Bullet Points:
** The 9th Crusade – Yes, we’ve arrived at unlucky number nine. It’s 1272, and it becomes more of a chauvanche than a genuine crusade (God wills it!). The Christians made an alliance with the Mongols – great idea? The enemy of my enemy is my friend. How long did THAT last?
** All your base – a classic with a graphic (right – rhyme intentional): Surrender while you’re able to, or I’ll rhyme some more.
** Yolka!
** Corner Crossings are discussed. You own the airspace over your land – so “get off my lawn” becomes a little more complicated – Montana Life.
** The Trump administration proposed new tariffs on imports from 60 economies over allegations that these trading partners fail to adequately ban or police goods made with forced labor. These duties—ranging from 10% to 12.5%—aim to replace the sweeping global tariffs struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
** Once upon a time.
** Down Goes Bolton! Former national security adviser John Bolton will plead guilty to unlawfully retaining classified information while working in President Trump’s first administration.
** King Coal – President Trump signed an executive order putting $𝟕𝟓 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐚𝐤𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝, a project stalled for a decade by legal and political battles. Invoking the Defense Production Act, he simply ordered it built. The terminal will ship up to 12 million tons of coal a year to Asia and create over 1,400 jobs, dropping into one of the most liberal corners of the country.
** Police attempting to execute a search warrant – 2026. It’s how they roll under DEI.
** Will OLD NFO return to blogging after his trip?
** How do you feel about the US building warships in Japan and Korea until the US industrial base can be rebuilt?
Do you want to live in a Bunker?
Is it better to content yourself with a “compound”?
DOGE’d
President Donald Trump delivered another major blow to the unaccountable Washington swamp on June 3, 2026, by signing a powerful executive order under the Department of Government Efficiency. This move reclassifies about 8,000 senior policymaking federal positions, stripping away outdated civil service shields that have allowed incompetent or disloyal employees to undermine America First priorities for years.
The order targets high-level roles like policy directors, chiefs of staff, senior advisors, program managers, and those drafting regulations or overseeing grants—mostly GS-15 positions. These bureaucrats will now face real accountability, just like workers in the private sector.
In the signing video, Trump laid it out plainly: “It’s been almost impossible to fire a federal employee.”
A senior official explained the core problem: “It has been a longstanding problem that it is almost impossible to fire a federal employee, even in cases of serious misconduct… If you have employees who are trying to undermine the wishes of the American people by pushing their own agenda or [who] are just incompetent at what they’re doing, agencies have a long-standing difficult time getting rid of them. And that’s particularly a problem if you are in a senior policy-influencing role where you’re controlling the policies in an entire agency.”
He continued: “What this does is basically treat those employees like private sector workers. They can be hired on the basis of merit and competence, but if they’re messing up, then they can be removed quickly rather than taking a year or longer to get rid of them.”
Trump nodded in agreement as the details were presented, emphasizing the goal of making the federal workforce responsive to the elected president and the voters who put him in office. This isn’t about politics—it’s about performance. Merit-based hiring stays intact, but endless appeals and protections that let bad actors sabotage policy or waste taxpayer dollars are gone. No more rogue employees slow-walking or blocking the agenda Americans voted for.
For too long, the Deep State hid behind rules that made removal a nightmare, even for misconduct or outright subversion. Trump is draining that swamp, delivering on promises to restore efficiency, cut waste, and put government back on the side of the people. DOGE is working. Accountability is here. The bureaucracy’s free ride is over.
VM Comment: This move implements a policy platform frequently referred to as “Schedule F” during Trump’s first term. Though the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) initially estimated that up to 50,000 employees might be moved into the category, the June 2026 directive finalized a smaller, more targeted pool of 8,000 workers—though officials have not ruled out expanding it later. In some government agencies, a GS-15 can be relatively high level. In others, it can be a “high journeyman, non-supervisory” level, with the Senior Intelligence or Executive Service positions dealing with the policy side.
In China
The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) is an intergovernmental organization of 38 member countries committed to democracy and the market economy. Headquartered in Paris, France, it has a primary mission to promote policies that foster sustainable economic growth, employment, and improved living standards worldwide.
The OECD recently warned that China’s massive industrial subsidies have distorted competition across key global industries, including autos, solar panels, steel, aluminum, semiconductors, telecom equipment, rail, wind turbines, aerospace, and defense. According to the OECD, Chinese firms receive government support at levels several times higher than companies in OECD economies. In some sectors, up to 60% of China’s gains in global market share over the past two decades were driven by state support.
This is not free market competition. This is state-sponsored industrial doping. Imagine a sports league where one team gets unlimited steroids, free equipment, paid referees, and government-backed loans at artificially low rates, then lectures everyone else about “fair competition.” That is China’s industrial policy. But here is the part many people still miss: China’s subsidies are not proof of strength. They are proof of weakness.
If China’s system were truly superior, why do so many of its industries need endless government support just to survive? Why are so many Chinese companies exporting at razor-thin margins or outright losses? Why is domestic consumption so weak? Because Beijing’s model is built on the ugly tradeoff: The state gets rich. Favored industries get subsidized. Ordinary people get squeezed. China can produce cheap electric vehicles, cheap solar panels, cheap delivery, cheap rides, and cheap services because somebody is paying the real price. That “cheap” takeout delivery? Paid for by overworked couriers fighting for shrinking orders. That “cheap” ride-hailing service? Paid for by drivers trapped in oversaturated markets. That “comfortable” urban lifestyle? Paid for by tens of millions of low-income workers whose lives are anything but comfortable.
A truly developed country is not defined by skyscrapers, bullet trains, QR codes, or cheap servants. A truly developed country is one where the average person can live with dignity. China’s model takes wealth from households, channels it into state-backed industrial champions, floods the world with subsidized exports, and then wonders why Chinese consumers cannot spend. This model is not sustainable. And worse, it does not just damage China. It exports economic pain to the rest of the world. China is using a state-subsidized industrial machine to undermine the foundations of free-market economies. Decoupling from China is economic self-defense.
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
3
4
End
Identify the Aircraft
1 – Beechcraft CT-128 Expeditor
2 – Lun-class ekranoplan – aka Caspian Sea Monster
3 – Boeing FB-5
4 – Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum
Very fast.
2 is Lun-class ekranoplan (Soviet classification: Project 903. Ground effect craft used on Caspian Sea.
Exactly
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Beech Model 18, perhaps the AT-7 Navigator variant
2. Lun-class ekranoplan
3. Boeing Model 15
4. MiG-29 Fulcrum
Well done
DOGE’d – are these people gonna be pensioned?
opening photo – I kept staring at his face thinking, remembering “I know him” but … Then my mind put different, pointed ears on him. I like the Panama Jack hat.
No more pensions for those disgraced or fired from public service, public servant are not employees.
If they meet the requirements for a pension, they receive one. However, the federal pension system has been significantly watered down. If you put money into the federal 401K (Thrift Program), you can do okay with it. It’s also true of the military pension system. I didn’t know how much it had changed until LSP’s son, John, who is in the Army, explained it to me.
To me, the guy’s face has some resemblance to Tom Selleck.
Toxic masculinity…
James Coburn was the first name that popped into my mind.
IDA-
1. Beechcraft CT-128 Expeditors.
2. “Caspian Sea Monster,” at least that’s what the Ruskis used to call it.
3. Boeing FB-5, a 1920s United States Navy carrier-based fighter biplane.
4. Polish Air Force Mikoyan MiG-29. “Fulcrum”
It’s good to see you awake and alive at 3:58 am Pacific Daylight Time. What time is it where you are?
14:58
Ekranoplan is being set up as a museum. I would have liked to have seen it skimming five feet over the water firing its missiles. Such crazy ideas they had on design. It had very limited value or use. But still, it worked.
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China. They have more patience than we do. Time is on their side. We can’t even stay politically focused to finish off Iran let alone the time, money and political long term will that dealing with China is going to require.
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Liking the graphics this week. Well done.
Corner Crossings: Now do mineral rights, both surface and below. All this land lawyering over decades is what created Title Company deep dives for every real estate transaction, mainly residential, that require going back to a property’s inception in order to determine who actually owns what. Then there’s the real estate attorneys, when they get involved everything gets peeled back to the micron level…no more ‘from the big rock to that old oak to the county road and stream centerline’ descriptors…one is required to get ‘yet another’ location survey that defines the pinpoint locations of every building corner, fenceline, driveway, etc…even if you bought the place the year before it is required to be redone in case something moved and inch or was added to…all because of state ‘regulators’ got involved in a private transaction by their own edict from those who made bad deals and wanted ‘protection’ from their own lack of due diligence.
***
PDJT taking matters into the Executive Branch hands because Thune et al have gotten NOTHING done since The President reentered the Oval Office. Good, I hope he continue the end-arounds these useless people who have done nothing but harm to our country. Wait for the hue and cry by so-called lawmakers with his action. Bums will always be bums, even if wearing Armani or Jimmy Choos…on $174k/yr salaries.
***
Raid: Is that considered a ‘knock, knock, knock, knock…oh, we give up because the door is too strong’ raid?
The government has become 8 year old children with unbridled access to the candy aisle; and an unreasonable amount of time to remove their grubby little fingers from the candy.
💯
Some people forget who they work for, their oath of office, and they don’t appreciate that they eat other men’s bread every day. The government doesn’t earn money; it takes the wealth of others and tries (tries) to create public good from that.
For several years (35 years ago) I worked inside USG spaces as a “godless contractor”. Technical GS14s and below mostly tried to do the right thing in their various programs, insofar as that was achievable. Management positions at GS15 and the super grades were inevitably concerned about organizational direction, which frequently meant protecting their rice bowl. In the worst cases, it could devolve into something like the Jim Phelps monologue in the luggage compartment at the end of MI:1. OTOH, there were technical experts in the super grades who were true heroes, so maybe it all evens out. There are many current and former USG employees that I really admire.
Same here. As with most of humanity they ranged from “able to fog a mirror” to heroic and brilliant to brilliant but demonic. The Peter Principle is alive and well.
Opening Art…Josh Brolin meets James Coburn…classic jawline and scowl.
There needs to be a bit of an edge.
Bunker.
—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br0Il37t5Uk
It would almost be worth moving to Sprague.
The US building warships in Japan and Korea.
If that’s what it takes.
I had high hopes for the Fremm.
I still think that the Navy acted foolishly in canceling the FREMM adaptation after two hulls. They wanted to make it as capable as a DDG-51 and that wasn’t the plan. Anyway. Navy.
Since there’s going to be a gap before we start getting the NSC quasi-frigates
as an industry building exercise, they just should have kept building Connies
during that time. We’d be better off with 5 (say) Connies than 2.
– Kle.
Corner Crossing
How do government employees (BLM, USFS, Game Wardens, etc.) access landlocked public lands? That is a question I haven’t seen discussed.
Yolka – prop-driven, so not going to be useful for long, as “drone”
capabilities and sophistication will rise rapidly. Not worth investing in for
us, makes sense for the Ukies since they are fighting every day already.
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Corner crossings – this is an easy issue, and should be solved easily.
If a landowner is restricting access to public lands (as in Elk Mountain)
then they should be required to allow reasonable passage. Otherwise,
the Feds should simply eminent domain right-pf-ways for the purpose.
This playing “property tetris” to effectively steal The People’s land needs
to end, now.
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Building ships in Japan and the RoK – More and faster, please.
We could use a couple dozen Mogami-Kais and FFX-IVs pronto.
Both nations also have experience with Burke-type shipbuilding,
especially Japan. Building at home is great, once (if) we can, again.
But we need hulls in the water, yesterday.
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Bunker life – I’d love to, if I had the millions required.
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DOGE – fire them all, let God sort them out.
– Kle.
👍