poor workers, who already face formidable barriers to getting and keeping jobs… “The working poor obviously deserve a better shake. But it should not surpass our ingenuity or generosity to help some of them without hurting others.” —@nytimes, January 14, 1987

** The elitists in Washington did not invite President Trump or JD Vance to Dick Cheney’s funeral on Thursday. That makes perfect sense because the president of the United States did not belong there. He is not one of them, and both sides see that as a good thing. While at times it seems like everyone in DC is out there looking for the next war, President Trump is trying to make peace. That doesn’t bother them. That he succeeds bothers them no end. Not only has he dared to make peace in Gaza, but it looks like peace may come to Ukraine.

 

The Latest PRC Tantrum

(h/t Claudio) Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, declared that a Chinese attack or blockade of Taiwan could constitute a direct threat to Japan’s own survival, opening the door to the right of collective self-defence. It was a striking departure from the artful ambiguity Japan has carefully maintained for decades, when “peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” was the preferred, non-committal mantra.

Beijing reacted with its full theatrical repertoire: ambassadors summoned for scolding, dire warnings of “crushing defeat”, travel advisories designed to dent Japan’s tourism sector, and expanded coastguard patrols around disputed islands. State media has been at full howl. Tokyo, meanwhile, has remained as composed as a monk raking gravel — steady, unfazed, and in no mood to retract anything.

What makes this moment consequential is not Japan’s position — China already assumed Japan would be involved in any Taiwan crisis — but Japan’s willingness to voice it plainly. By breaking the long-standing diplomatic taboo, Tokyo has inadvertently invited others to consider doing the same. That is the source of Beijing’s anxiety.

(VM Commentary) Red China doesn’t like to be ignored, and it doesn’t want the world to consider it irrelevant. Increasingly, the world is telling them to crawl back behind the Bamboo Curtain and leave well enough alone. Their allies, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and Russia, will take their money.

I was recently asked if I wanted to go to Shanghai as part of an invited group of distinguished foreign experts who were being invited to the Middle Kingdom. In years past, I’ve enjoyed Shanghai, but I passed on it. Asked why, I said, “There’s nothing in Red China that interests me.”

 

Identify the Ship

1

It looks very much like a POS, but they’re proud of it.

 

2

Not a bad destroyer when you consider the nation that sails it.

 

Identify the Aircraft

3

Hint: Made in India, crashed in Dubai.

 

Identify the Armor

4

 

 

 

Parting Shot

 

 

End

Related Posts

A Few Opinions

2020 Follies Washington State passed a bill through their lower legislative house that would require any candidate running for president…

Telling Tuesday

Frank v Don I never thought that the Pope would work as hard as he did to boost Donald Trump’s…

Chicago Teacher’s Strike

Factoids About 60 percent of students attending Chicago schools will eventually graduate from high school. The black male high school…

59 thoughts on “Winners and Losers”

  1. 1 is INS Mahe lead ship of the Mahe class. Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Watercraft, Indian Navy

    2 is Udaloy Class, Destroyer, Russian Navy

  2. 1 – India Navy Mahe lead ship of the Mahe-class Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts
    2 – Russian Navy Admiral Chabanenko Udaloy II-class destroyer
    3 – Indian Air Force HAL Tejas
    4 – Indian Army Zorawar light tank

  3. Identify the Ship:
    1. INS Mahe
    2. Russian Udaloy II-class destroyer Admiral Chabanenko
    Identify the Aircraft:
    3. HAL Tejas
    Identify the Armor:
    4. Indian Zorawar tank

  4. ** The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a “Federal Benefit Payment.” This isn’t a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security, but our employers did too. **
    They do this to roll what we paid for into what they give away (food stamps, section 8 housing, welfare), they are hoping we don’t remember that WE PAID FOR Social Security AND Medicare! That way they can pretend they are the same and blow off all the IOUs that Social Security is holding.

    1. Total scam…which is why I have no shame in accepting some of it back on a monthly basis, especially as a self-employed type for a long time I paid both sides…you know, because “Thank you sir, may I have another!”. Those bums owe me my hard-earned wages back…with interest.

      1. Yes, there is that attitude that once they take your money at the point of a bayonet “for your own good” that it’s theirs to keep. Trickling a little back to you is something you should be thankful for. It’s nothing like welfare, SNAP, or any of those gimme programs, but they pretend it is.

        1. Exactly. Nothing but snake-oil thieves with insider trader info at the ready, using our stolen “revenue” (as they like to call it) to fill their offshore accounts and pay the illegal crowd they let into our country in order to remain in power. Maybe AI can posit a solution to this graft…pretty sure it’ll be worth the power grid straining so WTP can realize some relief from these bums who believe WTP work for them. Short-term pain for long-term gain.

        1. Pres. L. B. Johnson pursued the “Great Society” and civil rights legislation to make black Americans dependent on the government. The success of that program is broadly in evidence today.

          2. LBJ took over 62 years ago yesterday (I’m writing this on the 23rd). After that there was no more question about Viet Nam being a civil war.

  5. ** The elitists in Washington did not invite President Trump or JD Vance to Dick Cheney’s funeral on Thursday.**
    The Uniparty did not invite President Trump or Vance…

    1. Yet this President invited Mondami to the White House for a little…chat…and they call PDJT the tyrant…according to them and their shills in the declining media. Yet Trump understands extending grace while illuminating their brand of idiocy so everyone can see them in full light. It’s that ‘enemies closer’ thing…or even better: ”To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

  6. **Asked why, I said, “There’s nothing in Red China that interests me.”**
    That honest answer has to strike fear into the Chinese about the future.

    1. Many people feel the same way I do. The PRC is inherently dishonest. I could say the same of democrats. They lie when it’s not necessary because it’s a habit and they’ve learned to love the lie. Frankly, the Uniparty Republicans are no better.

  7. Banks/ Musk; Optional work in a.i. Utopia. I’m guessing there would be robots to repair the robots. Musk, ” It’ll take a lot of work to get there.” Maintenance of the physical operations is a question to be answered. ( I’ve not read Iain Banks)
    –
    Will there be work, when the earth is made new? Christ’s return brings promises of death being abolished, along with it’s sources, temptation and sin. Hoping I’m not overstepping my guest privileges here going eschatological and theological. Scriptures declare, no more sorrow = pure joy. What about work?

    1. I’ll posit a (really bad) swag on the Heaven/Work thing…for all of eternity. It is certainly difficult due to our understanding of the physical life on this side of the veil and the “what will it be” differential we humans can’t quite know or grasp in the spiritual realm. Our “work” will be worshipping God. What that looks like is the great mystery to be revealed.
      .
      As for the former point, word has it EdB is really good at the industrial maintenance management side of things…that last ‘boat flip’ video proves he’s got serious skills.

        1. There are a couple people who think I pilot too fast.
          .
          There will be work, like there was in Eden. It just won’t be by the sweat of our brow.
          Work brings satisfaction.

  8. Day-Old Comment (50% off the regular low low price): The Russian guns vs butter thing, this came to [my juvenile] mind:
    .
    “Send lawyers, BUTTER, and money…Vlad get me out of this…”😣
    .
    Doesn’t quite work like the original….maybe if the butter sicks were frozen and launched by a potato gun could have some deleterious affect on the other Vlad. Better yet, maybe the two Vlad’s could just fight it out themselves instead of sending surrogates to do their idiotic little man playground fighting.
    (Warned ya it was a day-old comment…)

    1. White Powder is a great book and if Hollywood had any sense it would be a two part movie.
      *
      For Taiwan and Japan they don’t know who for real will step up with troops who shoot back at China when the war comes to their shores versus plane loads of ammo aka Ukraine. It has to keep those responsible for their defense awake at night.
      *
      Thanks for the Civil War book update. As to print versions, I know it’s expensive to make them, thank you ahead of time as the paper books make great gifts.

      2. I second the nomination for White Powder going to film.
        –
        Definitely going to budget for the print versions of the civil war series.

  10. Ian Banks’ Culture – I love those books, but I would not want to live
    in that “utopia”. I don’t want to be something’s pet, even if well
    cared for.
    *
    Iron Age Iron – IDK about the metal pipe chimney, period-wise. Also,
    he says there’s only one magnetic iron ore – he’s talking about
    magnetite of course, but he’s wrong. There are plenty of rare, small
    -volume magnetic iron ores, like this one:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberlandite
    – Kle.

    1. Hematite and siderite are not magnetic. And we haven’t even delved with bog iron in our discussion.

  11. Absolutely agree about Banks’ Culture novels. They epitomize the proverbial science fiction “sense of wonder” and he is a brilliant writer from a stylistic point of view. The semi-utopian nature of the Culture is due to the AI Minds that basically run everything. The humans living on space habitats (“orbitals”) or enormous Ships controlled by Minds have their every need provided — but Banks hints that the Minds consider them more like pets than masters. The Minds not incomprehensible, god-like entities but are actually like humans, only more so. They have a great sense of humor, for example. The names that the Ships give themselves is a running gag through the novels: SpaceX’s recovery ships “Just Read the Instructions” and “Of Course I Still Love You” are Culture Ship names. One of my favorites is “Experiencing a Significant Gravitas Shortfall.”

  12. The ships were cool but I’m waiting for the slap drones as I have a little list of deserving people that need one.

  13. I don’t know any businesses that pay minimum wage in Texas. Walmart starts at $12. A lot of places are $15-20. Standard limited skill construction helpers $20-$25. Daily Cash is common. When my wife worked in the office of a landscaper the Mexicans would say I am getting deported later this week, but I will be back next Tuesday. I don’t know if that s the case now. Getting anyone to show up is a problem. The nail salon ladies ride 50+ miles one way in a van. They are often indentured workers. The public schools are a total failure at providing any useful skills for workers. Fort Worth is so bad the state is taking over the school district for gross incompetence. I do not favor high minimum wage laws because they hurt the least skilled from learning anything and keep them permanently out of work. There is a large portion of the population that is functionally illiterate who cannot do anything. We had a ten year old girl at the store the other day who did not know what a nickel is. Counting change upwards is a lost art. These are strange times of no skill, skilled, highly skilled a then there are the educated but worthless…

  15. Iron Age Video – Our ancestors figured this out while sitting next to a fire.
    I have said for years that as a society that we need to spend more time sitting around fires – Much to be gained while sitting, staring and conversing.
    Of course fires are always better enjoyed while sipping something aged and bottled from Scotland or some of Kentucky’s finest.

  17. Minimal Wage: The true minimal wage is whatever the cost of an unpaid internship is. Which in NYfC could be upwards of -$30.00 an hour or more.
    –
    Of course, in reality, there should be no actual minimal wage. Yet another socialist gift from that fathead lecherous treasonous socialist FDR, may he burn in Hell and his wheelchair tires always go flat!!! Hwat-sptooooie!

    1. The default minimum wage is whatever the market will bear. A LEGALLY MANDATED minimum, is as you suggest, a recipe for disaster. Allowing the market to determine the minimum is prudent but doesn’t give the government the hammer or the credit that they crave.

      1. The Market should set the Default Minimum Wage, as you said. Anything else is socialist bullscat and… well… since this country’s been a national socialist country since 1914… sigh. I want to live under rampant capitalism… really… sigh.

  18. I disagree with the statement that Japan ‘inadvertently’ stated anything. That’s not how Japanese do anything. ‘Inadvertently’? From the people who have more layers to “Hello” than you’ll find in a good sedimentary rock face.
    –
    I fully believe that their PM, who has more balls than Trudeau, did it quite advertently. It was, I believe, a statement of intent to tell everyone else, the ROK, Singapore, the Philippines, all those other places and even Vietnam, that, as good old Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” That’s how much a threat a Xi-led PRC is.
    –
    Of course there’s no telling what happens when Xi the Shaky finally departs this mortal plane. Will a strong-man emerge and hold everything together or will the whole house of cards fall and break into independent little groups and some regionally controlled satrapies? Guns pointed inward or outward?

    1. Since Mao wrote the Little Red Book, the person who controlled the People’s Liberation Army controlled Red China. I don’t see that changing. I’ve spent a lot of time in China, going back as far as 30 years or so, as a distinguished foreign expert, for what that’s worth. Most of what I did interfaced with the People’s Public Security Bureau (National Police). I found that the PSB in Shanghai, for example, didn’t talk to the PSB in Beijing, Changsha or Guangzhou, for example. China has been balkanized for many decades, with those divides growing wider quietly. The only glue that holds Shanghai to Big China is the PLA and the fear of the military coming in and wiping out all dissent. The PLA is completely capable of doing that.

      1. My one question is… with the PLA, how balkanized is the PLA?
        –
        From what I seem to remember, each military district has its own farms and factories and slave camps and equipment and there are divisions (as in divides, not people) between each district or army or whatever they call it. It’s why it took so long to put the stonk on the Tiananmen Square Liberty-fest, the CCP had to bring in army units from way outside the military district of Beijing, which took a while.
        –
        Since I’m just a silly old fart who’s never been to Red China/West Taiwan, maybe I’m wrong. But all the signs and portents seem to lead to another cycle of warlordism once Xi croaks.
        –
        Seriously, has Xi allowed anyone to accumulate enough power to be the next strong man? From what I’ve seen, anyone getting enough power to easily replace Xi has already been slabbed or imprisoned and gotten the Chinese version of being Epsteined.
        –
        That video you posted a bit back with Xi reviewing the troops, he’s not looking too good. Parkinson’s maybe. I think his final days are going to be like “The Death of Stalin” with lots and lots of ‘fun’ stuff going on behind the scenes.
        –
        Will rival PLA factions use nukes against each other? Gas? Bioweapons? What are they capable of, once Xi is out of the equation? These are the questions that run through my mind late at night when I think of the China situation.

  19. Winners and Losers. Has the Left lost any major battle here in the US since ’45?

    Let’s hope 2024 was more than a set back. Unlike Cowpens, which was a disaster.

Comments are closed.

Scroll to top