Bullet Points:
** Is this false advertising, Mike_C?
** You don’t need a big ax.
June 23, 1314. The day before Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce was riding near Stirling Castle, inspecting positions as the English host approached. This wasn’t supposed to be the glamorous part of war—it was reconnaissance, planning, nerves. Then Henry de Bohun, an English knight, spotted something that looked like a once-in-a-lifetime opening: the Scottish king in the open. Bruce wasn’t on a great warhorse. He wasn’t fully armored for a set-piece clash. Medieval armies worshiped the idea of the “decisive charge,” and de Bohun had every reason to believe he could end Scotland’s rebellion with one clean lance thrust. He lowered his lance, spurred his destrier, and thundered straight at the king.
Every witness knew what a direct cavalry charge could do to a man on a lighter horse. One hit and it was over. Bruce waited until the last possible heartbeat. At the instant the lance point should have skewered him, he shifted his mount sideways, rose in the stirrups, and swung his axe down with full-body force. Chroniclers describe the blow cleaving through the helmet and head. De Bohun fell dead, and the charge ended not with glory for England, but with stunned silence. According to later accounts, Bruce’s immediate reaction wasn’t triumph. It was almost casual: he complained that he had broken his battleaxe.
His commanders were horrified—not because the kill was wrong, but because the risk was insane. If Bruce had been killed in front of the army, the Scottish cause could have collapsed on the spot. But the psychological effect was enormous. For the Scots, their king had just taken a fully armed knight in single combat. Morale doesn’t rise more cleanly than that. For the English, it was a crack in the confidence that came with superior numbers and heavy cavalry. The next day, Bannockburn became one of medieval Europe’s most famous underdog victories. Bruce’s army used terrain, discipline, and schiltron formations to blunt cavalry and grind down Edward II’s forces. The duel didn’t win the battle by itself—but it set the emotional temperature. It told both armies that the script could be broken. That’s why this episode survives. It’s not just violence. It’s leadership as theater—performed at spear point, in front of thousands, with the future of a kingdom hanging on one swing
** Iran wants to buy anti-ship missiles from China. Talk about sending a signal. Pres. Trump said on February 19 that he was giving Iran 10 days to reach an agreement over its nuclear programme or face military action. The U.S. is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if Trump orders an attack, Reuters reported on February 13. They may not have time to take delivery of those Red Chinese missiles.
** Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who kept their swords. – Benjamin Franklin
** Will a badge make me shoot better? (left) Peace through superior firepower.
** China is losing ground in the Western Hemisphere. Panama officially canceled Chinese control of the Canal. Maduro is no longer calling the shots in Venezuela. Their projects in Mexico, including importing Fentanyl, would seem to be up in flames (the President of Mexico, a former Chinese ally, is on a Mexican ship being protected by Americans), and the Brazilians and Nicaraguans are rethinking their positions. Additionally, the Middle Kingdom doesn’t seem overly enthusiastic about Cuba’s chance of survival as a communist enclave.
** Thirteen months into President Trump’s second term, his administration reports over 700,000 deportations—plus 2.2 million self-deportations. A major flashpoint: Minnesota, with 133,000 illegal immigrants on ICE’s dockets. Counties were releasing accused criminals into the community without notifying ICE.
** Something to worry about.
** The Carolla Plan to fix Mexico. I spoke to a friend recently who asked me if the current move to dismantle the CJNG (Guadalajara Cartel) will be successful. I asked him how he defined success. So long as the demand for drugs in the US remains steady and so long as Americans can pay for drugs, that vacuum will be filled by somebody or something.
** (h/t Claudio) In History, women and children were seldom spared, unless the women were of a productive age and the children were not a burden on society. Men and older boys were usually slaughtered out of hand. Today, it’s not quite as grim in many situations, but humanity hasn’t changed all that much. Foraging armies frequently left their DNA behind.
How Do You Reform It?
Under current law, within a decade, every dollar collected in revenue will go toward autopilot entitlements and debt service, leaving nothing for national defense or other core government functions.
Narcos
There are Narco Armies in the field on the US Southern and Northern Borders, as well as within the gates. They’re well armed and well funded, but they are not set up to hold territory in the military sense of the word. They are deeply factional and hold long-standing grudges, so the question of them uniting in a meaningful way is up in the air. The days of Obamanation and those of Old Pedo Joe’s regime were opportunities for them to build strength. Now there is a war in which their survival hangs in the balance. It’s not the first such war in history, and it won’t be the last.
Henry II
Henry II the Pious gathered what forces he could to halt the Mongol advance into Central Europe on the cold fields near Legnica. The year was 1241. News of devastation in the east had already spread. Cities burned. Armies collapsed. But Europe still believed in the decisive charge of armored knights.
Opposing them was a Mongol detachment under generals of the vast empire forged by Genghis Khan and carried on by his successors. These were not chaotic raiders. They were disciplined cavalry operating with precision. The battle opened with skirmishing. Mongol horse archers advanced, loosed arrows, and retreated. European knights answered with a heavy cavalry charge. At first, it seemed effective. The Mongols withdrew.
The feigned retreat stretched the European line. Formation dissolved. Dust clouds thickened. Trumpets and horns echoed confusion. Once the knights were isolated, Mongol units wheeled around them, encircling and cutting down men and horses alike. Smoke may have been used to disorient the defenders. Arrows rained from every direction. Infantry collapsed. The cohesion of the Christian host was shattered. Henry II fought until the end. He was killed on the field. Later accounts claim his body was identified by a distinctive feature after the Mongols displayed his severed head before the city walls. The army of Silesia was destroyed. The road west lay open.
Oh, Canada
After a tough stretch at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Canadians are understandably feeling a little down. But it’s not all that bad, Canada. There are still reasons to feel good about yourselves. The Babylon Bee is here to cheer up America’s neighbors to the north with the following list of things Canada is still better at than the U.S.:
1. Pouring gravy all over your fries for some reason: We’re not sure why you do it, but you’re clearly the best at it.
2. Being kind of French, but not totally French: Canadians can feel proud to have mastered the art of being vaguely, somewhat, almost French.
3. Celebrating Thanksgiving in the wrong month: This really sets you guys apart from the people who do it the right way.
4. Apologizing: No need to feel sorry about this one. But you probably will.
5. Euthanasia: No other nation on this side of the globe systematically kills the sick, elderly, and disabled like you guys. Bravo.
6. Embracing Communism: You’re really giving Cuba a run for its money.
7. Hockey: Oh wait…
Identify the Ship
1
2
Where is she now?
3
Going with the theme – this nation’s flagship
End
Foraging armies – as one person put it, they left a serious outbreak of pregnancies in their wake.
It’s not a difficult argument to make that those foraging armies and the survivor DNA (strongest) is what built the humanity we see around us. I think that gays, and the woke who will never pass on their DNA, are like whales beaching themselves.
Did the Ancestry.com test years ago. Assuming they are accurate, I’m 99.9% Northern European but the mixture would indicate many raids by many different groups.
It accounts for your strength and longevity.
DrMrsPaulM calls that ‘hybrid vigor’…albeit usually when speaking about dogs. My breeding is Heinz 57, so expecting some decent longevity, however there is a good percentage of Polish so Darwin could intervene.
Carolla…he’s not wrong…gets an ‘A’ for creativity and thinking outside the box. (Curious if he has power and water restored at his Palisades home yet?)
***
Government Auto Pilot Spending “Programs”: EVERYBODY PANIC! Nah. Sure, ‘The bums who believe we work for them’ have made a mess of things because they are mostly self-perpetuating crooks and cheats fishing at the taxpayer pier for so-called “appropriations”…but it’s good WTP have Bessent to fix that mess, a guy who knows what he’s doing. Maybe he’s the modern “It’s Not Yours To Give” Davey Crockett.
***
Deportations: Looks like that rejiggered Biden (who?) ‘Illegal Alien Freebie’ App as a ‘self-deportation portal’ is working well. Is the screaming Minnesota Somali on the list yet? A couple of million sucking off the system is a good start, most of us just want THAT ONE gone…once that happens her “constituents” will gladly follow when the fraud thing starts to catch up to them, might even help fix the entitlement spending problem by 2036.
Something will give. I don’t know that I will live to see it. Maybe it will take the boomer and whatever generation to die off and not take benefits? Canada has MAID to deal with that. Obama had “death panels” to decide whether or not you were a “useless eater”. –>Soylent Green
Stretched to the limit for decades.
Government is the only entity allowed to have a Ponzi scheme….don’t you or me try what they do. Tariffs were originally around 35%, paid for almost everything FedGov, which is why most of the DC cretins came out in opposition of PDJT reinstating the practice (the predictable hue and cry was…as he said Tuesday…all wrong). Think about having no FedTax theft of citizens income (who were/are already paying State and Local taxes)…imagine what WTP could do. Or no Social Security baloney. Or no NotAffordableCare. All of it is fleecing us and needs to end. Tuesday night PDJT alluded to ridding us of the IRS. Please make it so. But hell, the weakling R’s can’t (won’t?) pass Voter ID, a dirt simple thing…so not a lot of hope there for them to unshackle WTP anytime soon from confiscatory federal taxes that go unvetted…it’s OUR money, not theirs. Thing is the DC Club will look at tariffs as ‘extra’ to spend, not to replace, greedy bums [nice word] as they are.
Maybe it’ll happen under Trump…the gauntlet has been laid.
Isn’t Social Security supposed to be like a trust fund? Silly me.
A trust fun…as run by confidence men.
WAIT – It’s backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government. That IOU is just as good as cash (“Dumb and Dumber”)
If you opened the vault it would contain confetti…the Bums stole all our money under the guise of a promise to pay when due. Again, you or I did that we’d be Epsteined.
Adam Carolla is on to something.
Worth considering.
1 – Mexican Navy ARM Montes Azules logistics ship
2 – Mexican Navy ARM Valentín Gómez Farías patrol vessel – Formerly USS Starling an Auk-class minesweeper
3 – Mexican Navy ARM Benito Juárez long-range ocean patrol vessel
Outstanding – and that is about all that is left of the Mexican Navy.
Locally, on any given day, someone is arrested with large amounts of illegal drugs, and it’s usually meth. Those arrested are frequent visitors to local jails, or imported from some other place where they’ve worn out their welcome. There’s no telling who their customers are, but they’re not cooking their own meth, since the odor is a dead giveaway of their endeavor. Their source is probably downstream suppliers of cartels, and it’s obvious business is good.
Personally, I don’t think the current methods of handling this problem are working. My thoughts on the solutions don’t fit current societal mores, so I won’t elaborate.
..solutions don’t fit current societal mores, so I won’t elaborate. Ditto
Dealing with the demographic is problematic.
Agreed…and it’s costly. When watching some CBP show it is clear the ‘cat and mouse’ effort is like spitting in the ocean. All those seizures at the border, whether smuggling the hard stuff or cheap (often counterfeit) prescription drugs usually laced with fentanyl (hence PDJT’s demand to Big Pharma America pay similar prices), or along the Florida or Puerto Rico coastline, or in cities like San Diego…all that very expensive effort seems to be constantly playing catch up ball and having little effect. Yet, blowing narco boats out of the water and capturing subs is simpler and very effective. The problem is American people doing drugs has (weird to me) risen, a lot. Maybe let them do what they want, minimally it’ll cull the herd because the proverbial ‘war on drugs’ has been yet another government gambit that increased drug use not reduced the practice.
Identify the Ship:
1. ARM Montes Azules
2. ARM Valentín Gómez Farías, ex-USS Starling
3. ARM Benito Juárez
Nailed them!
If ole Billy Bob was portraying Longhaired Jim Courtright it turned out that his last statement was wrong; little Luke Short killed him when everyone thought it would turn out the other way.
I’m wondering if aerosolized fentanyl is on your radar. I’ve seen a report that Iran has developed war heads capable of this as part of their chemical weapons program. This has me thinking, with likely Iranian ties to Mexican cartels (who have Chinese fentanyl precursors), how likely is it that aerosolized fentanyl could be deployed from Mexican drones against our country?
Aerosols have to be deployed under VERY specific conditions to be effective – like fuel-air explosives. You can also build uranium (and other radioactive) foggers – aerosols that are lethal under the same specific conditions. For example, NY City, where people are concentrated in large numbers, and there is a presupposed critical infrastructure. Hit them in the morning when there is a forecast of very little breeze. In general terms, the impact is very localized, and the toxicity dissipates. It’s a better terror weapon than it is an actual destructive weapon, producing a high body count. Mustard gas (blistering agents) would be better IMHO if you want that result. It’s inexpensive to produce, the injuries are profound and it’s proven to work as advertised (see WW1).
It seems to me that the better use for aerosolized fentanyl is not via drones (implying outdoors, though of course this is not necessarily the case), but in large, enclosed places such as Penn Station (Manhattan train/subway nexus; surprisingly decent food court, BTW) at rush hour with literally thousands of people scurrying around. Or at any major airport when there’s a long, long line of sheep waiting to be processed by TSA. (There’s your irony, eh? Killed because of having to comply with a program that’s supposed to keep you safe from terrorism. Why, it’s practically poetic.) And yes, terrorism would be the purpose.
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And this sounds like it’s straight out of a potboiler novel, but it’s also where you’d deploy airborne-transmissible infectious disease agents. Ideally with a several-day latency period. Penn Station is not only local NYC subways, but also Amtrak and Metro North Rail and Long Island Railroad. We’re talking the Eastern Seaboard from Boston to DC, plus New Jersey, eastern New York up to Albany, most of Long Island, and probably even Philadelphia and Baltimore though with less penetrance.
Latency and delayed effect (virus) is more effective as a terror weapon than an immediate kill (fentanyl). That’s why nuclear foggers have been judged as valuable. Everyone exposed will die of cancer — eventually. You are on the right track, Mike_C.
I wonder if something occasionally said about Africa couldn’t also be said about Mexico, to wit: Mexico always wins.
WWW, I personally know some of the people who surrounded Mencho, but I never met him. I called them, and they indicated that they’re reorganizing. I think you’ll see two or three cartels that rise in the place of CJNG (which was itself an amalgamation of the Colima and Guadalajara Cartels). Most Americans don’t understand that EVERYONE in Mexico is either in the drug business, directly supports the drug business or has family in or supporting the drug business. It’s that pervasive. And the demand in the USA hasn’t gone away.
Just peachy…yet there is a solution. (same one Jess hinted above)
Asian nurses.
Don’t know, and not a good idea to try and find out either. It’s the whole officer/enlisted fraternization thing. That said, a ridiculous amount of messing around goes on in hospitals, apparently. Besides, I seem to have a type, said type being a woman with more advanced degrees than I have (or at least parity). Not that I planned this – just seems to work out that way.
Drat. I hoped for something definitive…
Long ago I heard about a guy who disdained those in the legal profession. His stated preference was six-guns on main street at high noon. “You may not like the way it turns out, but by God, it’s over”.
That’s not the American way anymore. Pettyfoggers rule the day.
Quite. Pity. I need to watch “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean” again. More than a passing interest as my maternal family roots go back to Sanderson.
The only law west of the Pecos!
Oh Canada
51st State. Why add more welfare states? Outside of the prairie provinces, it is a financial sink hole the Globalists have used as a backdoor to the USA economy.
If we could pick and choose, then ok.
I can’t help but wonder if the ship in #1 is a former US LST… Sure looks like one! Re Carola, it’s worth a try…
And the folks you trained done good!!!