We’re pushing through April like we’ve got good sense; May is around the corner. Can we do Sunday without a little sermonizing? I guess we could, but the elements of a polemic will seep in no matter what.
Bullet Points:
** Late news on the gunman who shot the uniformed Secret Service Officer at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner – Cole Allen, a mixed-race school teacher from Torrance, California. He was arrested following gunfire at the event’s security screening, according to a report from the New York Post. He’s a Kamala Harris supporter (which means he’s stupid). DC Police Chief Jeffrey Carroll said that “he was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives as he ran into that checkpoint.” He was a guest at the hotel, which meant that he didn’t have to go through the gauntlet of checkpoints before the one at the event. Learning point. Maybe it will accelerate the completion of the White House East Wing Expansion project so that these events can be better controlled in the future.
** More managed decline in the UK: (AP) Alarm grows over UK naval strength as Glasgow yard prioritizes Norwegian frigates over remaining Royal Navy Type 26s. Critics slam the decision as unforgivable, warning that the delays push UK deliveries into the 2030s and further weaken defense readiness. Royal Navy capability fears after shipbuilding slots go to Norway. The Norwegian frigates will be completed before the British ones at BAE in Glasgow, leaving UK ship numbers ‘drifting down.’
** US Navy Secretary Hung Cao is facing backlash for these comments: “They call me a white supremacist, but I have one request for them when they give me my hood, make sure it’s got the little slits and not the circles so I can see better.”
** Sacking holy property for fun and profit. What are you going to do? (Sermonette) Consecrate violence!! God wills it!
** (Reuters) The sovereignty of the Falkland Islands rests with Britain, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday after an internal Pentagon email suggested reviewing the U.S. position on the Falklands as punishment for Britain’s stance on the Iran war. Given the UK’s weakening financial position and its almost total lack of military capacity, it looks to me as if anything they claim can be taken. FAFO.
** Watercolors (right)
** (h/t Claudio) Where are healthy marriages and families more likely to flourish? The article lays it out. Claudio, who now lives in Italy but has lived in the US off and on, has seen it for himself and shared the article. The point is not that you can’t have a healthy nuclear family in a democrat zone. It’s simply more difficult to pull it off. When I lived in Orange County, CA (Behind the Orange Curtain), that area and Western Riverside County were conservative enclaves. It still exists to some degree. Just less so now than then. The more democrat party infection seeps in, the less healthy the place to raise a family. (Sermonette)
** MLB and the evolution of pitching.
**The US military has ended its flu vaccine mandate for active-duty and reserve service members, as well as civilian personnel, effective immediately. The policy change was announced in a Department of War memorandum, with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth saying the decision reflects a shift away from broad requirements. “We’re seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates,” Hegseth said. Service members remain free to take the flu vaccine, but will no longer be required to do so.
** (Foreign Affairs) This week, Germany published its first military strategy since World War II. In rolling out the document, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the government’s goal is to develop “the strongest conventional army in Europe.” The release of the plan comes amid Germany’s massive increases in defense spending and a push to recruit more soldiers. “People in Europe have largely been happy to see Berlin rebuild its military to defend against Russia,” Liana Fix wrote earlier this year. “But they should be careful what they wish for.” She warns that Germany’s military ascent could spur resentment among neighbors, ultimately leaving Europe “divided and destabilized by internal competition.”
** In California, the governor’s race has different takes on current issues. For example, Tom Steyer, a Democrat California gubernatorial candidate, stated during a debate that requiring English proficiency for truckers amounted to “racial profiling.” Xavier Becerra, a 2026 California democrat gubernatorial candidate, pledged to protect non‑English‑proficient truck drivers from mandatory English proficiency tests, calling such requirements discriminatory and “racial profiling.” Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, supports enforcing strict English proficiency for CDL holders and placing non‑proficient drivers out of service. He argues that drivers must read, write, and converse in English to understand road signs and communicate with law enforcement. Steve Hilton, a Republican, and federal officials support strict enforcement of English proficiency for CDL holders, aiming to bar non‑English‑literate drivers to improve highway safety. Federal law requires drivers to read and speak English well enough to converse, understand road signs, and report incidents, with new, stricter enforcement measures now in place. Language proficiency is not a racial issue.
From the Mail Box
Ed B Asked (in the blog comments yesterday), “Why didn’t the UK invoke NATO Article 5 during the 1982 Falklands Islands Campaign?”
LL throws a cracker in the soup:
Article 6 was deliberately designed to exclude most colonial or overseas territories, preventing NATO members from being dragged into conflicts over dispersed territories, especially as empires were dismantling. NATO members were on both sides of the conflict in this case. France provided weapons to Argentina that were used to sink British ships, for example. To be fair, France also provided the UK with information about those weapons.
The UK did not formally request an invocation, as it intended to demonstrate its ability to defend its remaining territory without relying on allies. Of course, the UK is unable to send even one destroyer to Cyprus these days without having it break down en route. They’d be unable to do anything to defend anything beyond the home islands these days, and even that would be anemic. If things trend the way they’re going, the UK will be unable to send even one submarine to sea for nuclear deterrence. They’ll be in the position of relying on the general goodness of mankind for their national defense.
Today, Argentina is a strong ally of the United States, and the UK is transforming itself into an Islamic Caliphate – and in the process is creating a semi-hostile relationship with the US. How things change.
Point – Counterpoint
A US Special Forces soldier named Gannon Ken Van Dyke has been charged with allegedly betting over $33,000 on the prediction site Polymarket on the raid on Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro while he was participating in the planning and execution of the mission. He reportedly won over $400,000. He’s charged with “unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction.”
In a statement on X, Polymarket said, “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”
Sounds pretty bad, but here’s an alternative view: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said she doesn’t agree with what he allegedly did, and he should have to return all his winnings. But she said this may not be a popular take, but she’s demanding a full pardon for him. She posted on X, “Unless the DOJ plans on going after all the crooks in Congress currently insider trading, this is simply skewed justice. There is no ‘justice’ when guys like this get the book thrown at him, yet members are illegally profiting every day.”
Gerrymander Fever
Identify the Aircraft
1
500 built (different variants)
2
Identify the Ship
3
4
End
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Fiat BR.20 Cicogna
2. Kawasaki Ki-32 Mary
Identify the Ship:
3. JS Kirishima
4. IJN Kirishima
Take another look at #2 D4Y-1-C.
.
Well Done!
“the uniformed Secret Service Officer ”
https://www.secretservice.gov/careers/uniformed-division-officer/role
I never gave it a thought before.
Cole Allen.
Suicide (Clintoncide?) watch?
Cole Allen had a BSME from Cal Tech but he was working as a tutor? Something ain’t right with that boy.
C2 School…whatevertheheck that is, but left that position despite him getting the December teacher award…which pretty much sums it up with the Left; reward the nutjobs hiding in plain sight. Initial reporting was he was shot dead, took a few hours but he was actually not shot but taken into custody. This is already being pushed away in the MSM…but yes, as LL states, PDJT will now use this ‘incident’ as a reason to complete a much more secure venue, such is the East Wing Ballroom. (‘Guy was already in the hotel so didn’t need to go thru security’…what a bunch if asinine hooey….you would think EVERY guest checking in prior to the event would be vetted.)
The Las Vegas shooter was a rez, also.
The hood rat’s mental illness was strong with that one. I suggest that he didn’t play well with others. He’ll have a lot of time to think about it in prison.
He also fully supports trans rights. Upon seeing his mug, my lovely wife said, “He looks gay.” So yeah, yet another trans-rights terrorist.
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And California Teacher of the Year. Whooo.
“…from Torrance, California”. I’m sure I’m not the only one just a bit curious as to how he acquired his firearms. It would be rich if he actually jumped through all the legal hoops to purchase in California.
My guess is that they were legally purchased. The methodology and loadout for his intended purpose would not get him where he wanted to go. And it didn’t. I could suggest methodology, but not online and in a public setting. Anybody who did that sort of thing in the real world would suggest to him that he watched/played too much video.
Video.
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https://rumble.com/embed/v76trq4/?pub=he97b
1. Boy that’s grainy.
2. What was he actually carrying? I don’t see a long gun.
3. That’s the only video????
Carrying a pistol, a shotgun and some knives, according to sources. Supposedly.
Ed – uniform division of SS – Discussed a little in the opening chapters of Hungry Ghosts.
Started hungry Ghosts, now I’m re-reading Broken Toys first.
Darn that’s a good book.
IDA
1 – Fiat BR.20
2 – Yokosuka D4Y Suisei “Judy”
IDS
3 – JS Kirishima guided-missile destroyer
4 – Japanese Kirishima battlecruiser
#2 is a D4Y-1-C so yes. They changed the D4Y during development and the D4Y-2 looks quite different.
Outstanding.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Hd5tOByCP3g?si=p-Z9nM6cVjsdNnEf
A cracker in the soup can be complicated. I see the Falklands being contested again with little or no response or help from the United States. Donroe Doctrine or some facsimile in effect.
I don’t think the British would do more than file a complaint with the UN. Yes, the US would just wave at PM Starmer, and maybe blow a kiss.
Other than national pride, why would Argentina want the Falklands?
dumb question of the day:
what do the Kelpers (Falkland Islanders) want?
do they want to be aligned more with British Caliphate or los mileistas in the new (hopefully) Argentina.
it appears that all are proficient in English with only ~8-10% of the population speaking Spanish at home
(and !!! 5-6% speaking Tagalog)
How much tax does the UK make them pay?
Argentina wants them for the same (practical) reason everyone wants
silly islands – they exert EEZ, for fishing rights.
*
They also exert EEZ for potential gas and oil exploration.
– Kle.
These answers are the reason I read this blog. Thanks all.
Which, again, throws the money back onto the Falklanders.
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Why do I say that? Well, England is, now, violently opposed to oil and gas exploration. Which means any money from exploration that the Falklanders will get, either directly as a cut of the action or from secondary sources by providing basing and support and not-on-oil-exploration-platform time.
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The Falklanders are now in the same place as the Greenlanders. Being screwed over subtly and not-so-subtly by their parent governments.
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Be funny now that the World knows the UK is a paper lion with no actual navy, air force or army, if the Falklanders said to Milie “Please, sir, we want to be Argies.”
Starmer appears to be biting the hands that protect him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbAMBGhTzR4
I’ll post that on the regular blog tomorrow. That was happening to us under Biden.
**People in Europe have largely been happy to see Berlin rebuild its military to defend against Russia**
The people in Europe ought to be a touch concerned about the German build up…it’s been a long time since Russia occupied Holland, Belgium or France (like never!) and today Russia can’t get thru Ukraine. The Germans on the other hand have some familiarity with western Europe.
X2
The sound of jackboots on cobblestones has passed from the European collective concern.
No noisy cobblestone to hear them coming, our new area is grassy, and the river water sound can drown out any subtle footfall sounds. But one must adapt and learn to sense what doesn’t belong when out and about.
Gee….you mean some people don’t know their AO?
There’s a march already written for when the Fourth Reich hits the bricks, maybe they’ll get it right this time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNVVoH9-QH0
There’s nobody to stand in their way now.
They’ve forgotten the Gates of Vienna…
not being an art collector, but … are (those?plural) up for sale? – signed/unsigned
I’m just beginning to notice that you’ve located the entry to an alternate universe where you can work, unceasingly, 75 hours/day.
I used to do that de una back in the ’70s and ’80s, but, unfortunately, lost my way to the entrypoint with the coming of the ’90s: @ 50 I got too fat and too slow.
The digital art? Download it and use it as you will.
not wishing to remake the U.S.A. into a militaristic complex/state (as per ’30s Germany) but, for the life of me – and yes, I know there’ll be a lot screaming from the courts and the lily-livered pink-haired – I cannot see why a marching period isn’t established beginning in kindergarten – after reciting the Pledge, of course – it may help with discipline – students and teachers.
I used to march in grammar school after the pledge. Maybe that’s why I turned out the way I did?
I’ll settle for the pledge.
Heck, there’s no playgrounds for recess, PE’s been gutted, nobody does health checks school-wide (I remember when they did eye checks and hearing checks and lice checks every year.) So marching would give the students and faculty some exercise.
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And bring back school-run rifle ranges and mandatory gun-handling classes. Along with mandatory classes on the Constitution (taught only by veterans with honorable discharges or retirements) and civics (taught by veterans) and real American History (taught by veterans…)
This Gerrymandering thing is clear cheatery. It’s the same deal on a different level with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s righteous statement, what’s good for the goose should easily be good for the Congress gander, who somehow manage to operate with impunity in clear violation of trading regs. What’s WORSE is everyone knows these bums in Armani do insider trading, even now not denying it, yet…crickets. A full pardon is expected for this guy…maybe a ‘mistake’ he regrets and would ant a do-over…unless there are ‘Breaking Bad’ extenuating circumstances purposely held from the story because he’s ‘not a Democrat’ therefore gets no special treatment under th 2-Level law.
***
Cali Gov Race: Same as above…vastly opposing takes between the D’s and R’s, showcasing how demented and twisted Democrats have become. Had an 18”x24” sign at the end of the [old] road abutting the main highway 2-lane: ‘PRIVATE ROAD | RESIDENTS AND GUESTS ONLY | GATE MAY BE LOCKED BEHIND YOU’. Can’t miss it. Guy in an all too clean sedan…so from town – Denver actually based on the plate, could be a drug runner for all I know…drives in half a mile and tries to turn around quickly after seeing me out on the tractor. I hop off and ask him if he’s lost. Says, ‘No, I was just looking around.’ (Uh huh). I then asked him if he reads English…looks at me confused. I say, “The big sign at the gate?” Looks at me, “What sign?”. Told him to leave as the neighbors up the road don’t take kindly to strange vehicles driving around. Followed him out to make sure he left.
If the General Public ignore obvious signage…making me believe we are not teaching reading English…pretty sure we want our truckers to be proficient in English, which is not the least bit racist an. massively stupid ‘Tarlov Level’ statement from any candidate seeking office.
***
Minimalist watercolor…depth and clarity that requires the mind to be interactive to fill in what isn’t there. I like it.
He’s not a protected class. He’s F-ed. Rep Luna notwithstanding.
Exactly….while the same ones calling for his “hanging” will bury the story of ‘Mr. C2 Teacher Award Winner Hilton Assassination Attempter’…because lawyers have gotten to the point where mistakes and accidents can’t ever happen when dealing with ‘Leona Helmsley’s “The Little People”, who I affectionately call Peon Subclass Two’s when viewed by Self-Appointed Elite Class Box Seat Holders.
Paul M
There are other private roads in your old stomping grounds. When I was hanging paper they made my job easy. Take a picture of the sign and submit my report; I got paid anyway. Repossessing vehicles is a different story. You do whatever is necessary. We never found law enforcement sympathetic towards the debtor. Too old for that work now.
And you would know about private road associations. Outs wasn’t so much ‘Keep Out’…until the Covid Lockdown mess left people bored and started to bring in campers looking for an escape…then I built the entry with code operated gates. Put a game cam to monitor the first year…actually had a guy climb over the gates, for what I’ll never know, the turn-around was T-posted smooth wire, could have easily climbed thru. People not living rural are really odd with stuff like that, don’t understand ‘respect the gate, and leave it as you found it.’
Looks 3D.
Exactly…draw your eye.
*draws
(can’t blame it on the rural mesh system wifi…all me. 🤣)
Gerrymandering has always been a part of the Dem’s playbook. They can get away with it while if the Republicans want to de-gerrymander it suddenly becomes a human rights violation right up there with concentration camps (something the dems did both in WWI and WWII, by the way. Everyone forgets camps for German-Americans in WWI.)
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The whole concept of ‘race-based districts’ is so completely anti-constitutional that only mentally-ill leftists like Ruth Bader Ginsberg could justify it. That whole concept needs to be tossed into the trash-heap that the Southern Poverty Law Center should be also tossed onto.
Not surprised to see Idaho came in #2. Although I don’t know where Arizona came in, It’s not a bad place to live in if you exclude the “Valley of the Sun.”
Arizona is a few different states (not unlike many places) under one administration. Indian Reservations, Phoenix Metrosprawl, Yuma, Tucson, North of the Rim, etc. It’s good where I live.
AOWF – As with many like me, I brought money and work from somewhere else. I can work from anywhere on the planet with a reliable internet connection and access to an airport. The reliable internet side of things is very new, but it opens up residential possibilities.
Good Tech and Comms are an imperative and critical to living off the beaten path. Set up a mesh system on the property which required getting creative with power, but managed with a solar panel and Power Pack for the one repeater not anywhere near a 120v source. Once the bugs were worked out came a sense of ‘Okay, we got this.’ At least now I can listen to Tarlov and yell back at the radio. (hahahhahahah)
Brother sent little tidbit sent over the transom earlier…which is awesome:
Fox News liberal token Jessica Tarlov met her match when she decided to insult actor and staunch conservative Vince Vaughn.
Vaughn wrote on X: “Jessica is really great at showing us all what a triggered Biden supporter looks like,” “She’s not talented enough to land a job among her own people, so she shrieks at ours all day.”…says had it not been for Fox and the few conservatives who gave her a chance, “nobody would know who Jessica Tarlov is.”
Tarlov hasn’t responded. (Of course she hasn’t, he’s beneath her elitist snobbery..and Lefty’s are cowards when out in the open beyond their ‘well controlled protected’ enclaves.)
I’ve wondered what her bona fides are. But like Juan Williams (and unlike Harold Ford Jr.) she’s just a foil.
Yes, very well paid to be the foil, hence my joke…and self-imposed weaning of corporate media except for the occasional listen in for entertainment value. ***Warning, suck up ahead*** If I want good intel I read VM, it’s all the pertinent news one needs in small but trustworthy comprehensive bites.
Totally off Topic – as usual
I’m just wondering how much of the election budget goes into https://polymarket.com/elections
watching the numbers can/does sway the average voter – IMHO
All precincts must close (no late voting) before ANY election results are posted. The media’s ratings would suffer, but who cares?
Concur. Live results have to go, they clearly interfere with elections.
Which is the whole point.
– Kle.
100%! Live media ‘results reporting’ are a cancer on our voting system, fully designed to sway time zones west of the Mississippi. Beyond wrong.
We saw the interference in elections in the 2000 Election when CBS and that evil turd Dan Rathers called Florida for Gore before the polls closed in the panhandle (a separate time zone from the rest of the state.) And we all know that Bush won, handily and would have won bigly due to conservatives getting off work in the Panhandle. Which said conservatives avoided voting because the results were already supposedly posted. Screw the media.
polymarket appears to be an “on-line betting parlor” giving odds (and money) in crypto
I was just wondering how much of a candidate’s budget went into influencing the odds (and therefore the vote) through places like polymarket – when all is said and done sheep do have a tendency to go along with the herd
sorry if I wasn’t as clear in my first remark
re- polymarket. Some excerpts follow. Further info available at wiki.
Polymarket is an American cryptocurrency-based prediction market which offers a platform where individuals can place bets on future outcomes, including sports matches, economic indicators, weather patterns, awards, political and legislative outcomes, and military conflicts. Participants can deposit USDC cryptocurrency through the Polygon blockchain network and trade shares that represent the likelihood of specific future outcomes. The company is headquartered in New York City, and the platform was launched in 2020.
Polymarket
Industry
Prediction market
Founded
2020; 6 years ago
Founder
Shayne Coplan
Headquarters
1280 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10028
U.S.[1]
Key people
Shayne Coplan (CEO)
Website
polymarket.com Edit this at Wikidata
The controversial nature of the betting markets offered by the company (which allow gambling on military strikes and ongoing wars), as well as the ability of individuals with insider information to bet on outcomes, have been described by the Wall Street Journal as a “legal and ethical grey area.”[2] Numerous instances of suspicious insider trading have been observed on Polymarket,[3][4][5] as well as attempts by gamblers to manipulate outcomes[6][7] and pressure journalists to change reporting.[8]
Polymarket has been banned by governments in multiple jurisdictions, such as France.[9] The platform was initially blocked in the United States amid regulatory scrutiny. The second Donald Trump administration eased the regulatory environment for Polymarket.[9][10] At the same time, Polymarket added Donald Trump Jr. as an advisor, after his firm 1789 Capital invested in Polymarket.[9][10]
The company advertises that its markets “reflect real-time sentiment”,[11] however scholars have challenged that the platform efficiently and accurately aggregates information about outcomes.[12][13] A review by the New York Times of Polymarket’s social media posts found that the platform has published hundreds of false and misleading posts.[14]
Jab injuries; Army Chief of Staff General Randy George has been asked to step down by Hegseth. Primarily for the handling and cover up of treatment- dealings with specialist Karoline Stancik. Receiving medical retirement and some back pay after 3 heart attacks and now living the rest of her life with a pacemaker sounds fair enough, but not when it’s due to an MRNA experimental mandate. She’s having to still fight the VA to pay the remainder of the outstanding and overwhelming medical bills.
Source; Trump on FB
Good, people need to be held accountable….yet the ripple effect of the culling clot shot will never be accounted or correlated for generations; people do not want to know they made a ‘big mistake’ with certain brands of shot and boosters (alluding to yesterday’s question’). It’s no different than if it was LSD they were demanding people inject into their bodies. (Wait, didn’t the government already do that, also under Fauci?)
The NIH and CDCs need to experience an old fashioned Roman-style decimation. And that turd Fauci needs to be drawn and quartered and pieces of his body need to be sealed in resin and posted in the entry of every federally-funded center that deals with health and medicine.
x2
.
The treatment of everyone under covid was an abomination.
And yet we never shot anyone.
I moved to the mountains before COVID. If I had been in the area where Antifa had been rioting, the temptation to take them at range might have been too great to avoid. I got an itchy trigger finger whenever I saw them burning neighborhoods.
No, the treatment of everyone under Covid was perfectly in step with the Dems.
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Straight out of the National Socialist/International Socialist Playbook on how to control the plebes.
Watercolor; this is a very delayed compliment. Very pleasant moment of my day when allowed to view these unsigned creations. H/T L.L.
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Weekend Dreams; Interesting Anime. Another style and very thought provoking as well. Often quoted on here that life imitates art. Thee greatest artist, the creator of sunrises and sunsets, created us. We re- create from what has already been made. Being able to use our imagination is a marvelous characteristic of humanity.
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Sermonette #2; The majority of our family lives in Oregon. Like California, they live in rural red counties where they find refuge to raise their young families.
Good round up. Of course the UK can’t defend the Falklands. Let’s just take it over and end the fiction. That in mind, what would it take to take the whole UK? Maybe a USMC battle group? Not like they could oppose it.
That in mind. we could take it and raise the flag of St George and patriots would rally to it. Not so much the imported Moslems. Whatev, reckon we’d win that fight. Just a thought.
More on the Falklands in future blogs.